“Caught in Its Movement”: Liberalism, Critique, and Dewey’s Implicit Philosophy of History

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-383
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Portella
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Classical Liberalism ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Moment

Abstract “Philosophers,” Dewey writes, “are parts of history, caught in its movement; creators perhaps in some measure of its future, but also assuredly creatures of its past” (Dewey 1927, 2). The question of the philosopher’s embeddedness in either her own or some earlier historical moment constitutes an important theme in Dewey’s account of pragmatism, in particular his account of politics. In lieu of a formal treatise on history, this paper focuses on Dewey’s claims about history as they are enacted in his political analyses. Drawing on texts such as Liberalism and Social Action (1935) and Freedom and Culture (1939) as well “The Role of Philosophy in the History of Civilization” (1927), I hope to elucidate in greater depth the function and meaning of the term “historic relativity” as a central concept in Dewey’s philosophy of history (Dewey 1935, 42). Further, I evaluate Dewey’s criticisms of both classical liberalism and Marxism on historical grounds, where he employs what I call political obsolescence claims. From these texts I reconstruct and critically assess what I refer to as Dewey’s implicit philosophy of history. I conclude that the presuppositions of Dewey’s political reconstruction represent the very mode of uncritical historical reproduction which his philosophy ostensibly cautions against. To suggest one possibility for addressing these tensions, I gesture toward non-coincidence as a critical historical category through which we might articulate the historic present with the hope of transforming it.

“Bread and Roses”

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Tom Juravich
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
First Generation ◽  
New Music ◽  
Labor Standards ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
History Of

This paper traces the history of the song “Bread and Roses” to examine labor culture and the role of song in the labor movement. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, “Bread and Roses” was included in several of the first generation song books produced by unions that reflected an expansive and inclusive labor culture closely connected with the Left. With the ascendance of business unionism and the blacklisting of the Left after the war, labor culture took a heavy blow, and labor songbooks became skeletons of the full-bodied versions they had once been. Unions began to see singing not as part of the process of social change but as a vehicle to bring people together, and songs such as “Bread and Roses” and other more class-based songs were jettisoned in favor of a few labor standards and American sing-along songs. “Bread and Roses” was born anew to embody a central concept in the women’s movement and rode the wave of new music, art, and film that were part of new social movements and new constituencies that challenged business unionism and reshaped union culture in the 1980s.

Handcraft as urban intervention: In recognition of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 175-186
Author(s):  
Hinda Mandell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Social Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
Urban Intervention ◽  
Parking Lot ◽  
History Of

In 1851, in Rochester, New York, a group of nineteen women banded together as the founding members of an anti-slavery group in order to support the work of the abolitionist, writer, orator and newspaper publisher, Frederick Douglass. They were the benefactors of Frederick Douglass, himself regarded as the founder of the twentieth-century Civil Rights movement. They called themselves the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society, although they dropped ‘Sewing’ from their group’s name in 1855. Yet the fact that ‘Sewing’ was included in the original name of this reformist group indicates the foundational role of craft not only as a guiding activity, but also as a key activist mechanism to abolish the institution of slavery. This article explains how a contemporary craft intervention in downtown Rochester, New York, involving 400 swatches contributed from across the United States, sought to honour and reclaim the history of this social-reformist group, at Corinthian Hall, the physical location where they held their abolitionist fundraising bazaars in the nineteenth century. That building is now a parking lot in the heart of central Rochester. Ultimately, yarn is argued to be a social-action tool to help reverse historic erasure in a crowded urban environment.

The Pen, the Sword, and the Crown: Islam and Revolution in Songhay Reconsidered, 1464–1493

1984 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lansiné Kaba
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Political Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

This paper examines the origin of the Askiya dynasty in Songhay, with an emphasis on the alliance between the militant ‘ulamā’ and the commanders of the northwestern province during the reign of Sonni 'Alī (1464–1492). The inadequacy of Sonni 'Alī's policy for dealing with the polarization in the cities, the increased role of the officers in these political matters, the rise of militant Islam and the division of the army: all these contributed to the downfall of the Sonni dynasty and the subsequent transfer of power to a regime inspired by Islam. The conflict in Timbuktu to which the ‘ulamā’ gave a religious justification precipitated the revolution. This revealed the importance of Islam as a factor of division, a motor for social action and political change. Indeed, many Muslim leaders had come to see themselves as members of a community worthy of ruling a predominantly non-literate country governed by a non-Muslim royalty. But for this they had to rely on the officers, and in particular Muḥammad Ture who, as a high official connected with both the main warring factions, could fulfil all the conditions for success. His victory introduced a new imperial era in the history of Islam in the Western Sudan.

Resignation, radicalism or realism?: What role for non-government agencies in the changing context of child and family welfare?

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Jon O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Community Services ◽  
Family Welfare ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Prevention Campaign ◽  
History Of ◽  
Welfare Agencies

Non-government welfare agencies have a history of both service provision and advocating for social justice and welfare reform. Current economic and social changes have had an impact on our understanding of the role of welfare and the state. There has been a significant reconfiguration of community services, with important implications for the present and future role of welfare agencies.This article seeks to identify questions confronting agencies that seek to maintain a commitment to social action by examining an 18-month child abuse prevention campaign conducted by a coalition of agencies in NSW. Significant insights and challenges that emerged from the campaign are identified. Questions about the role of non-government agencies are revisited and the value of welfare agencies’ contribution to social equity reasserted.

A Matter of Method

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Luc Marion
Keyword(s):  
Direct Relationship ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Investigation ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literature And Theology ◽  
The Relationship

In this chapter Marion distinguishes between history of philosophy and philosophy of history. He explains the importance of knowing the history of philosophy and being familiar with its central debates for rigorous philosophical work in the present. He argues for a direct relationship between great philosophers. In this context he briefly evaluates the relationship between analytical and continental philosophy. He addresses the role art, literature, and theology/religion can play in philosophical investigation. Overall, he argues for rigorous work on the phenomena as they appear and give themselves. He concludes with a brief discussion of the role of psychoanalysis.

scholarly journals Philosophy of History of Adam Ferguson and Immanuel Kant

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra ZÁKUTNÁ
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basic Features

The paper compares central issues of philosophy of history of A. Ferguson and I. Kant. It deals with their explanation of origins and development of civil society, and characterizes its basic features, focusing on progress motivated by fruitful conflict and tension among individuals and nations. It also focuses on the role of citizens in civil society and the question of their activity. Then, in connection with Ferguson’s and Kant’s views on relationships among states the paper discusses their different portrayal of possible future history.

Command tones: Digitization and sounded time

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Sterne ◽  
Emily Raine
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Short History ◽  
Collective Activity ◽  
The World ◽  
Time Zones ◽  
History Of ◽  
Digital Time

Keeping time is a crucial aspect of governance. Timekeeping orchestrates individual and collective activity and shapes relations between individuals and institutions, between institutions, and within networks of individuals. Though some aspects of time, such as time zones, are nationally and internationally regulated, the regulation of time is often a case where governance extends far beyond government. This “experiment in theory” provides an account of the role of sound in orchestrating social action, and then uses a long history of sounded time to situate a short history of sounded digital time. Though the project is deliberately speculative, it suggests an important hypothesis: Rather than splitting the world into “real” and “virtual” domains of perceived experience, digital technologies might better be considered in terms of the disconnect between the perceived and imperceptible modalities through which they organize social practice.

scholarly journals Museums of a “manufacturing type” in the USSR: Emergence, experience and liquidation. The history of museum development in the USSR in the 1920s–1930s

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-209
Author(s):  
Nadezda A. Zubanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Research Interest ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Museum Development ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Historical Moment

The article examines the experience of the museums of a “manufacturing type” that appeared in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. References to the existence of such museums are repeatedly found in official reports, museums’ documentation and periodicals of those years. At the same time, we note that up to now there is no definition of this type of museum in the national historiography of the history of museums. The reference to the experience of their work remains on the periphery of the research interest. The article explores the example of two Moscow’s museums — the Museum of Porcelain and the Museum of Furniture — to describe the history of the creation of museums, to find out the socio-cultural factors that contributed to their formation as a “manufacturing type” museums, and to analyze the reasons that led to the closure (in the case of the Museum of Furniture) or a change of their profile. The emergence and activity of manufacturing museums was associated with a special historical moment — the time of the active creation of the Soviet museum network and experiments in the field of museum business. If earlier museums in their activities were focused on storage and scientific functions, then at the new historical stage the role of museums in society was rethought: the educational functions were placed at the forefront of their activities. At this time, there was still the opportunity to implement certain creative experiments. In the activities of “manufacturing museums”, such types of museum work with a visitor were already successfully practiced and some approaches in expositional activities that were relevant in modern museology and in demand by modern museum institutions were implemented.

Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

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