Search

An essay is presented on the revision of moral philosophy by professor Edith Wyschogrod. It discusses the decisive turn took by Wyschogrod from moral theory to hagiography and from abstract analysis and debate to concrete life stories. It highlights the negative turn of Wyschogrod which is a statement of moral theory. It explores Wyschogrod recognizing the connection between saintliness and religion that is not caught by her definition.

Chapter 9 of the book "The Rise of the Global Left: World Social Forum & Beyond" is presented. It investigates the effect of the World Social Forum (WSF) on leftist thinking and practice. It attempts to identify some of the problems of the leftist thought as showcased in the WSF and the possible solutions to these problems. It offers an overview of the relationship between theory and practice.

This article presents introduction to the book "Advancing Family Theories." The title of this book, contains a quite intentional double entendre or complex metaphor. On the one hand, this book intends to advance family theory, to push it ahead of where it is today. On the other hand, Advancing Family Theories also means placing before the reader a product the author is advancing or promulgating. The second section of this book does exactly that. Two relatively new theories are advanced: rational choice theory and transition theory, both of which deal extensively with families. The author regards these two theories as exceptionally promising for family research and understanding. Finally, Advancing Family Theories does not entail certain things. In the third and last section of this book, the author examines moral decisions and metatheory as two elements that are not directly tied to theoretical advancement. In the case of morality and ethics, he argues that one should not expect theories of families to tell one how to act morally or ethically. That is clearly the venue of moral philosophy or religion but not of family theory.

The article makes an assessment of theories as tools for studying families. The article states that a definition of theory had been introduced, and discussions entailed on why theories about families were needed, rather than theories about the more generic social group. There was scant emphasis on creativity and insight. Indeed, this mechanistic view led some researchers to even claim that mathematical models such as structural equation modeling could produce theory. Not only were such claims unjustified, but they were potentially damaging in that some of that generation were led to conclude that theory is nothing more than rampant empirical inductionism aided by a mathematical model. The general premise about science and scientific theory has also addressed in the article. Furthermore, the quest continues to unravel some assumptions of history and philosophy of science that have so bound thinking about theory. Some of this unraveling is simply accomplished by making important distinctions such as context of discovery and context of justification. Such distinctions help gain some organization and classification of arguments.

The article presents an assessment of the relation between theory and human values. Contextualism and relativism in theory, as found in many postmodern statements, is often though not exclusively associated with the call for researchers to put their values into science. Broadly conceived, the context of discovery concerns the production of propositions and the context of justification concerns the testing of propositions. A natural place to begin the discussion about values is first with the notion of values and second with a discussion of the critical values that propel scientific theory. When one talks about values it is important to realize that there is focus on the sliding scale of valuation of objects, ideas, and beliefs. How valuable these ideas and beliefs are to people may be a function of situation, world view, religion, or any number of other variables. It might be easier to understand the relation of values to theory by turning the preceding discussion around. Ultimately, people favor theory because generalizations and coherence and explanation are valued.

The article presents an assessment of the relation between empirical research and theory. Many empirical researchers might argue that the use of commonsense hypotheses and popular psychology produces sufficient accounts to help people better their lives and to direct policymakers. But from the perspective of nomothetic science, the problem is that generalizing from measures or even concepts and hypotheses still lacks the more complete picture that theory affords. If the principal purpose that theory serves is to produce knowledge, then the principal purpose of scientific theory is to produce tentatively held knowledge. The history of science is like a plain littered with the bones of incorrect and partial theories that were accepted at some point in time. Indeed, this fate awaits most if not all scientific theories. So all scientific theories must assume the probability that rejection, disuse, or modification will be their fate. In this sense, theory is as much process as product. The processes of theory building and modification are the way people advance theory and knowledge.

This article focuses on the product and process related to the Understanding theory. This book is intended for graduate students and scholars of the family. It necessarily assumes a certain degree of background in family theory and even more so in philosophy and history of science. There are two dominant approaches in philosophy of science. One approach is to cover the schools of thought. job with this sort of approach in their recent book. Such approaches usually cover schools such as positivism, empiricism, phenomenology, and so on. Although this approach has its merits, it is not the approach the author takes in the next section. The reason for this is that although such approaches educate the student, they seldom confront the issues except as they are constituted by each school of thought or even ignored by some schools. The second approach is to examine issues. Typical issues would be the issue of realism versus subjectivism, the issue of nomothetic versus ideographic knowledge, and soon. The author is more in favor of such approaches because the reader can readily see the various positions on any given issue. This approach usually faces the problem of biasing the perspectives with the view- point of the author.

Chapter 1 of the book "Heidegger, Hölderlin, and the Subject of Poetic Language: Toward a New Poetics of Dasein," is presented. It discusses Martin Heidegger's phenomenological and ontological understanding of poetic subjectivity and theory. It also argues that Heidegger's poetics, especially its Hölderlinian elements, can only be articulated within the context of a consideration of his theory of "Being" in its broader development.

This section discusses the issue of how a social realist metatheory may be applied. The argument posited by the author is that to apply a social realist metatheory, one needs to develop a domain-specific metatheory. A domain-specific metatheory is constructed by developing an immanent critique of existing paradigms that deal with a particular research area. In this case the research area is that of chronic unemployment. The author describes various sociological approaches to the issue of chronic unemployment, together with politically driven ideological arguments about a deviant underclass, which sociological research into chronic unemployment ought to dispel. The sociological approaches will be subject to an immanent critique to see to what extent the terms of reference used can help us understand the issue of chronic unemployment and from this immanent critique a general theory will be constructed to overcome the conceptual problems, by drawing upon the general social realist metatheory. There could be no direct application of the general metatheory, it will be argued, because this would result in circularity.

This section argues that the realist anti-foundationalism may be complemented by a social realist meta-theory that resolves the structure-agency problem. This will entail arguing for the ontological positions developed by Roy Bhaskar and M. Archer. Social realism, it will be argued, is developed via an immanent critique of alternative accounts of being. This immanent critique started with Bhaskar's critique of empirical realism in the philosophy of natural science and the critique of individualism, collectivism and what Bhaskar calls the dialectical position with regard to social ontology. Bhaskar's ontology was fairly schematic though and Archer elaborated this into a more nuanced ontology, emphasizing the role of emergent properties and the activity-dependence of structures in the past tense. Rather than discuss how this social realist metatheoretical ontology may inform methodology and thus act as a positive under laborer, the author will move from exegesis to consider some Wittgensteinian and Marxist criticisms of social realism. Such critiques of social realism hold that this is basically a form of essentialism, positing the idea that some universal essences can explain all human behavior.

This section discusses post-Wittgensteinian pragmatism, the philosophy of Richard Rorty, anti-representationalism and politics. Rorty would not accept the view that philosophy can explain how knowledge is possible or how truth may be attained. Nor would he accept the notion of using an ontology as a meta-theory that could guide empirical research and the formation of specific theories. The reason for this is that he rejects the notion of positive underlaboring. According to him, philosophy and meta-theory would be misguided attempts to step outside socio-historically situated perspectives to try and gain some view from nowhere, in order to indulge in methodolatry, that could give a guaranteed access to the truth. Rorty does embrace a negative underlaborer function for philosophy, though, which means he wants to reject such realistic attempts to represent reality, in order to deflate the pretensions of philosophy, so that philosophers may stop seeing themselves as privileged guides to the truth and start seeing themselves as people who may enrich us by developing new perspectives within the language game humans are situated in. His post-Wittgensteinian position unfolds into the relativist and foundationalist philosophical logics of immediacy.

The article offers information on the philosophical work and thought by poet Friedrich Hölderlin, which is claimed to be less appreciated. Topics discussed include the novel "Hyperion" by Hölderlin and its influence to philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the life, work, and ideas by Hölderlin including his odes and hymns, and his theory of tragedy reflecting on his work "Empedocles."

Peter Dudley noted that a persistent criticism of praxiology has been its separation from concerns which are external to it yet relevant to the assessment of the overall results of inquiry. Praxiology is defined as the general theory of efficient action and as such appeared to Dudley as a pure study of practical methodology. At the core of the intellectual revolution engineered by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Peirce, William James and their comembers of the Metaphysical Club in the 1870s was the notion that thinking is a social endeavor, a process of problem-solving that is ultimately tested by its consequences.

The application of ethics to the business context often takes one of two approaches. One approach emphasizes studying cases without any extensive theoretical background while the other emphasizes the application of abstract ethical theories embodying universal principles to specific cases. Part of the problem of making ethical decision making relevant for the business community may be that there is perhaps an implicit, unexpressed, but nonetheless pervasive and commonsense perception by practitioners. Our concrete decision making is influenced by all sorts of conflicting guidelines, and such decision making cannot be simplified to accord with any single one of them.

References of Charles S. Peirce to the business world are very few, always negative in tone. Good fortune eluded Peirce in his personal life, in his personal career and in business. When Peirce refers to action, it is in order to use it as an example of the category of secondness, Peirce considers all of the reality to be composed of three irreducible elements, namely, the categories of firstness, secondness and thirdness. Discussion on the relation between theory and practice in Peirce remains open among students of his thought.

The article reports on the implications of postmodern social theory for metatheorizing in sociology. Postmodern theory offers an array of tools and perspectives in doing metatheoretical work. There is much more of relevance within postmodern social theory and there are great differences among postmodern theorists that are worth exploring from a metatheoretical point of view. Furthermore, there are many more general and specific implications for metatheorizing than the relatively small number that have been explored. However, it is clear that postmodern social theory has a wide range of important implications for metatheorists. Postmodern theory could be read as suggesting the abandonment of metatheoretical work. This encourages metatheorists to see to it that the dismantling of a text in the practice of deconstruction leads to novel translations of that text. In other words, it contributes to the poststructuralist view of the reading of texts as a process in which readers actively construct meanings rather than simply discover an intended meaning in a text.

The article reports on the delineation of architectonics in sociological theory. The sociological architectonic referred in the article consists of six basic components. It begins with a set of fundamental assumptions about the nature of human beings and their thoughts and actions. The architectonic discussed in the article is based on a philosophical anthropology of people who think, act, interact and create. Other architectonics may not operate, explicitly or implicitly, with a philosophical anthropology. The architectonic referred in the article emphasizes institutionalization, the process by which large-scale structures and institutions emerge out of microprobes. Other architectonics may not accept the existence of macro-level phenomena, may reject the idea that larger structures and institutions emerge out of these microprocesses, or may begin at the structural and institutional levels without linking them to the micro levels. Owing to these reasons other articles differ from the delineated architectonic that is referred in the article.

The article reports on metatheorizing, which is the systematic study of sociological theory, as an independent and significant endeavor. A wide variety of work can be included under the heading of sociological metatheorizing. The first type includes metatheorizing as a means of attaining a deeper understanding of theory. It involves the study of theory in order to produce a better, a more profound understanding of extant theory. The second type includes metatheorizing as a prelude to theory development, which entails the study of extant theory in order to produce new sociological theory. The third type includes metatheorizing as a source of overarching theoretical perspectives, which is oriented to the goal of producing a perspective. Metatheorizing is intimately related to several extant sub-fields within sociology. For example, it has much in common with the sociology of science. However, the sociology of science is clearly more general than the sociological study of sociological theory as a specific scientific endeavor.

This article focuses on metatheorizing in sociology. Metatheorizing is a common practice in the field of sociology. While sociological theorizing attempts to make sense of the social world, metatheorizing in sociology attempts to make sense of sociological theorizing. Theorizing the practice of theorizing also takes place in other academic fields, but it has been particularly prevalent in sociology. The second order study, or metastudy, is thus the study of the study, which transcends as well as succeeds the first order study. The transcendental nature of metastudy entails a high level of reflexivity embodied in the critical self-examination by those engaged in the first order studies. The practice of metatheorizing has encountered several sharp criticisms in sociology. A major objection to metatheorizing is that metatheory makes no substantive contributions to the understanding of the real world because it mostly consists of commentaries on works of the past rather than constructions that are creative in their own right.

The article presents various sociological perspectives. The discipline of sociology is the systematic, sceptical study of human society. The task of sociology is that people should be enabled to grasp the relations between themselves and the way in which their society operates. In more recent years, the idea of society as a unitary phenomenon has been severely criticized. Pluralist approaches present society as a mosaic of competing worlds. The relationship between social work and sociology has been a changing one, reflecting broader debates about the nature of knowledge and the understanding of theory and practice within both subjects. The relationship between social work and sociology has remained a live and contested issue for social work. Sociological voices have remained on the edge of mainstream social work theory and knowledge, struggling to be heard above the predominantly individual, psychological and correctional discourses in social work. Sociological insights may be useful at an institutional and organization level, as well as at the level of knowledge creation. More recent sociological approaches that reflect critical ideas have attempted to blend structural and interpretive theories to bring about a better understanding of the relationship between the individual and society.

A section from chapter 8 of the book "The Columbia History of Western Philosophy," edited by Richard H. Popkin is presented. It focuses on the theory of direct-reference. It notes that one of the most creative extensions of the said theory is so-called natural-kind terms, those that refer to species or substances found in nature as opposed to artifacts that are made by men. It cites that even if the direct reference theory has difficulties in its treatment of natural-kind terms, it is more authentic with respect to proper names.

The article argues that communities can and ought to have certain fundamental rights analogous to those being claimed for individuals but that, those rights and what it takes to be the fundamental rights of individuals are independent. In the history of the theory and practice of rights, social entities have long been held to have rights. Even philosophers who assert that groups or other collectivities can have rights over and above those of their members talk almost exclusively about individual rights or develop their theories in terms of considerations relevant to individuals.

The article discusses the impoverishment of economic theory due to the abandonment of its roots in moral philosophy. The most prominent models of the theory of the firm are primarily concerned with issues of efficiency and effectiveness in reaching predetermined goals. The most common such goal is the maximization of shareowner wealth. There are some problems with the understanding of the nexus between economics and ethics. First, the invisible hand arguments on which economics relies have some sort of goal or good in mind. Another problem with the teleological account is that it is fundamentally flawed as a utilitarian theory. Furthermore, it is suggested in this article that praxiology will be better served by adding ethics to its traditions of efficiency and effectiveness.

The article traces the roots of recent audience studies in fields as diverse as literary criticism, philosophy of language, and social theory. The rise of reception analysis is characterized in the context of other forms of audience research, and some preliminary findings regarding specific decodings, of particular genres of communication and by particular audience groups, are reported. The history of reception analysis is, indeed, short, but turbulent because of its profound theoretical and political implications. The reconstructions of audience studies imply a new perspective on the social and discursive aspects of communication theory. The common denominator for the dual social and discursive perspective on communication, then, becomes the social production of meaning. In the end, politicians, programmers, and probably the public will want to know whether and how the mass media do have effects. Reception analysis, in accounting for the conditions and processes of meaning production, may offer part of the answer. In response to a recent trend in research which exults, echoing a postmodernist position, that media discourses are open or polysemic and may be opposed by audiences who thus become powerful cultural agents.

The chapter focuses on the use of theory in supervision to enhance clinical social work. The selection of data to act upon is related to the theory in which people have been trained or to which they follow. Theory is defined as the explanation of the interrelatedness of concepts. Theoretical constructs are usually used in supervision rather than empirical concepts. The meanings of several terms that are often confused with theory are cited, such as techniques and philosophy of practice. Different skills are required in learning a theory and learning to apply a theory.

Discusses the paradigm and prospects for a general theory of negotiation. Recollection of some features of the literature on negotiation; Definition of negotiation; Key terms of the paradigm.

Provides information on theories in behavioral science. Description and types of a theory; Functions of theories; Realist conception of scientific theory.

Describes normative and empirical theories in the context of social science inquiry. Example of conflict concerning the discourse on social science theory; Factors that contribute to ambiguities in the application of social science to society; Definition and analysis of normative theory grounded in empirical descriptive theory.

Focuses on the explanation and delimitation of a scientific field in social science inquiry. Discussion on orderly phenomena; Details of the explanatory theory; Arguments for a theoretically delimited approach; Importance of theories.

Discusses various concepts related to social science inquiry. Accomplishments of social scientists in the areas of axiomatic and mathematical theories; Value of models and mathematical models in social science; Explanation on the metaphors of the meteorological, game, machine, and organism.

Discusses various concepts relating to social science inquiry. Discussion on science as the study of relationships; Definition of descriptive laws and relational laws in empirical propositions; Solutions to the problem of the unit for inquiry; Issues surrounding the permanence of laws; Relationship between law and theory.

Discusses important facts, concepts, theories and problems in sociological research. Information on the accumulation of social facts in twentieth-century industrial society; Establishment of the role of theory in sociological research; Types of work conflated under the term theory suggested by sociologist Robert Merton; Several functions of concepts in sociology; Discussion on the stages of concept formation; Distinction between policy problems, problems in social philosophy, and problems intrinsic to developing scientific disciplines.

Discusses the views of sociologist Robert K. Merton on the relation between theory and research in the context of sociology. Role of sociological theory in empirical research; Ways of understanding sociological theory; Influence of empirical research on sociological theory.

The article offers the authors' insights on theory and practice of axiology. The authors mentions the importance of value philosophy and its antiquate property. The authors also discuss the significance of aesthetics' fundamental insights for the axiometric determination of intrinsic value and the lack of science for the said value.

Provides information on the circular relationship between theory and empirical research from the perspective of sociologist Robert K. Merton. Characteristics of Merton's work; Examination of the Mertonian model of the circulatory between theory and empirical research; Implication of the Mertonian methodological approach.

The article focuses on the ethics, ideology and metatheory of the social sciences. This article goes beyond what is normally regarded as scientific theory and moves into a discussion of research, ideology, ethics, and metatheory. The rationale for this venture beyond substantive theory is to clarify the differences between these four and develop an understanding of some of the major issues as they pertain to family theory. Among the critical issues facing family theory is its notable absence from much of the empirical research published in the major academic journals. It concludes by identifying three dimensions that may be used to organize a metatheoretical classification of family theory. Such metatheory can assist both researchers and theorists to identify significant areas for research and theoretical development. Chapter 9 of this section examines some of the differences among scientific theory, ideology, and ethics. Indeed, it is often confusing where theory ends and ideology begins, and this chapter is intended to clarify this distinction. At the same time, the difference between ideology with its identification of a prescriptive course of action and ethics also needs to be examined.

The article presents statistics related to the social work practice with families. Families are distinctive, unique formations which carry very different meanings for individual family members and which undoubtedly change over time. Families are not inevitably either positive or negative. The conjugal family continues to have widespread appeal: people today still marry and remarry in great numbers, whether by personal choice or through a system of 'arranged' marriage. Experience of family life is mediated by structures and institutions in society, by race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, social class, by the law, the education system and social policies, by dominant ideologies which are inherently conservative in orientation, as well as being sexist, racist, heterosexist and ageist. There has been an increasing unwillingness, particularly on the part of women, to accept the negative consequences of nuclear family life.

The article focuses on social work theory and its practice with families. The social work task with families demonstrates its functionalist underpinnings. In functionalist terms, social work aims to socialize and if necessary, reeducate families into the norms and values of society. They may be 'problem families' or they may be families whose members have already experienced family breakdown. Some have focused their attention on social work theory, challenging traditional ideas and introducing in their place new feminist and anti-oppressive analysis. Feminist social workers and pro-feminist men in social work today are making a significant contribution to the development of theory and practice with men, women and children, seeking to build alliances with women and challenge conventional social work ideas about 'confidentiality' and 'professional expertise'. The social work response to families must therefore reflect an understanding of wider sociological issues.

A subject index for the book "Introducing Baudrillard" is presented.

The article focuses on the philosophy of theorist Jean Baudrillard concerning fatal strategies. According to Baudrillard, theory does not function on reality as it is impossible to depict the zig-zagging line of reality. Baudrillard also notes that the object such as events, society and information tends to take revenge against all attempts to make it into a real subject of technology, science and rationalism. It is stressed that fatal strategies are not just resistance to power or meaning but the evil genius of the object.

The article offers information on the authors of the book "Introducing Descartes" namely Dave Robinson and Chris Garratt. It states that Dave Robinson is a philosophy professor and he wrote and illustrated the book about postmodernist literary theory entitled "Leading Questions." It notes that Chris Garratt is an illustrator and his works include the BIFF cartoon strip in "The Guardian," "Introducing Ethics," and "Introducing Postmodernism and Keynes for Beginners."

The article focuses on the concept of anomaly from the point of view of the late theorist Jean Baudrillard. Anomaly is defined as a loss of faith in the norm and its proliferation in mutation. Baudrillard cites obesity as an example of anomaly and he defines it as the disappearance of the body and its strategic replacement. He notes that the obese absorb sex, thus, putting an end to it.