scholarly journals Symbolic Action and Communication: Metaphor and Money in Kenneth Burke

2020 ◽  
pp. 174-194
Author(s):  
Andrei A. Gornykh
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Internal Quality ◽  
Symbolic Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
External Character ◽  
Poetic Imagery ◽  
Social Critical ◽  
The Individual

The article examines how the social-critical vision of modern society stems from the key notions of Kenneth Burke's conception of “symbolic action”. The bridge between literary criticism and Burke's socio-anthropological constructions is the concept of motive. An authentic source of motives for human action is a metaphor that gives an image that is simultaneously poetic, imaginary and dynamic, moving (in the form of “third term” of the metaphor). The metaphor reveals unexpected, but essential unity of dissimilar things. And in this sense it serves as a model of inter-subjective relations. Group cohesion can be understood as an “extended metaphor” in which all group members have a common “third term”. Thus, Burke brings the fields of anthropology and poetics closer together. A metaphor is a relationship in which the elements do not absorb each other, but reveal the essence of each other, sublate their partiality, contingency, that is make up a collective form. This is the “paradox of substance”. The commonality of a tribe is not an abstraction that arises “after” individuals, but exists in the form of a generic substance in the individuals themselves. This defines the dialectic of identification: the individual coincides with himself by mediation of not-himself (some external “character”). The paradox of substance places symbolic actions in the general field of “symbolic communication,” in which the word is not only an external instrument, but an internal quality of individuals. Poetic imagery is the substance of the social. Metaphor in this capacity is contrasted with money, which, displacing metaphor as a principle of social coherence, undermines truly human motives (utilitarianism instead of communal poetics).

PHILOSOPHICAL PROPAEDEUTICS IN THE SYSTEM OF PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Gan N.Yu. ◽  
Ponomareva L.I. ◽  
Obukhova K.A.
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Training

Today, worldview, spiritual and moral problems that have always been reflected in education and upbringing come to the fore in society. In this situation, there is a demand for philosophical categories. One of the priority goals of education in modern conditions is the formation of a reasonable, reflexive person who is able to analyze their actions and the actions of other people. Modern science is characterized by an understanding of the absolute value and significance of childhood in the development of the individual, which implies the need for its multilateral study. In the conditions of democratization of all spheres of life, the child ceases to be a passive object of education and training, and becomes an active carrier of their own meanings of being and the subject of world creation. One of the realities of childhood is philosophizing, so it is extremely timely to address the identification of its place and role in the world of childhood. Children's philosophizing is extremely poorly studied, although the need for its analysis is becoming more obvious. Children's philosophizing is one of the forms of philosophical reflection, which has its own qualitative specificity, on the one hand, and commonality with all other forms of philosophizing, on the other. The social relevance of the proposed research lies in the fact that children's philosophizing can be considered as an intellectual indicator of a child's socialization, since the process of reflection involves the adoption and development of culture. Modern society, in contrast to the traditional one, is ready to "accept" a philosophizing child, which means that it is necessary to determine the main characteristics and conditions of children's philosophizing.

scholarly journals The evolution of hyperactivity, impulsivity and cognitive diversity

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 399-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Williams ◽  
Eric Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Age Distribution ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Food Group ◽  
Population Diversity ◽  
Entire Group ◽  
Evolutionary Status ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

The evolutionary status of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is central to assessments of whether modern society has created it, either physically or socially; and is potentially useful in understanding its neurobiological basis and treatment. The high prevalence of ADHD (5–10%) and its association with the seven-repeat allele of DRD4, which is positively selected in evolution, raise the possibility that ADHD increases the reproductive fitness of the individual, and/or the group. However, previous suggestions of evolutionary roles for ADHD have not accounted for its confinement to a substantial minority. Because one of the key features of ADHD is its diversity, and many benefits of population diversity are well recognized (as in immunity), we study the impact of groups' behavioural diversity on their fitness. Diversity occurs along many dimensions, and for simplicity we choose unpredictability (or variability), excess of which is a well-established characteristic of ADHD. Simulations of the Changing Food group task show that unpredictable behaviour by a minority optimizes results for the group. Characteristics of such group exploration tasks are risk-taking, in which costs are borne mainly by the individual; and information-sharing, in which benefits accrue to the entire group. Hence, this work is closely linked to previous studies of evolved altruism. We conclude that even individually impairing combinations of genes, such as ADHD, can carry specific benefits for society, which can be selected for at that level, rather than being merely genetic coincidences with effects confined to the individual. The social benefits conferred by diversity occur both inside and outside the ‘normal’ range, and these may be distinct. This view has the additional merit of offering explanations for the prevalence, sex and age distribution, severity distribution and heterogeneity of ADHD.

scholarly journals A reflection about the social and technological aspects in flood risk management – the case of the Italian Civil Protection

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. del Carmen Llasat ◽  
F. Siccardi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Civil Protection ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ground Effects ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Abstract. The right of a person to be protected from natural hazards is a characteristic of the social and economical development of the society. This paper is a contribution to the reflection about the role of Civil Protection organizations in a modern society. The paper is based in the inaugural conference made by the authors on the 9th Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms. Two major issues are considered. The first one is sociological; the Civil Protection organizations and the responsible administration of the land use planning should be perceived as reliable as possible, in order to get consensus on the restrictions they pose, temporary or definitely, on the individual free use of the territory as well as in the entire warning system. The second one is technological: in order to be reliable they have to issue timely alert and warning to the population at large, but such alarms should be as "true" as possible. With this aim, the paper summarizes the historical evolution of the risk assessment, starting from the original concept of "hazard", introducing the concepts of "scenario of event" and "scenario of risk" and ending with a discussion about the uncertainties and limits of the most advanced and efficient tools to predict, to forecast and to observe the ground effects affecting people and their properties. The discussion is centred in the case of heavy rains and flood events in the North-West of Mediterranean Region.

The Not-so-trivial Truth of Methodological Individualism

1998 ◽  
pp. 69-76
Author(s):  
Maarten Franssen
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
Intentional Stance ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intentional Psychology ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Entities

I defend the truth of the principle of methodological individualism in the social sciences. I do so by criticizing mistaken ideas about the relation between individual people and social entities held by earlier defenders of the principle. I argue, first, that social science is committed to the intentional stance; the domain of social science, therefore, coincides with the domain of intentionally described human action. Second, I argue that social entitites are theoretical terms, but quite different from the entities used in the natural sciences to explain our empirical evidence. Social entities (such as institutions) are conventional and open-ended constructions, the applications of which is a matter of judgment, not of discovery. The terms in which these social entities are constructed are the beliefs, expectations and desires, and the corresponding actions of individual people. The relation between the social and the individual 'levels' differs fundamentally from that between, say, the cellular and the molecular in biology. Third, I claim that methodological individualism does not amount to a reduction of social science to psychology; rather, the science of psychology should be divided. Intentional psychology forms in tandom with the analysis of social institutions, unitary psycho-social science; cognitive psychology tries to explain how the brain works and especially how the intentional stance is applicable to human behavior.

Fundamentos hobbesianos de la economía moderna. Una aproximación

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Alejandro Pérez y Soto Domínguez ◽  
Katherine Flórez Pinilla ◽  
José M. Carballido Cordero
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Economic Science ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

ResumenEste artículo resultado de investigación, busca introducir al lector en los aportes de Thomas Hobbes a la economía como ciencia. Este filósofo, aunque no figura como un autor relevante en los textos tradicionales de pensamiento económico, logró elaborar de manera sólida numerosos conceptos epistemológicos, antropológicos e institucionales recogidos por varias escuelas, entre las que se encuentran los marxistas, neoclásicos y keynesianos, quienes sustentan en ello el control centralizado de la acción humana. Aunque su trabajo originalmente no tuvo un fin eminentemente económico, es posible establecer cómo sus aportes filosóficos tienen alcances en las ciencias sociales, y en especial en la economía. Sus contribuciones se centraron en las nociones de colectivización del individuo y de la planificación centralizada. Además, Hobbes es, al menos en parte, el inspirador del socialismo como modo de orden social centralizado.Recibido: 20/08/2015   Aceptado: 18/11/2015 AbstractThe present essay is the outcome of a research program, and it aims to present the reader the main contributions of Thomas Hobbes to the economic science. Although this thinker has not been considered a relevant author in the traditional textbooks of economic thought, he nevertheless elaborated numerous solid epistemological, anthropological, and institutional concepts which have been incorporated into the theoretical corpus of several schools of thought, like the Marxist, Neoclassical, and Keynesian, concepts that buttress the idea of the centralized control of human action. Despite the fact that his work was not originally intended to be applied in the economic field, it is plausible to admit that his philosophical contributions have had their significance in the social sciences, especially in economics. In particular, these contributions will focus on the notions of collectivization of the individual and central planning. Hobbes is, at least in part, the inspirer of socialism understood as a form of centralized social order.Received: 20/08/2015  Accepted: 18/11/2015

scholarly journals Risk as Moral Danger: The Social and Political Functions of Risk Discourse in Public Health

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Lupton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
Divine Retribution ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Risk Discourse

Risk is a concept with multiple meanings and is ideologically loaded. The author reviews the literature on risk perception and risk as a sociocultural construct, with particular reference to the domain of public health. Pertinent examples of the political and moral function of risk discourse in public health are given. The author concludes that risk discourse is often used to blame the victim, to displace the real reasons for ill-health upon the individual, and to express outrage at behavior deemed socially unacceptable, thereby exerting control over the body politic as well as the body corporeal. Risk discourse is redolent with the ideologies of mortality, danger, and divine retribution. Risk, as it is used in modern society, therefore cannot be considered a neutral term.

scholarly journals The Institutionalization of Political Humor as a Form of Reflection

2014 ◽  
pp. 219-227
Author(s):  
S. S. Melnikov
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Political Humor ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

The paper analyzes the genesis of modern political humor and determines its position in the system of spiritual relations in society. The formation of the need to comprehend social relations by means of humor during progressive transition from traditional to modern society is investigated. We note that humor is essentially a social phenomenon. A fundamental distinction between humor formed in the modern period and humor of previous times is the presence of reflexivity. New kind of humor has also dealt with political relations began to be interpreted by means of humor culture. In the course of research we found that comic interpretation of politics became feasible due to the legislative fixation of individual rights as a part of modern political culture. The emancipated personality demonstrates more complicated expectations to a political institute and experiences acute dissatisfaction as state authorities have often made decisions not appropriate to such expectations. For the individual as sovereign entity political humor became a sort of social and psychological compensation. An author pays attention to the fact that the social subject having shown such a reaction was formed during the second half of XIX and the beginning of XX centuries because of the dissemination of the print media and was named «the audience». The audience became a key agent of humorous reflection about the political institute. As a case that grounds the applicability of this theory to the practice the paper considers the example of inclusion of specific comic genre (political caricature) in the social discourse in the West and in Russia.

scholarly journals Research of the Nutrition Problem: Methodological Approaches and Daily Practices

2014 ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
A. V. Noskova
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Nutrition Research ◽  
Nutrition Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nutrition Problem ◽  
Sociology Of Food

The article analyzes some scientific approaches to nutrition research and current nutrition practices for students of two Moscow Universities. The author notes that the necessity for scientific studying of food has been understood at the end of the XIX - the beginning of the XX centuries. In the article the social context of three directions of researches of a nutrition problem is analyzed: natural-scientific, ethnographic and sociological. The answer to a question why the healthy nutrition for modern society is an actual problem is given. It is shown that modern social transformations have changed sociocultural regulation of nutrition consumption. The variety of scientific approaches to food is revealed: a food as a factor of physical health, a food as an ethnocultural tradition, a food as a social habit and marker of the social status of the individual. The special emphasis is made on the European sociology of food. In the last thirty years in this area, some special sociological theories were formed: sociology of nutrition, sociology of food, sociology of menu, etc. Consumer abundance in modern western society changed a view of sociologists on essence and functions of food. New social factors give now more pressure on the nutrition practices. Based on food diaries and essays of 60 Moscow students, the author's project shows and analyzes the current nutrition practices of youth. The analysis of some peculiarities in the youth choice of food is made. The influence of social/dietary/religious norms on food behavior of students is shown. Value of "healthy food" in youth interpretation is shown. In the end of the article, the author notes the dialectics of freedom / social pressure for nutrition practices of modern youth.

Behaviourism in the social sciences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rom Harre
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Direct Reflection

Classical behaviourism has had almost no direct reflection in the social sciences, in that there has never been a behaviourist social psychology or sociology. However, various features of the cluster of behaviourist doctrines have been widespread in the human sciences. Behaviourism as it developed from its roots in the proposals of Watson, and in its transformation by Skinner, had two influential aspects, one metaphysical and the other methodological. The metaphysics of behaviourism was positivistic. It was hostile to theory, favouring a psychology the subject matter of which was limited to stimuli and responses. It was hospitable to the conception of causation as regular concomitance of events, rejecting any generative or agent causal concepts. The methodology of behaviourism was hospitable to simple experimental techniques of inquiry, seeking statistical relations between independent and dependent variables. It was hostile to descriptions of human action that incorporated the intentions of the actor, favouring a laconic vocabulary of neologisms. Metaphysically and methodologically behaviourism favoured the individual as the locus of psychological phenomena. But, in practice, the use of statistical analyses of data abstracted psychological processes from real human beings leaving only simplified automata in their place.

Addressing the issue of violence in our society. The ten most important rules in the light of the study on “Society without violence”

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (33) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Marzanna Farnicka ◽  
Jonathan Chumas
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Research Committee ◽  
Psychological Practice ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Crime And Delinquency ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over 40 Years

Over 40 years ago the French Research Committee on Violence, Crime and Delinquency published a document that contained current analyses on the occurrence of social problems and their determinants, as well as guidelines to reduce risks and reduce the sense of threat and insecurity in modern society. The document became the basis for the reflection on public debate on violence in international communities and psychological practice against violence in both interpersonal and wider social relations. The combination of the individual and the social perspective gives a chance to criticise and rethink the guidelines suggested by the Committee from the point of view of such issues as community responsibility, individual rights and the current state in psychological and social care against violence. Special attention was paid to ten recommendations.

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