Language, social nature of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry C. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Social Setting ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Essential Contribution ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Learning Language

Language is mostly used in a social setting. We use it to communicate with others. We depend on others when learning language, and we constantly borrow one another’s uses of expression. Language helps us perform various social functions, and many of its uses have become institutionalized. But none of these reflections settle the question of whether language is an essentially social phenomenon. To address this we must consider the nature of language itself, and then ask which social elements, if any, make an essential contribution to its nature. While many would accept that language is an activity that must take place in a social setting, others have gone further by arguing that language is a social practice. This view commits one to the claim that the meanings of an individual’s words are the meanings they have in the common language. The former view need not accept so strong a claim: meaning depends on social interaction because it is a matter of what one can communicate to others but this does not require the existence of communal languages. A competing conception which rejects the social character of language in either of these versions is the thesis that language is mentally represented in the mind of an individual.

scholarly journals Deep-Down Time: Political Tradition in Central Africa

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 341-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Vansina
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Common View ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact

Around 1850 the peoples of central Africa from Duala to the Kunene River and from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes shared a common view of the universe and a common political ideology. This included assumptions about roles, statuses, symbols, values, and indeed the very notion of legitimate authority. Among the plethora of symbols connected with these views were the leopard or the lion, the sun, the anvil, and the drum, symbolizing respectively the leader as predator, protector, forger of society, and the voice of all. Obviously, in each case the common political ideology was expressed in slightly different views, reflecting the impact of differential historical processes on different peoples. But the common core persisted. The gigantic extent of this phenomenon, encompassing an area equal to two-thirds of the continental United States, baffles the mind. How did it come about? Such a common tradition certainly did not arise independently in each of the hundreds of political communities that existed then. However absorbent and stable this mental political constellation was, it must have taken shape over a profound time depth. How and as a result of what did this happen? Is it even possible to answer such queries in a part of the world that did not generate written records until a few centuries ago or less?This paper addresses this question: how can one trace the social construction of such a common constellation over great time depths and over great regional scale? All the peoples involved are agriculturalists and the political repertory with which we are concerned could not easily exist in its known form outside sedentary societies.

Multilingualism in Metropolitan London

English Today ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinier Salverda
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
University College London ◽  
The Common

A description and discussion of the vast linguistic diversity in the capital of the United Kingdom.LONDON today is an enormous Tower of Babel, where in addition to the common language, English, many other languages are spoken. On Tuesday 13 March 2001, as part of the Lunch Hour Lecture Series at University College London, Professor Reinier Salverda discussed the linguistic diversity of contemporary London, presenting recent data on the other languages spoken there, as well as focussing on the social aspects of this linguistic diversity, in particular issues of language policy and language management. The following is a slightly adapted version of that presentation.

Studying dementia: the relevance of the fourth age

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Gilleard ◽  
Paul Higgs
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fellow Citizen ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Cultural Imaginary ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Person With Dementia

Purpose – To better understand the social nature of dementia, it is important to understand its cultural significance and the role that it plays in re-articulating later life. In this new terrain of ageing it may be worth exploring how the idea of the fourth age can help us better understand the nature of dementia and the way in which its cultural role affects both social and health policies. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Gilleard and Higgs (2010) argue that the fourth age now serves as a “cultural imaginary” of the deepest and darkest aspects of old age and that dementia figures prominently in fashioning it. Findings – The scope for exploring dementia as a component of the cultural imaginary of the fourth age has already been demonstrated through the small but growing number of studies that have explored the fear of dementia. Originality/value – An avenue for further exploration is the distinction between a fear of losing one's mind (as in the pre-modern meaning of dementia) and the fear of losing one's place (as in the loss of status associated with dependency). Arguably the former exercises a greater influence than the latter, and raises the question of distinguishing between narratives and practices that sustain the mind of the person with dementia and those that sustain the position of the person with dementia as fellow citizen or fellow countryman or woman.

The Origins of “Social Justice” in the Natural Law Philosophy of Antonio Rosmini

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Kraynak
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
The Common

Abstract“Social justice” is a powerful idea today, but its origins and meaning are unclear. One of the first to use the term was Antonio Rosmini, author of The Constitution under Social Justice (1848) and other works of moral philosophy. I argue that Rosmini arrived at his idea of social justice by developing Thomistic natural law theory into a novel view of the common good that balances two principles: (1) the equal rights and dignity of persons as ends-in-themselves, a version of “personalism” influenced by Kant and Christianity; and (2) unequal rewards for those who contribute most to society, a version of Aristotelian “proportionalism” based on the social nature of man. I conclude by comparing Rosmini's idea of social justice to John Rawls's “theory of justice” and Catholic social teaching.

Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael James Winkelman
Keyword(s):  
Social Bonding ◽  
Emotional Communication ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
The Common

The worldwide development of raves and similar collective rituals characterized by all night communal rituals involving dance, drumming, music, and often the use of psychedelic substances can be understood as a modern manifestation of the same biological principles underlying shamanism. The shamanic ritual was a nighttime ceremony which engaged all of the community in a powerful interaction with the spirit world as the shaman beat drums or rattled while singing, chanting and dancing. The common underlying biogenetic structures of shamanism and raves involve: the social functions of ritual; the effects of dance and music as systems for social bonding and emotional communication; and the effects on consciousness that produce alterations of emotions, identity and consciousness and personal healing.

Human Digital Immortality

2017 ◽  
pp. 266-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florin Popescu ◽  
Cezar Scarlat
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Super Computer ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Feeling ◽  
Modern Technologies

More or less primitive homo sapiens have always secretly dreamt about, or plainly believed in immortality. All cultures had and still have beliefs, traditions, rituals, legends, old stories, and fairy tales about immortality. Unfortunately, as science and technology progressed, human immortality is a remote ideal yet. In addition, as technology development speeds up, it challenges the social nature of humankind; a possible result is people alienation. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a new prospective: opposed to the common feeling that technology alienates people – in their most intimate nature – the authors believe that modern technologies and human nature (defined by its innermost dream of immortality) converge. The ancient human dream of eternal life can be achieved through technology: i.e. human digital immortality. A day will come when the entire technical capabilities will allow personalities to be copied into a computer. Thus immortality could be provided in a virtualized form, heaven being replaced with a super computer.

John Dewey’s Debt to William James

2018 ◽  
pp. 614-628
Author(s):  
James Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
William James ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pragmatic Account ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the relationship of William James (1842–1910) and John Dewey (1859–1952). In particular, it attempts to tease out the ways in which Dewey’s thought drew upon ideas presented earlier by James. Among the Jamesian themes that appear in Dewey’s work are Dewey’s melioristic, pragmatic account of social practice; his emphasis upon the importance of habits in organized human life; his presentation of the role of philosophy as a means of improving daily life; his recognition of the social nature of the self; and his call for a rejection of religious traditions and institutions in favor of an emphasis upon religious experience. Clarifying Dewey’s relationship with James should in no way lessen the value of Dewey’s thought. Rather, it makes clearer the continuities that existed between these two pragmatic thinkers.

scholarly journals THE BRAZILIAN ‘JEITINHO’ IN THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING OF PORTUGUESE FOR FOREIGNERS: BEYOND THE COMMON PLACE

Diacrítica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Thais De Freitas Mondini Belletti
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common

The concept of ‘jeitinho’ is present in a series of discourses that express a set of values that Brazilians perceive as their own. Thus, a foreigner in the process of learning Portuguese FL/2L will eventually come into contact with this style of Brazilian social practice. The concept of ‘jeitinho’, however, shows different forms of representation in discourse. Our aim with this work is to approach such concept from a more accurate analysis that moves away from a simplistic discourse, which associates the jeitinho to the image of a Brazilian who seeks to take advantage of everything. In this process, we reviewed the literature that approaches this concept based on analyzes from the Social Sciences, with emphasis on the studies of Barbosa (2006) and Borges (2006). As a possible material to be inserted in a context of teaching Portuguese for foreigners, we chose the reading and analysis of the Brazilian literary chronicle “Dar um jeitinho”. The analysis of chronicles was carried out from the perspective of discursive semiotics, aiming to search for meanings that are related to the concept of jeitinho.

scholarly journals The Principle of Subsidiarity: Lessons from the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church

2018 ◽  
pp. 42-48
Author(s):  
Sergiy   Prysukhin
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Proper Functions ◽  
The Catholic Church

The article by S. Prysukhin “The Principle of Subsidiarity: Lessons from the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church” analyzes the achievements of the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church, represented by the works of Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII, John Paul II, revealing the meaningful characteristics of the concept of “the principle of subsidiarity”, its role and meaning in the system of Christian values. The principle of subsidiarity makes possible such relationships in social life, when the community of higher order does not interfere in the internal life of the community of the lower order, taking over the proper functions of that function; for the common good it gives it when necessary support and assistance, thereby coordinating its interaction with other social structures. The principle of subsidiarity guides social practice to the promotion of the common good in the human community. The spread and application of the principle of subsidiarity opposes the danger of "nationalization" of society and the most terrible manifestations of collectivism, restricts the absoluteization of power, bureaucratization of state and socio-cultural structures, becoming one of the guarantors of respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens of their country.

scholarly journals Pilgrimage as a New Way to Define and Characterize the Sainthood

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Anwar Masduki
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Economic View ◽  
Lay People ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Perspective ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama ◽  
The Common

Pilgrimage (Ziarah) is one of the common activities done by Indonesian Moslems especially in the tradition of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Indonesian Muslim organization in Indonesia. There are many popular pilgrimage destinations in Indonesia specifically in Java such as graves of Walisongo, Kiai, Moslem leaders and many other well-respected persons who have been considered as giving great contributions towards the spread of Islam and its teaching in Indonesia. One of those very well respected persons is Abdurrahman Wahid, commonly known as Gus Dur, the fourth President of the Indonesian Republic from 1999 to 2001 who Passed away in Jakarta on December 30, 2009. His grave has become one of the most favorite and most visited pilgrimage destinations in Indonesia. This article examines the phenomena happened in Tebuireng since the end of 2009, after the death and funeral of Gus Dur. By using Giddens’s social practice perspective, this article found that the recent pilgrimage in Tebuireng has altered and influenced the social life there. This social practice itself involves two basic elements of Giddens’s theory namely; actor and structure to form its social reality. This article highlights the intersection actions between actor and structure and shows how those actions mark a new way the people define and characterize one’s sainthood. The result of research suggests that the pilgrimage phenomena in Tebuireng involve many actors, from lay people to government, from the economic view to religious reason. Those actors have actively engaged in the practice and new consciousness of pilgrimage (as a structure), as a door to recognize someone as Wali.  Keywords:Pilgrimage, Social practice, Sainthood

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