scholarly journals Truth as a sociocultural phenomenon: modern interpretation

2020 ◽  
pp. 14-22
Author(s):  
Marina G. Volnistaya ◽  
Eka D. Korkiya ◽  
Agamali K. Mamеdov
Keyword(s):  
Science Research ◽  
Correspondence Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Epistemology ◽  
General Outline ◽  
Artistic Creation ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Contemporary Epistemology

The history of science in any of its transformations and metamorphoses is, in fact, a search for and definition of the truth. As an example, I. Kant’s famous four questions start with the question «What can I know?». Thus, the search for truth as a subject of research has been a dominating force throughout human history. Of course, sociology as a social meta-science is also involved in this topic. A simple assertion of the existence of three concepts of truth, namely accordance, agreement and advantage, does not fully answer the prerequisites of contemporary discourse. The present article analyses a new discourse on the study of truth in contemporary science. We give a brief retrospective analysis of the main fields of truth interpretation. At the same time, these directions are not just listed but linked into the general outline of contemporary epistemology. Of course, a greater bias is made towards the sciences of the social and humanitarian profile. That, however, does not exclude the necessary portion of the data of natural science research. In the article these data are not used as demonstrations, but as independent meta-scientific research. We give various examples of the complementarity of different branches of science. In particular, we show the scope and relative limitation of such concepts as correspondence theory, evolutionary epistemology, socio-humanitarian cybernetics, adaptationism and neo-adaptationism. A significant place in the article is occupied by the problem of truth in artistic creation. We also give sustainable conclusions about the polyphonicity of truth and its flickering character.

The Roman Retail Revolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. R. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Food And Drink ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University

Tabernae were ubiquitous among all Roman cities, lining the busiest streets and dominating their most crowded intersections, and in numbers not known by any other form of building. That they played a vital role in the operation of the city—indeed in the very definition of urbanization—is a point too often under-appreciated in Roman studies, or at best assumed. The Roman Retail Revolution is a thorough investigation into the social and economic worlds of the Roman shop. With a focus on food and drink outlets, and with a critical analysis of both archaeological material and textual sources, Ellis challenges many of the conventional ideas about the place of retailing in the Roman city. A new framework is forwarded, for example, to understand the motivations behind urban investment in tabernae. Their historical development is also unraveled to identify three major waves—or, revolutions—in the shaping of retail landscapes. Two new bodies of evidence underpin the volume. The first is generated from the University of Cincinnati’s recent archaeological excavations into a Pompeian neighborhood of close to twenty shop-fronts. The second comes from a field survey of the retail landscapes of more than a hundred cities from across the Roman world. The richness of this information, combined with an interdisciplinary approach to the lives of the Roman sub-elite, results in a refreshingly original look at the history of retailing and urbanism in the Roman world.

scholarly journals Has the Credibility of the Social Sciences Been Credibly Destroyed? Reanalyzing the “Many Analysts, One Data Set” Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110244
Author(s):  
Katrin Auspurg ◽  
Josef Brüderl
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

In 2018, Silberzahn, Uhlmann, Nosek, and colleagues published an article in which 29 teams analyzed the same research question with the same data: Are soccer referees more likely to give red cards to players with dark skin tone than light skin tone? The results obtained by the teams differed extensively. Many concluded from this widely noted exercise that the social sciences are not rigorous enough to provide definitive answers. In this article, we investigate why results diverged so much. We argue that the main reason was an unclear research question: Teams differed in their interpretation of the research question and therefore used diverse research designs and model specifications. We show by reanalyzing the data that with a clear research question, a precise definition of the parameter of interest, and theory-guided causal reasoning, results vary only within a narrow range. The broad conclusion of our reanalysis is that social science research needs to be more precise in its “estimands” to become credible.

scholarly journals The social work professionalisation project before the 1990s in Aotearoa New Zealand: The dream

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Critical Consideration

INTRODUCTION: The meaning and purpose of social work has always been debated within the social work profession. The profession dreams of contributing towards a better, fairer, civil society locally and internationally. This article explores the professionalisation of social work in Aotearoa New Zealand. This exploration has been undertaken as background for an ongoing research project.METHOD: A critical consideration of the different theoretical and historical dimensions and interests at work that impacted on the journey of professionalisation of social work in this country has been undertaken based on a review of literature. Part one of the article outlines a definition of social work, and different concepts and approaches to professionalisation. Part two of the article contextualises the different approaches to professionalisation within Aotearoa New Zealand, from early forms of welfare pre-colonisation up until the early 1990s.CONCLUSION: The literature and trends discussed serve to both document the history of professionalisation of social work in Aotearoa New Zealand and as background to an ongoing critical research project which aims to uncover interests at work and interrogate the legitimacy of those interests, while enabling the voices of key actors from the time to surface, be explored, and be recorded.

scholarly journals Correction of the object of social experiments D. A. Stolypin

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
O. М. Приймак ◽  
Ю. O. Приймак
Keyword(s):  
Social Experiment ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Economic Management ◽  
Scientific Heritage ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
Economic Ties

The publication deals with the problem of correction of an object that occurred during the social experiment carried out by one of the first Russian sociologists, a follower of Auguste Comte, Dmitry Arkadievich Stolypin (1818 – 1893). In accordance with the level of development of sociological science of the last quarter of the XIX century the definition of the concept of «social experiment» was formulated. The reasons for the social experiment, conducted by D.A. Stolypin during 1874 – 1893 in Mordvinovka Village of Berdyansk District of Taurida Governorate (present Mordvinovka Village in Melitopol District of Zaporozhye Region) were identified. Among them, as the main ones, are indicated the crisis of landlord economy and peasant land shortage, in the conditions of the development of agrarian capitalism in the south of Ukraine. It is proved that the goal of the social experiment completely coincided with the direction of the search for social support in the village by the imperial top. The analysis of historical sources allowed the authors to establish that its essence was to create rental farms on landowner lands increasing the profitability of the latter and to popularize among the local peasantry the leading forms of intensive local economic management. Research revealed that in accordance with the sociological concept of D.A. Stolypin local peasants were the object of the experiment, who were asked to break economic ties with the rural community and get the farm in the medium-term lease. The formulation of criteria for comparative analysis made it possible to distinguish three stages in the course of the experiment – 1874-1877 years, 1878-1888 years, 1889-1893 years. The main argument in favor of such approach was not the fact of introducing changes in lease agreements with farmers as much as the involvement of peasants from different social strata in the experiment. Authors found that at the first stage farmers were the representatives of the kulak and prosperous strata of the peasantry, at the second – among the wealthy tenants there were peasants of medium welfare, and at the third – the wealthy and middle peasants were equally divided. The intermediate results of the social experiments by D.A. Stolypin, which were researched in terms of improvements of material facilities, increasing the area of cultivated land and monetary incomes, including farmers in the channels of upward vertical social mobility and changing their social status. At the same time, the article emphasizes that scientific heritage of O. Comte, A. Smith, G. Spencer, as well as the foreign experience of agrarian transformations and knowledge of local economic traditions which were used by sociologist-amateur betrayed the ideas of the formed farm settlement. Social experiment D.A. Stolypin is described in the publication as the longest in the history of national sociology.

Constructionist Organizational Data Mining

2011 ◽  
pp. 696-700
Author(s):  
Isabel Ramos ◽  
João Álvaro Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organizational Knowledge Creation ◽  
Technology Applications ◽  
History Of ◽  
Adequate Representation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Objective Existence ◽  
Objective Study

Scientific or organizational knowledge creation has been addressed from different perspectives along the history of science and, in particular, of social sciences. The process is guided by the set of values, beliefs, and norms shared by the members of the community to which the creator of this knowledge belongs, that is, it is guided by the adopted paradigm (Lincoln & Guba, 2000). The adopted paradigm determines how the nature of the studied reality is understood, the criteria that will be used to assess the validity of the created knowledge, and the construction and selection of methods, techniques, and tools to structure and support the creation of knowledge. This set of ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions that characterize the paradigm one implicitly or explicitly uses to make sense of the surrounding reality is the cultural root of the intellectual enterprises. Those assumptions constrain the accomplishment of activities such as construction of theories, definition of inquiry strategies, interpretation of perceived phenomena, and dissemination of knowledge (Schwandt, 2000). Traditionally, social realities such as organizations have been assumed to have an objective nature. Assuming this viewpoint, the knowledge we possess about things, processes, or events that occur regularly under definite circumstances, should be an adequate representation of them. Knowledge is the result of a meticulous, quantitative, and objective study of the phenomenon of interest. Its aim is to understand the phenomenon in order to be able to anticipate its occurrence and to control it. Organizations can instead be understood as socially constructed realities. As such, they are subjective in nature since they do not exist apart from the organizational actors and other stakeholders. The stable patterns of action and interaction occurring internally and with the exterior of the organization are responsible for the impression of an objective existence. The adoption of information technology applications can reinforce or disrupt those patterns of action and interaction, thus becoming key elements in the social construction of organizational realities (Lilley, Lightfoot, & Amaral, 2004; Vaast & Walsham, 2005).

Love’s Evolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Celia E. Deane-Drummond
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Severe Disabilities ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Reasonable Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

The relationship between empathy, love, and compassion has long been contested in the history of moral theory. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum’s definition of compassion as a form of judgement, and its relationship to empathy as both emotive and cognitive, this chapter seeks to uncover some of the reasons why empathy and compassion are still contested by scientists working in moral psychology as being relevant for the truly moral life. It also draws on fascinating work by archaeologists that shows reasonable evidence for the existence of deep compassion far back in the evolutionary record of early hominins, even prior to the appearance of Homo sapiens. The long-term care of those with severe disabilities is remarkable and indicates the importance of empathy and compassion deep in history. This is not so much a romanticized view of the past, since violence as well as cooperation existed side by side, but an attempt to show that the rising wave of anti-empathy advocates have missed the mark. Compassion is the fruit of cooperative tendencies. Primatologist Frans de Waal has also undertaken important work on empathy operative in the social lives of alloprimates. The Thomistic concept of compassion in the framework of his approach to the virtues in the moral life is also discussed.

Reflections on Writing a History of Women Teachers

1997 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 635-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Weiler
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Women Teachers ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Feminist History ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

In this article, Kathleen Weiler reflects on the historiography of Country Schoolwomen, her recent study of women teachers in rural California. Using a broad definition of feminist research, Weiler summarizes some of the most salient issues currently under debate among feminist scholars. She raises questions about the nature of knowledge, the influence of language in the social construction of gender, and the importance of an awareness of subjectivity in the production of historical evidence. Using several cases from Country Schoolwomen, Weiler discusses the importance of considering the conditions under which testimony is given, both in terms of the dominant issues of the day — for example, the way womanliness or teaching is presented in the authoritative discourse — and the relationship between speaker and audience. She concludes that a feminist history that begins with a concern with the constructed quality of evidence moves uneasily between historical narrative and a self-conscious analysis of texts.

The cultural construction of Italy in Albania and vice versa: migration dynamics, strategies of resistance and politics of mutual self-definition across colonialism and post-colonialism

Modern Italy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Mai
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Projective Identification ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Parallel Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Environments ◽  
Migration Dynamics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

SummaryThis article analyses the shifting ways in which Italy has been strategically represented in Albania during the different key passages of the latter's relatively recent history as a sovereign independent state. As a parallel narrative, the article also examines the way Albania has been equally strategically represented in Italy before and during the two periods in which Italy has been militarily involved in Albania, and the way this has been consistent with an attempt to elaborate and sustain a politically strategic definition of Italian identity and culture. The history of the asymmetrical relationship between Albania and Italy is deeply embedded in the social, cultural and political environments that are on the two shores of the Adriatic Sea. The cultural construction of Albania in Italy and vice versa of Italy in Albania should be linked to seemingly independent instances of domestic reforms. The dynamics of projective identification or dis-identification stemming from these instances should be seen as intertwined within two parallel processes of mutual definition encompassing both the colonial and the postcolonial relations between and within the two countries.

Pensée 3: The Modernity of the Arabs

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Halliday
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Normative Claim ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Political Force ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

The study of Arab nationalism, and indeed of all nationalisms, is beset with particular problems. One is the imprecision of the main concepts involved, starting with the definition of nation. Another is the confusion, inherent in the very word “nationalism,” between two quite different objects of study—nationalism as a movement, as a social and political force, and nationalism as an ideology. The first allows objective, historical analyses of how a particular movement arose and developed in such and such a country, of the social groups that supported and/or opposed it, and, not least, of how states have sought to define and utilize it. The second is an aspiration, an ideological and normative claim, one with a strong tendency to control public debate; it has an inherent tendency to distort the history of the supposed “nation.” The special claims nationalists make for their particular nation cause a third problem: although modern history has yielded hundreds of cases of nationalism, as movement and ideology, nationalism occasions analysis that is singular, treating the nation in question as unique and avoiding comparison.

Letters to the Editor as a Means of Measuring the Effectiveness of Propaganda

1937 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Schuyler Foster ◽  
Carl J. Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
Research Council ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organized Activities ◽  
World War ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Definition Of

In spite of the enormous literature on propaganda recently surveyed by a committee of the Social Science Research Council, there has not as yet emerged a generally accepted definition of propaganda. Consequently, any discussion in this field requires at the outset some statement or general indication of what one is dealing with, in order to reduce misunderstanding. As political scientists, we are taking a strictly pragmatic view of propaganda, as completely removed as possible from the area of psychological controversies. We have, for the purposes of our studies, considered only such propaganda as is manifested in the organized activities involved in efforts to get people to take a particular step, such as to vote for Roosevelt, or to abstain from objecting to a particular step, such as the United States’ entry into the World War. These efforts, when promotional, may be denominated “a propaganda campaign.” Such a campaign proceeds by the organized dissemination of propaganda appeals. But these same appeals can, and do, operate without any organized promotion; and still they tend to influence those whom they reach. Many different kinds of individuals carry these appeals—teachers, writers, gossips, etc. From the viewpoint of propaganda analysis, they may be called “propagandizers.” In the course of a typical campaign, there appear propagandizers who indulge in various activities which are significant in spite of their unorganized nature. Different is the propagandist who participates in a propaganda campaign.

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