Trademarks in the Light of the Thomas Theorem: a model of a social object ontology

Communicology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-166
Author(s):  
N.S. Babich ◽  
I.V. Batykov
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Functional Explanation ◽  
Semantic Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Common Problems ◽  
Functional Explanations ◽  
Object Ontology ◽  
Thomas Theorem

The paper considers the reasons for the existence of trademarks as a social phenomenon. The authors reveal three dominant functional explanations: rationalistic, stratification and semantic. A rationalistic model describes a trademark in terms of identifying the source of the goods (the trademark allows the consumer to identify the goods of a particular manufacturer). The stratification explanation defines the function of the trademark in terms of demonstratively maintaining social differentiation and the distribution of prestige. The semantic approach focuses on the trademark as a mental cell in the consumer’s memory archive, which contains information about the product and its associations. All three approaches are characterized by common problems of functional explanation, namely: the logical circle and internal connection with the homeostatic image of the social system. To overcome these problems, the authors propose an approach to the social ontology of trademarks based on the well-known “Thomas theorem”, which allows to establish causal relationships between the subjective and objective world on the basis of the postulation of equality between reality and perception at the level of formation of human actions. The authors demonstrate the explanatory power of the “Thomas theorem” on example of self-fulfilling prophecies that can be observed in the practice of using trademarks, considering the rationalistic, prestigious and semantic functions of trademarks through the prism of this principle.

Functionalism in social science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Bigelow
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Material Object ◽  
Functional Explanation ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
New Models ◽  
Functional Explanations

In the social sciences, functionalists are theorists who give an especially prominent role to functional explanations. One of the most influential self-defined functionalists, Malinowski (1926), summed up this view: the functionalist ‘insists… upon the principle that in every type of civilisation, every custom, material object, idea and belief fulfils some vital function, has some task to accomplish, represents an indispensable part within a working whole’. As an example of a functionalist explanation, one might consider the hypothesis, as argued for instance by Evans-Pritchard in his work on the Azande in Africa, that belief in witches generally plays a role in maintaining social stability (1937). In the last few decades of the twentieth century, postmodern, or post-structuralist, sociologists have largely disavowed the pursuit of functional explanations. The extremism of some functionalist theses has been matched by an equal extremism in postmodern antitheses. In denying that everything must be explained functionally, some go so far as to say that nothing should ever be explained functionally. Yet there is liveable logical space between the modernist’s ‘There has always got to be a reason, the real reason, for everything’, and the postmodernist’s ‘There is never any real reason for anything’. We do not have to be card-carrying functionalists to suspect that functional explanations might be found for at least some of the bewildering things that some people do in various parts of the world. New models of functional explanation are emerging from recent ferment in the biological sciences, and these new models may suggest new ways of approaching functional explanations in the social sciences.

Social Selection, Agents’ Intentions, and Functional Explanation

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Brad Wray
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Functional Explanation ◽  
Social Selection ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
Functional Explanations ◽  
Mechanism Operative

AbstractJon Elster and Daniel Little have criticized social scientists for appealing to a mechanism of social selection in functional explanations of social practices. Both believe that there is no such mechanism operative in the social world. I develop and defend an account of functional explanation in which a mechanism of social selection figures centrally. In addition to developing an account of social selection, I clarify what functional hypotheses purport to claim, and re-examine the role of agents’ intentions in functional explanations in an effort to show why a mechanism of social selection is indispensable to adequate functional explanations.

The Idea of God in Relation to the Social System

2013 ◽  
pp. 32-64
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Social System ◽  
Banking System ◽  
World System ◽  
Functional Explanation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Especial Case ◽  
Unity Of Knowledge

The chapter continues from the groundwork of the socio-cybernetic perspective of the monotheistic law and its functioning in the moral and social construction of the unified world-system. The especial case of the financial and banking system is introduced to bring forth the functional meaning of God as the monotheistic law that is activated in the moral and ethical uplift of the world-system with its specific details. Here, the business model marks the particular case of a unified world-system guided by the epistemology of unity of knowledge. A rigorous formalism underlies this extensive worldview. The phenomenological model of unity of knowledge is further formalized to give it a functional explanation for later explanations in this book.

The Social System of the Welfare Hotel

1980 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-162
Author(s):  
VERNON L. ALLEN
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
The Social

Value-driven issues throughout the development of sociological theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Levels

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.

Formación Inicial Docente: Una mirada al Proceso de Construcción de Conocimiento Profesional desde la Práctica

2014 ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Pamela Labra Godoy ◽  
Rodrigo Fuentealba J.
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Social System ◽  
Knowledge Construction ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Teacher Formation ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Social ◽  
Application Logic ◽  
Process Product

Resumen: Los procesos de formación de profesores han estado fuertemente influenciados por una lógica aplicacionista y una visión fragmentada y prescriptiva de la naturaleza del conocimiento. Se puede observar una enseñanza basada en la oralidad, en un bajo trabajo práctico y una escasa vinculación con la realidad educativa y los requerimientos del contexto. Se hace necesario que en dichos procesos se reconozca a los futuros profesores como sujetos de conocimiento con quienes se debiese generar una estructura curricular práctica activa y reflexiva.El reconocer la complejidad de los procesos que se llevan a cabo en el contexto educacional, hace necesario transitar desde una lógica instrumental/mecanicista, proceso-producto a una perspectiva epistemológica donde se rescate el dinamismo del ámbito educacional y la complejidad del sistema social en que éste se encuentra inserto. Palabras clave: Formación Inicial Docente - Construcción de Conocimiento Profesional – Prácticas – Reflexión Profesional Abstract Teacher education processes have been heavily  influenced by application logic, as well as, to a fragmented and prescriptive vision of the nature of knowledge, instead of the construction of it. A teaching process based on the predominance of oral discourse, low practical work, and a limited relation with educational reality and context needs, has been  observed. It seems necessary to recognize student - teachers as knowledge subjects with whom there should be an active/reflective curricular activity, and also recognize the complexity of the processes that take place in the educational context. In other words, it is necessary to move from an instrumental, process/ product perspective towards an epistemological perspective able to recognize the dynamism in the educational system and the complexity of the social system in which it is immersed. Key Words: Initial Teacher Formation- Professional Knowledge Construction- Practicum- Professional Reflection

Female Christian prose today: A failed search for new women’s subjectivity?

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-149
Author(s):  
E. Chelpanova
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social System ◽  
Family Values ◽  
The State ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Conservative Approach ◽  
Female Subjectivity ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

In her analysis of books by Maya Kucherskaya, Olesya Nikolaeva, and Yulia Voznesenskaya, the author investigates the history of female Christian prose from the 1990s until the present day. According to the author, it was in the 1990s, the period of crisis and transformation of the social system, that female Christian writers were more vocal, than today, on the issues of the new post-Soviet female subjectivity, drawing on folklore imagery and contrasting the folk, pagan philosophy with the Christian one, defined by an established set of rules and limitations for the principal female roles. Thus, the folklore elements in Kucherskaya’s early works are considered as an attempt to represent female subjectivity. However, the author argues that, in their current work, Kucherskaya and other representatives of the so-called female Christian prose tend to choose different, objectivizing methods to represent female characters. This new and conservative approach may have come from a wider social context, including the state-imposed ‘family values’ program.

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