Intra‐party Democracy: A Functionalist Account☆

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Bagg ◽  
Udit Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Functionalist Account

The Creation of Art

2021 ◽  
pp. 163-186
Author(s):  
Tom Cochrane
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Living Well ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
The World ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
Vital Component ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Aesthetic Values

This chapter presents Aestheticism as a general approach to life. It is argued that a dedicated aestheticist will be inspired to create works of art. In alignment with this view an aesthetic functionalist account of art is defended, incorporating aspects of the expression theory of art and the cognitive theory of art. It is then suggested that the way an artist creatively responds to the value of the world is an ideal of living well. Moreover, although there are other such ideals, the artistic paradigm can apply to a variety of human activities, including the pursuit and expression of one’s understanding (as in philosophy). In the latter part of the chapter it is then argued that, in distilling aesthetic values, the artist has an important social role to play. Artworks help us to discern value ideals, and our capacity to discern values is a vital component of virtue.

Making Capitalism with Gangsters: Unfree Labor in Shanghai's Cotton Mills, 1927–1937

2018 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 107-132
Author(s):  
Wai Kit Choi
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Employment At Will ◽  
Labor Control ◽  
Unfree Labor ◽  
Bonded Labor ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
Cotton Mills ◽  
At Will

AbstractIt is thought that workers under capitalism enjoy the freedom of changing employment at will, but studies show that unfree labor has historically existed alongside capitalist development. One explanation for the use of unfree labor under capitalism highlights the functional needs of production. However, the baoshengong, a form of bonded labor that was used in cotton mills in Shanghai from 1927 to 1937, problematizes this approach. Though the baoshengong system was not an efficient mode of labor control, it was put in place. Rejecting the functionalist account, I show that capitalist unfree labor is not necessarily spurred by production requirements. As the Shanghai case will demonstrate, unfree labor was used when the power dynamics in the larger socio-political context outside the immediate abode of production—namely, the conflict and collaboration between different forms of domination such as gang, patriarchal, capitalist, and state powers—superseded the functional considerations of the capitalists.

The moral emotions: A social–functionalist account of anger, disgust, and contempt.

2011 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cendri A. Hutcherson ◽  
James J. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Moral Emotions ◽  
Functionalist Account

scholarly journals The Aesthetic Engagement Theory of Art

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Grafton-Cardwell
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Value ◽  
Engagement Theory ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Ultimate Purpose

I introduce and explicate a new functionalist account of art, namely that something is an artwork iff the fulfillment of its function by a subject requires that the subject aesthetically engage it. This is the Aesthetic Engagement Theory of art. I show how the Aesthetic Engagement Theory outperforms salient rival theories in terms of extensional adequacy, non-arbitrariness, and ability to account for the distinctive value of art. I also give an account of what it is to aesthetically engage a work that relies on our agential capacity to treat an object as having non-instrumental value, even while the ultimate purpose for our engaging the object is to get something from it.

scholarly journals The failures of functionalism (for memory)

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Robins
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Mental Image ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Metaphysical Question ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
Functionalist Approach ◽  
Image Type

In Memory: A Self-Referential Account, Fernández offers a functionalist account of the metaphysics of memory, which is portrayed as presenting significant advantages over causal and narrative theories of memory. In this paper, I present a series of challenges for Fernández’s functionalism. There are issues with both the particulars of the account and the use of functionalism more generally. First, in characterizing the mnemonic role of episodic remembering, Fernández fails to make clear how the mental image type that plays this role should be identified. Second, I argue that a functionalist approach, which appeals to the overall structure of the memory system and tendencies of mental state types, is ill-suited to the metaphysical question about episodic remembering that is of interest to the causal and narrative theorists with which Fernandez engages. Fernández’s self-referential account of memory has many other virtues, but functionalism is a poor fit for episodic remembering.

scholarly journals The Theory–Theory Approach to Ethics

2020 ◽  
pp. 261-273
Author(s):  
Frank Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Theory Theory ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
Good For ◽  
Way Of Thinking

One way to approach the theory of reference for proper names is by asking what proper names are good for in the sense of the valuable purposes they serve. Suppose we approach ethical terms and concepts in the same spirit, asking questions like: What purposes do they serve? How could we do something similar but do it better? This chapter explores the implications of this way of thinking about ethical terms and concepts, and explains why a theory–theory or moral functionalist account of them is so attractive when we approach matters from this perspective. The discussion is set inside an avowedly cognitivist, naturalist framework, and touches on the implications of this framework for how to adjudicate debates between rival views in ethics, and the relevance of evolutionary considerations.

scholarly journals Quality-Space Functionalism about Color

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-164
Author(s):  
Jacob Berger ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Color Experience ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
Color Relationalism ◽  
Color Physicalism

I motivate and defend a previously underdeveloped functionalist account of the metaphysics of color, a view that I call ‘quality-space functionalism’ about color. Although other theorists have proposed varieties of color functionalism, this view differs from such accounts insofar as it identifies and individuates colors by their relative locations within a particular kind of so-called ‘quality space’ that reflects creatures’ capacities to discriminate visually among stimuli. My arguments for this view of color are abductive: I propose that quality-space functionalism best captures our commonsense conception of color, fits with many experimental findings, coheres with the phenomenology of color experience, and avoids many issues for standard theories of color such as color physicalism and color relationalism.

Shifty Speech and Independent Thought

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Simion
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Epistemic Normativity ◽  
Knowledge Attributions ◽  
Knowledge Account ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
Epistemic Independence ◽  
Independent Thought ◽  
Classical Invariantism

This is an essay in epistemology and the philosophy of language. It concerns epistemology in that it is a manifesto for epistemic independence: the independence of good thinking from practical considerations. It concerns philosophy of language in that it defends a functionalist account of the normativity of assertion in conjunction with an integrated view of the normativity of constative speech acts. The book defends the independence of thought from the most prominent threat that has surfaced in the last twenty years of epistemological theorizing: the phenomenon of shiftiness of proper assertoric speech with practical context. It does four things: first, it shows that, against orthodoxy, the argument from practical shiftiness of proper assertoric speech against the independence of proper thought from the practical does not go through, for it rests on normative ambiguation. Second, it defends a proper functionalist knowledge account of the epistemic normativity of assertion, in conjunction with classical invariantism about knowledge attributions. Third, it generalizes this account to all constative speech. Last, it defends detailed normative accounts for conjecturing, telling, and moral assertion.

What’s the Point? A Presentist Social Functionalist Account of Institutional Purpose

2021 ◽  
pp. 004839312110497
Author(s):  
Armin W. Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
Social Functionalism

Although it is clear that many of the major contemporary social problems center on the extent to which social institutions do or do not function as they are meant to do, it is still unclear exactly what the function of a social institution is—and thus when this function is undermined. This paper presents and defends a novel theory of social functionalism—presentist social functionalism—to answer these questions. According to this theory, the function of social institutions is grounded in those of their features that, in the current cultural environment, increase their chances to survive or reproduce. To bring out the fruitfulness of this account, the paper analyzes the (still controversial) question of the function of corporations, and shows that present social functionalism (a) points to the kinds of data that would be helpful to determine this function, (b) brings up hitherto overlooked theoretical possibilities, and (c) allows for the clearer assessment and handling of corporate corruption.

scholarly journals A functionalist account of shame-induced behaviour

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 939-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilona E. de Hooge ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg ◽  
Seger M. Breugelmans
Keyword(s):  
Functionalist Account
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