Equality, sexual values and permissive legislation: the English experience

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. R. McGregor

I have the honour to address you today in this lecture founded to cherish the memory of L. T. Hobhouse, who was the first professor of sociology in this University and in these islands. He devoted his life to extending the study of social development within the framework of those evolutionary theories which had contained so much of Victorian social thought. He discerned a ‘self-conscious evolution of humanity’, found ‘therein a meaning and an element of purpose for the historical process which has led up to it’, and concluded that the ‘slowly wrought out dominance of mind in things is the central fact of evolution’. His fundamental thesis was that humanity had for the first time reached the stage of self-direction. Hobhouse's approach to sociology was itself a protest against sterile separatism either among the several social sciences or between them and the world of everyday affairs. He was a main contributor in his day to the principles of constructive liberalism and a leading exponent of the ideal of democratic equality. He sought for himself a unity of academic theory and social practice through his lifelong commitments as a journalist and commentator as well as an active participant in the work of Trade Boards and other institutions of the labour market. I do not therefore feel that I should apologize for taking as the theme of this memorial lecture present-day anxieties, enthusiasms and confusions about sexual conduct in their bearing upon Hobhouse's ideals of the liberation of the individual, of self-direction and of democratic equality.

Author(s):  
Dominic Scott

This chapter presents a reading of Plato’s Republic. The Republic is among Plato’s most complex works. From its title, the first-time reader will expect a dialogue about political theory, yet the work starts from the perspective of the individual, coming to focus on the question of how, if at all, justice contributes to an agent’s happiness. Only after this question has been fully set out does the work evolve into an investigation of politics—of the ideal state and of the institutions that sustain it, especially those having to do with education. But the interest in individual justice and happiness is never left behind. Rather, the work weaves in and out of the two perspectives, individual and political, right through to its conclusion. All this may leave one wondering about the unity of the work. The chapter shows that, despite the enormous range of topics discussed, the Republic fits together as a coherent whole.


Author(s):  
Luciana Bellatalla

From its first appearance in western culture, philosophy has been considered able to build up reality, to educate people, and to disclose truth. Plato proposed philosophers as governors in life-long pursuit of philosophical learning. Socrates was the ideal paradigm of an educating philosopher: he tried to wake up human minds so that they could be aware of themselves and of the world, criticizing tradition and prejudices in a logically consistent perspective. A critical and dialogic approach—not by mere chance defined as "Socratic"—to problems has been considered until now the most profitable method of teaching. Socrates is a pioneer in discussing the question of a philosophical (paideia), as he defined his method "maieutic." He was not an authoritarian teacher, but a sparring partner in the process of self-education. Moreover, he considered himself as the most learned and, at the same time, the wisest in Greece, just because he was conscious of his ignorance. Therefore, he understood for the first time in our cultural tradition that knowledge is an endless process rather than a product, within marked bounds.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
Ahmad Idris Asmaradhani

In the eyes of literature, existentialist thinkers focus on the question of concrete human existence and the conditions of this existence rather than hypothesizing a human essence, stressing that the human essence is determined through life choices. The ideal, however, is that humans exist in a state of distance from the world that they nonetheless remain in the midst of. This distance is what enables humans to project meaning into the disinterested world of in-itselfs. This projected meaning remains fragile, constantly facing breakdown for any reason— from a tragedy to a particularly insightful moment. In such a breakdown, humans are put face to face with the naked meaninglessness of the world, and the results can be devastating. It is porposed that literature and the media combined have a powerful impact on those who wish to truly realize and understand their message. By studying, reading, learning, experiencing, and knowing the culture of the present and those cultures of the past then one can understand the ideas of life and how the two work together to help us better understand each other and ourselves. In what ways our present culture, our technological advances, and the media shape who we are as individuals is not a simple question. The answer seems to elusively hide in a world filled with cultural complexities. But, it is no secret to find that literature is a source of power. It does influence, guide, and shape the human become as they continue their journey through life. Hence, since human are never without the influence of literature, they will always have factors working to modify the human being. However, it is their choice as to how they internalize what they are exposed to, and in turn, it is up to them to determine the individual that ultimately prevails.


2019 ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
J.P.S. Uberoi

This chapter presents a discussion of international intellectual trends in the social sciences, theoretical and empirical studies in India, the question of independence of mind or home rule in intellectual institutions. Following the swarajist project outlined earlier of viewing Europe and its systems of knowledge and practices from an independent Indian point of view, this chapter is in effect a research outline for a new structural sociology in India. We are introduced to structuralism as it exists in the world, its scope and definition and as a methodology for the social sciences. This is followed by the approach to structuralism as scientific theory, method and as philosophical world view. Finally discusses are the principles of structural analysis, structuralism in language, literature and culture, in social structure, with regard to society and the individual, religion, philosophy, politics, sociology and social-anthropology.


1889 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
W. H. Edwards

How then can Mr. Sudder claim that this feeble relic of the tertiaries, stranded, as he tells us, on the loftiest peaks at east and west at the close of the glacial period, unchanged in all respects since that, its imago showing itself but onec in two years, the individual living at most but a few days, always in tribulation and peril, saved only from extinction by its acquired habits of dropping into a crevice, or of clinging to the rocks by the feet, its wings of sacrcely any use whatever, but a constant source of danger—that this miserable creature stands at the head of its genus, its sub-family, its family, of the American fauna, and in fact of the world, the ideal butterfly!*


1950 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-149
Author(s):  
W. Rex Crawford

The only words in the title of this symposium which do not cause difficulty are “of” and “in,” since even Latin America is a “nomer” that many protest is a “misnomer,” for some parts of the region southeast of the U.S.A., and “pathology” and “democracy” can get into water as hot and deep as any that lies under the thin ice over which the social sciences skate. The very lumping together in our discussion of twenty republics varying as they do in Latin America is a procedure of doubtful accuracy, and one which at first encounter arouses the ire of any good nationalist in these countries. The term “pathological” suggests too strongly a complacent superior attitude on our own part that may befit the propagandist or the naive and uninformed man on the street, but not the social scientist. The world does not fall so neatly into the patterns of perfect democracy and the outer darkness as Mr. Churchill has supposed. Can we not accept a certain relativity in these matters and remember the large-sized mote in our own eye?With the struggle of almost innumerable thinkers to define the direction and goal, we are surely familiar. The writer has no intention of assembling all the definitions available, for if they were all assembled, sociologists might lay the emphasis not upon forms and constitutions so much as upon something broader that earlier theologians would have called men's will and men's love. Since the development of “Mr. Tylor's science,” cultural anthropology, we would be more likely to say that the legal arrangements grow out of and express the culture; that back of them lies a slow secular growth of the idea that personality, the freedom and full development of the individual are ultimate values, not to be sacrificed to the state; that power may be necessary for survival, and that unity or consensus or conformity may be necessary to power, but that something like Albert Schweitzer's “reverence for life” is a deeper principle. These things are no sooner said than we realize that we often sin against the ideals we cherish and fear the freedom to which we give lip-service. The practice falls far short of the preaching.


Author(s):  
Р.Г. ЦОПАНОВА

Целью данного исследования является определение ментального содержания лексики и фразеологии, вербализующей концепты женщина (сылгоймаг) и девушка (чызг) в произведениях осетинского писателя А.Б. Кайтукова. Научная новизна связана с тем, что впервые на языковом материале произведений А. Кайтукова выявлено ментальное содержание указанных концептов. Актуальность данного исследования в том, что, благодаря описанию языкового содержания концептов женщина (сылгоймаг) и девушка (чызг), читатель, с одной стороны, вводится в мир национальной лингвокультуры, содержащей информацию о менталитете народа, с другой стороны – дается характеристика индивидуальных особенностей языка писателя. В работе использованы следующие методы исследования: семантико-стилистический, методы концептуального и контекстуального анализа языковых единиц в художественном тексте. Поставлены следующие задачи: определить номинативную плотность концептов женщина и девушка; раскрыть ментальное содержание лексики и фразеологии, вербализующей названные концепты; указать когнитивные признаки исследуемых концептов; охарактеризовать лексику и фразеологию, объективирующие названные концепты как средство создания идиостиля писателя. В результате работы дана характеристика концептов женщина и девушка в произведениях А. Кайтукова в аспекте лингвокультуры и в рамках идиостиля писателя. The purpose of this study is to determine the mental contents of the vocabulary and phraseology that verbalize the concepts of woman (sylgoymag) and girl (chyzg) in the works of the Ossetian writer A. B. Kaitukov. The scientific novelty is connected with the fact that for the first time the mental content of these concepts will be revealed on the language material of A. Kaitukov's works. The relevance of this study is that due to the description of the linguistic content of the concepts woman (sylgoimag) and girl (chyzg), the reader, on the one hand, is introduced into the world of national linguoculture, containing information about the mentality of the people, on the other hand, a characteristic of the individual features of the writer’s language is given. The following research methods were used in the work: semantic and stylistic, methods of conceptual and contextual analysis of linguistic units in a literary text. The following tasks were set: to determine the nominative density of the concepts woman and girl; to reveal the mental content of lexis and phraseology, verbalizing the named concepts; indicate the cognitive features of the studied concepts; to characterize the vocabulary and phraseology that objectify the named concepts as a means of creating the idiostyle of the writer. As a result of the work, a description of the concepts of a woman and a girl in the works of A. Kaitukov is given in the aspect of linguoculture and within the framework of the writer's idiostyle.


Author(s):  
Małgorzata Molęda-Zdziech

The aim of the study is to analyse the role of media in shaping of the modern man identity. I narrow my approach to the postmodern approaches of A. Giddens, M. Castells and M. Maffesoli. Those authors combine in their work changes taking place in the world of media and changes on the level of the individual identity. Based on the work of M. Maffesoli, I reconstruct the ideal type of postmodern individual identity – homo creator. Then, I describe the mediality as postmodern value and a component of postmodern identity. The study presents the results of a 2014 TNS Connected Life research report prepared on a sample of 55,000 Internet users from around the World. The results illustrate the habits in the use of traditional and new media.


Author(s):  
Evgenii M. Dmitrievskii ◽  

The article analyzes the ideal from the position of antipsycholo- gism (objectivism), which is opposed to psychologism. The proponents of psy- chologism attributed the ideal only to the mind of an individual. Objectivists considered the existence of the ideal not only in the mind of a separate indivi- dual, but also outside of it, as a rule, allocating their own area for it in reality. But the objectivists also understood the objective existence of the ideal differ- ently. E. Husserl connected the ideal with the pure laws of logic and mathema- tics, comprehended intuitively. G. Frege extended the ideal, including the laws of nature, linking it with the meaning of the sentence. He also formulated the concept of three regions of reality, including the ideal. K. Popper extended the ideal to cultural objects and also introduced the principles of evolutionism into the world of the ideal. M. A. Lifshits connected the ideal with all objects, both the natural and cultural. He pointed to the activity of the ideal in relation to the subject. E.V. Ilyenkov understood the ideal not as an abstract image, but as a form (scheme) of human activity in the rational transformation of the reality objects revealed in social practice. He believed that the ideal exists objectively in the forms of social consciousness.


2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 171-188
Author(s):  
Vincent Shen

Guo Xiang’s ontological individualism represents a case of philosophical construction based on his interpretation of the Zhuangzi. His concept of the self-transformation of the individual who is selfborn, with self-nature and without dependence on others supports the idea of individual autonomy. Nevertheless, each individual’s act for self-interest still benefits other individuals in a non-teleological mutual accommodation. The path from duhua (self-transformation) of each individual on the level of existence, to the xiangyin (mutual accommodation) among individuals on the level of action consequence, to the ideal of xuanming (ultimate concordance), is the path on which the world is to proceed.


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