The Foundation staff has grown sick of the new wave of pompous intellectuals who define our ethical standards, categorize our level of political awareness, and patronize us with a lexicon of academic lingo created just to make us feel dumber then we all ready are. With a few a notable exceptions, academics on the whole are not smarter than you -- they just talk like they are.
After reading some incoherent Continental Philosophy or some even more esoteric PostModern psycho-babble, we often wonder if they’re even trying to correspond with the reader on the same level. PostModernism was conceived to liberate the masses from the hegemony of the dominant ideology, not to speak in an intellectual slang that merely dismantles one ideology, merely to replace it with another. Ironically, much of PostModernist and Continental texts have illuminated some really important issues concerning liberation from corporate culture, and the manner in which the government powers can manipulate signs and images through the media.
The very root of cultural studies is grounded in the notion of ‘power to the people.’ So what’s up with writing in verbal hieroglyphics? We don’t know. But we can offer you this nifty little, or not so little, glossary that will help decipher the ‘codes’ and ‘signs’ of PostModernist dialect.
Aesthetics:
Greek aisthesis = sensation. In Philosophy, the ideas about beauty in nature and in cultural products. Pre-modern and modern sensibility argue there are absolute standards for determining that which is beautiful, superb and excellent. Postmodernists hold that such definitions are a matter of power and convention. In some cultures, heavy women are considered beautiful; in other cultures, slim women are so considered.
Act, Philosophy of:
One of the more important issues in all of social philosophy centers around the question, 'To what degree are humans the passive object of history and/or acting subjects which can plan and fulfill their own destiny. The structuralist answer, in its more deterministic claims, is that single human beings are the object [not subject] of social forces. The Interactionist view, in its most reductionist moments, argues that each individual is the object and agent of its own destiny. If a person is rich or poor, it is due to their own merits or failings.
In philosophical terms, an act is only an act when there is insight and the conscious use of material goods to change outcomes. For example, McDonald's claims to sell the same Big Mac in every restaurant in the world and thus defeat both individual action and culture variety. Your assignment, if you care to take it, is to check it out; is Big Mac the same in England, Japan, Nicaragua or Vienna? Do McDonald's clerks do and say things to customers not scripted and rehearsed and sanctioned by supervisors?? If so, not even a corporation as large and as powerful as McDonald's can defeat human action. See alienation, the 'I,' Praxis.
Advertising:
A 200 billion dollar industry (1996) in which market demand is created for products in order to realize profit. Products which are essentially similar to others of the same kind are endowed with special symbolic meaning [sexuality, power, magic, or status] in order to increase demand and thus expand a market enough to absorb all that is/can be produced. In capitalism, markets are made small since workers are not paid 100% of the value of the goods they produce--hence cannot buy back 100% of the product. The too, capitalism disemploys ever more people and the market shrinks more. Then too, the quest for profits lowers qualities; advertizing offers the dramaturgical facsimile of quality or necessity to those who buy time and talent on the mass media. Advertising is usually directed at those who have discretionary income; young, single working professionals (since they have relatively more discretionary income) or the housewife (who must make a choice between items produced under standardized conditions). A major problem generated by the advertising world is the preemption of artistic talent and information media for commercial purposes. A secondary problem is the use of sex, violence and sports to generate publics for products otherwise without special merit. See Realization, the problem of.
Agrippa:
3rd Century Greek philosopher who laid the basis for a postmodern philosophy of knowledge in five tropes [headings]. 1) There is no sure basis for deciding among different philosophical claims. 2) All data are relative to the beholder. 3) Every proof rests upon assumptions which in turn have to be proved ad infinitum. 4) One cannot trust the hypotheses when the truth value of its premises are unknown. 5) There is a vicious circle in which sense data are used to inform reason which, in turn, is used to establish what is to be taken as data.
Ahistoricism:
The term refers to a scientific trick by which a given social form is endowed with the appearance of being part of the eternal and natural order of things. For example, Weber's study of bureaucracy ignores the origins, the changes, the many variations produced by historical conditions. Similarly, Hegel and Simmel's ideas about Ideal Forms tends to destroy the changing, variable historical nature of social realities. All social issues are seen as purely technical questions since the basic form is seen as eternal and unchanging. Ahistorism tends to freeze analysis in the present and to reify the status quo. Bureaucracy, gender, class, racist and other social forms thereby cease to be a human products and begin to be a means of domination or structural force.
Alienation:
The domination of humans by their own products; material, political, and ideological. The separation of humans from their humanity; the interference with the production of authentic culture; the fragmentation of social bonds and community. Any process which reduces people to their animal nature. Liberal definitions of alienation have to do with feelings; socialist definitions have more to do with relations and positions in a social order. In Marx, a variety of terms are used to capture the flavor and variety implicit in the process of alienation: "Trennung" (divorce or separation), "Spaltung" (division or cleavage), "Absonderung" (separation or withdrawal), "Verderben" (spoiled, corrupt), "sich selbst verlieren" (lost to oneself), "auf sich zuruckziehen" (withdrawn into oneself), "ausserlich machen" (externalized), "alle Gattungsbande zerreissen" (ties with others disintegrated), "die Menschenwelt in eine Welt atomisticher Individuen auflosen" (humanity dissolved into fragmented individuals). Taken together these constructs constitute and create the meaning of the term "alienation" (Entausserung, Entfremung). (From Meszaros).
Algorithm:
The term used to mean any arithmetic operation using arabic notations. In Chaos theory, it refers to two or more numerical values, at least one of which is a constant and one of which is a variable. The feedback loop generated by multiplying a constant by a variable produces very complex patterns some of which cannot be predicted. This fact grounds a postmodern philosophy of science in which the quest for precision and order is decentered to be replaced by a quest for knowledge of the changing mix of order and disorder.
Anarchy:
Greek: a = without; archos = head, ruler. It has come to be used to condemn all efforts of impose order by a state as hopelessly oppressive. Lenin said that an anarchist is just a bourgeois turned inside out. There is a more benevolent view that social behavior should emerge through free and open interaction among responsible members of a society. Bakunin, Proudhon, Kropotkin are credited with these views on anarchy. In this view that all human interaction should be uncoerced by power relations. Anarchy assumes the possibility of full socialist consciousness in every adult member of a society. Bourgeois versions substitute elites for the state. Anarchy is often used as a pejorative word to refer to those who would dismantle the forms of privilege and hierarchy. Marx made the case that capitalism in its pure form is anarchy. Capitalists compete fiercely with each other; rules are set only to be broken as opportunity for profit comes along, they try to take markets from each other, they use the state apparatus in one country to exploit capitalists in another country, they neglect essential but low profit lines of production and they have no moral foundation other than profit. But see Capitalism, advantages of. See also corporate crime for forms of co-operation.
Anthropocentrism:
Greek: anthropos = human being; kentron = center. The practice of treating human species as if it were the center of all values and the measure of all things. Pre-modernists and most modernists take this position uncritically. Postmodernists point out that 99% of the species which have ever lived are now extinct; that one day human beings too will evolve into quite different species or self destruct themselves or their habitat
Archetype:
Greek: primal figures, patterns or forms. For Plato, archetypes were the original or true form of a thing of which real things were more or less close copies. Modern phenomenology is dependent upon this assumption. In modern psychology, Jung used the term to refer to basic ways of being human. He set down a whole list which reside in every human being and pre-shape behavior by their strength and interplay. Jung held that different cultures supported different archetypes and thus mental health depended upon adjusting society to permit a diversity of being.
Automation:
The practice of controlling machines with machines. The transformation from labor intensive production to capital intensive production. Up until 1960, most of the time automation replaced unskilled workers. Now automation threatens to replace lower level white collar workers. IBM, Xerox and other "word processor" are developing machines controlled by computers to process words. Secretaries, teachers, professors, postal workers, and others who use words become surplus to the corporate needs as "artificial intelligence" systems are designed. Automation in capitalist societies increases production and prices while eliminating wage workers. Without work, demand falls and the surplus population grows. Socialism and communism distribute on the basis of need and merit, therefore crisis is not necessary.
Behaviorism:
A term in psychology which holds that the proper study of behavior is actual behavior rather than mental tests, opinions, drives, needs, desires or other freudian or mentalist concepts. J. B. Watson and the Russian Pavlov are credited with this form of psychology. The sociology student should note that it eliminates socialization, roles, relationships, norms, interaction and human will from the study of behavior.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832):
Bentham is the founder of Utilitarianism which set pleasure [rather than salvation and spiritual purity] as the goal of life. Pleasure for each required the greatest good for the greatest number of persons. There are seven ways to measure pleasure; intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity and the number of persons to which it extends. Bentham is used widely to justify accumulation of private wealth and to locate the quest for happiness in the marketplace rather than church, academy, polity or family. (After WL Reese).
Bureaucracy:
French; bureau = writing desk and, later, drawer. It has come to mean any work requiring the keeping of files; later a form of social organization in which order, rationality and hierarchy are key elements. In more general terms, a way of organizing social life such that an elite can control the behavior of a large mass of people by means of a staff (or cadre). Lenin said that a bureaucracy was first a military [police] apparatus and then a judiciary apparatus; that it corrupts from above and below. It is also an apparatus which locates moral agency in the hands of a few. Marked by formal and uniform application of rules, bureaucracies are supposed to be "rational" instruments by which goals determined by an elite may be achieved. Bureaucratic organization typifies modern industrial corporations, military organizations and a managed society. See McDonaldization.
Capitalism:
A system which separates workers from any property rights in the means by which they produce culture by their labor. The system transforms the social means of subsistence into capital on the one hand and the immediate producers into wage laborers on the other hand. Most of the time, capitalism is defined as the private ownership of the means of production but that definition does not encompass the great harm done to humanity by the system. By claiming all (or most) of the means to produce culture as private property, a small class of owners preempts material culture to their own comfort while denying the vast majority the means to subsistence as well as the means to produce ideological culture when they are not working.
Caste:
A system of social differentiation and stratification in which one set of persons are defined as inferior or superior in some important respect. Life chances and life courses are determined at birth in societies organized by caste. Capitalism tends to replace caste systems with class systems
Chaos Theory:
A body of knowledge about the changing mix of order and disorder in natural and social systems. Modern, Newtonian science gives preference to order and stability; chaos theory tends to support the idea that some disorder is essential to all complex, adaptive systems and that change is continuous to the human experience. Chaos theory provides an elegant empirical support for both dialectic theory and for postmodern concern with variety, surprise, contrariety and difference.
In Chaos theory, really existing structures have a fractal and temporary geometry; there is a secession of dynamical states; with each bifurcation, more complex dynamics develop, causality is looser and prediction less possible. One should note that all living creatures and societies require some disorder to survive; innovation, creativity, flexibility and revolution are everyday words we use to make this point. Too much order and systems die; too much disorder and systems cannot be planned or trusted to behave as expected. See Science, Postmodern. See also Nonlinear, Fractal, and do compare with other ideas about Metaphysics.
Chronophone:
One who see time as linear and/or a natural construct apart from the conceptions and interests of human beings. Postmodernists tend to reject such a view. After Derrida.
Code:
In semiotics, all communication whether spoken, written, or behavioral is conveyed through a special language form called a code; alternately, a sign system. Words, deeds, events are loaded with special meaning unique to those who use such a code. They must be interpreted within the 'grammar' of the code if inter-subjective understanding is to emerge between sender and received of 'coded' messages. Thus a student has to learn the special 'code' in sociology if they are to share the same symbolic world as their teacher.
Commodification:
The practice of converting use-value into exchange value. This is a very important idea; think about food. It has a use value but its exchange value may be set so high that people starve when there is a lot of food. The same is true for any essential good or service once it has been commodified. Then too, as Marx noted, all that is sacred can be commodified; sex, friendship, child care, even religion itself can be marketed.
Culture:
Latin: colore = to cultivate. The word has come to mean all the art, science, religion, social forms and values which inform/are part of a social life world. It has the meaning of elitist values and standards of art, music and theatre. In socialism, using Mao's types, culture in the sociological sense may be conceived as material, ideological and political products of humans. The active production of culture is the non sine quo of human existence. The view of culture as that which has been produced by humans is a political act since it confuses between material objects and the active labor of people who create culture in the moment of using those material items in creative ways. The view of culture as upper class art, music, science, and recreation is also political in that it tends to degrade other classes and the culture they need to produce in order to become humans. The standard definition of culture is that culture is all those things developed and used by a society but this misses the essential meaning of culture as existing only in the act of people creatively using material items to create a social-life world. (after Lukács).
The concept of culture replaced the concepts of instinct, of gods, an of "blood" to explain why people behave as they do. As such it is fundamental to all humanist philosophies.
Cultural relativism:
The idea that a culture must be evaluated by its own standards, and not by those of another culture. Historically, this is a rather new and "liberal" idea. Conservative societies tend to reject the idea in favor of their own ethnocentric beliefs. It is interesting that some humanist philosophies (Christian, Marxist) also reject the idea of cultural relativism in favor of the view that there are common ingredients in all human experiences, and that it is possible to judge another society to be oppressive or not. Compare with ethnocentrism.
De-centering:
A postmodern objective: the result of re-examining truth claims of, say patriarchy, stratification, or truth itself and showing the human hand and human agenda which brought the claim, theory or practice to the fore-front and celebrates it as eternally valid and objectively existent.
Deconstruction:
A postmodern method of analysis; its goal is to undo all permanent, objective, determinative 'constructions' of scientists. Deconstruction tears a text apart, shows its unexamined assumptions, reveals its contradictions and its refusal to deal with contradictory materials. Typically a deconstructive critique endeavors to point out the classist, racist, sexist, agist, and other oppressive dimensions of speech. Deconstructionists "unpack" the layered dimensions of speech in order to appreciate the politics and special interests behind words, particularly when that intent invalidates, de-legitimizes, or otherwise, de-values specific individuals or a class of citizens. In affirmative postmodern work, deconstruction is prelude to the construction of new, more participatory social forms. In so doing, one accepts personal responsibility for the constructs rather than attributing such text or theory to God (gods) or nature. (After and beyond Derrida).
Dependency Theory:
A theory of colonial imperialism which informs anti-American sentiment in Latin America and elsewhere. The theory correctly asserts that capitalist imperialism distorts local economics and creates a surplus population but is often an effort to substitute foreign exploitation with that of local capitalists. A country becomes dependent upon the U.S., Germany, England, or Japan by selling cash crops or natural resources and dependent upon the same countries for food and luxury goods. The developed capitalist countries set the terms which benefit multinational corporations and banks and give "aid" subsidized by workers in capitalist countries to repair some of the distortions, especially those of hunger as cotton, coffee, cocoa, tea, beef or other foods are exported to capitalist countries. By 1976, total debt of non OPEC nations to capitalist countries was $180 billion, up 15 fold from 1967.
Depoliticization:
The process of reducing the range of questions which are to be settled by collective and public discourse. Questions of foreign policy, employment policy, crime, education and science are treated as settled or to be turned over to technicians to manage. Most major news networks treat public issues as if they were spectacles to be watched rather than problems to be solved by the public.
Derrida, Jacques:
Architect of French deconstructionist philosophy (see Deconstruction). Derrida's contributions to deconstructionism include a number of important postmodern concepts:
1) Reversal of hierarchies - any value position (e.g., man, good, objective) takes on its valuation in relation to some other oppositional value (e.g., woman, evil, subjective). text, however, can be read so as to reveal such power relations and reverse them through 'discoursing' about them. 2) Metaphysics of presence:- related to the reversal of hierarchies is Derrida's 'presence of the absence.' What this means is that in every binary opposition, the value that is dominant/privileged is present. The value that is subordinate, is 'absent.' The oppositional value of 'beauty' is 'ugly.' The value "beauty" is dominant and therefore privileged. We automatically assign positive value to persons identified as beautiful. The oppositional value "ugly" is subordinant and, therefore, repressed.
3) Differance: Differance (with an "a") implies both the activity of differing and of deferring. All hierarchies include words that are different from each other (e.g., male versus female, heterosexual versus homosexual, white versus black). In addition, however, each defers to the other in the sense of implying the opposite term. We cannot understand what it means to be white without understanding what it means to black and vice versa). There is a mutual deferential interdependence.
4) Trace: Hidden within each term of a hierarchy, is the trace of the other. The trace is what maintains the relationship between the two terms. In order to deconstruct the hierarchy, one must identify the trace which maintains the ascendancy of the privileged, dominant term as a presence. This is the activity of making visible the hidden. Revealing the hidden trace (women, minority, gay, poor) makes possible the de-centering, of the dominant term (men, WASP, straight, wealthy).
Determinism:
The philosophical position that phenomena are best explained in terms of the events that have immediately proceeded them; rigid cause and effect. This idea assumes social significance when it is applied to the behavior of individuals. If a person and the brain are rigidly bound by cause and effect, how can that person be "free" to do what (s)he "wants?" The argument runs that what one wants, and will do are rigidly determined by prior considerations. It is further claimed that one's behavior could be accurately predicted if only enough information were available. The logical conclusion of this idea is that a human is merely a complicated machine. When determinism is applied to the realm of psychology in this manner it is called Behaviorism. B.F. Skinner is the foremost behaviorist in the U.S. Behaviorism is a "dirty word" to many died-in-the-wool humanists and fundamentalist Christians as well as most marxists. The alternative view is that human beings think and act with judgment and insight. In this mode, causally is weak or absent while reflective social interaction produces social facts. See also Chaos theory.
Dialectic:
Greek: dialektos = discourse, debate. In everyday life, dialectics refers to a dynamic tension within a given system: a process by which change occurs on the basis of that tension and resultant conflict. Fichte coined the triadic process in which a dialectic has a 1) thesis, 2) an antithesis, and 3) a synthesis when the dialectic has run its course. A dialectic is said to arise since all (A) implies (Not-A). Schelling applied the dialectic to nature and to history. Marx used a more open and progressive conceptualization taken from Hegel's Negation of the Negation; thus a class system, possessing many 'negations' will produce a political economy which will negate it. [After Kevin Anderson].
In orthodox marxist views, dialectics is raised to science of the general laws of society and knowledge (after Engels). In this formulation, the three forms of the dialectic are: 1) struggle and unity of opposites; 2) the transition of quantity into quality and 3) the negation of a prior negation. An example of the first form of a dialectic would be class struggle in which workers and owners clash and out of which a new, more humane economic system might/will arise. Of the second, an example might be the transformation water into steam with a small quantitative rise in temperature and for the third 'law,' a good example might be when capitalism [a negative] is destroyed by revolution [another negation].
The concept of the dialectic is hostile to the linearity which is at the core of modern science; as such they are much the better explanation of how complex systems worked. The rise of Chaos theory gives dramatic empirical support and much sharper focus to the concept of the dialectic.
Discourse:
A special kind of interaction in which "validity claims" are checked out. Most of the time, people just talk together about the practical matters at hand. But sometimes that which is taken-for-granted is called into question. Habermas identifies four validity claims about discourse which may result in distorted communication and, thereby need to be examined more closely. In postmodern work all that is written or spoken is seen as discourse; claims of objectivity and impartiality are presumed to be political tactics which remove truth claims [about gender, race, class, or 'reality' from discourse.
Discourse, Lacan's four: Lacan identified four ways of thinking/talking which preshape speech and behavior. The first line shows the flow of speech; the second depicts the way in which the listener experiences his/her own understanding or desire.
Discourse of the Master:
S1 -------> S2
$ <------- a
The authority imposes his/her language/narrative on the other and endeavors to convince the other of this knowledge. The underling, receptive to the message, experiences an incompleteness, a lack of self-valuation in the words/narrative. Despite this, the student reproduces the very knowledge that represses.
Discourse of the University
S2 -------> a
S1 <------- $
The discourse of the university is a more hidden form of the discourse of the master. Some governing elite or prevailing paradigm (e.g., the law, a patriarchal family, medicine) infused with its unique knowledge/truth, constitutes the other. In so doing, however, the other experiences psychic distress in this knowledge. That which is missing, left out, leaves desire unspoken and unspeakable.
Discourse of the Hysteric:
$ -------> S1
a <------- S2
The despairing person, alienated from her/his own knowledge/desire, realizes that their truth is not affirmed. Thus, the repressed subject endeavors to communicate this suffering and angst to the other. The other, however, interprets this suffering through only conventional master codes of crime, mental illness, sin or deviancy. This response only contributes to the psychic despair and longing of the divided subject.
Discourse of the Analyst
a --------> $
S2 <-------- S1
The "revolutionary" subject begins by offering to the other that which is left out (pas tout). The other embodies this existence and forges new master signifiers, new awarenesses,; desires more compatible with the despairing subject. This produces new truths or mythic knowledge. This knowledge, in turn, contributes to and affirms what is left out. Here, knowledge is positional and local. This form of discourse is found in both religious conversions, social movements, rebellions and whole revolutions.
Discursive Formations:
This is a key concept developed in the writings of Michel Foucault. Foucault was concerned with the manifestation of power communicated through language. Discursive formations in law, sexuality and mental illness exercise power in the lives of people. Foucault encouraged active resistance to all discursive formations, alleging that they produced system-sustaining social control, citizen alienation, and a disciplinary/punitive society. According to Foucault, any systematic constitution of reality possesses tremendous influence in our lives. This influence lives in specialized knowledges which includes no (or little) room for dissention, difference, or alternative knowledge forms. Thus discursive formations as power/knowledge give privilege to certain ways of knowing, certain claims to truth, while ensuring the continued silencing of repressed (oppositional) voices.
Dogma:
A Greek word meaning decree. The word applies to all policies and practices held to be beyond dispute. When one is absolutely sure that s/he is right and all others are wrong for all time, one is said to be dogmatic.
Ego:
Latin: ego = I. Used in freudian psychology, the ego is seen to be the mediator between the id [unconscious desire for life or for death] and the superego. The id is the source of the pleasure principle [not just genital sex] while the ego embodies the reality principle. The superego develops from society and its demands for sacrifice of self and 'primitive impulses' [the wish for pleasure or for peace; the death wish]. Father is representative of society and its demands thus become a hated object in the unconscious. Mother embodies the pleasure principle and thus is the object of incestuous desire. The aim of freudian psychiatry is to strengthen the ego and improve its capacity to control/channel the impulses of id and to mediate the demands of father/society while transferring desire from mother to more mature sexual relationships.
Elitism:
A set of complex beliefs that the masses are not fit for the creation of political and ideological culture while they are only too well suited for the production of material culture. The elite then claim a large part of the material production as their due for producing ideological and political culture! In the U.S., 50% of the people claim 90% of the wealth produced. Those engaged in the production of ideological culture (sometimes called professionals): doctors, lawyers, sports figures, professors, judges, actors and those engaged in the production of political culture; managers, politicians, wardens, psychiatrists, administrators, public relations and advertising executives claim salaries 8, 20, 40, 100 or 1000 times greater than those who produce material culture (unless the workers are organized and bargain in which case, the margin declines a bit).
Emergence theory:
The assumption that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Thus, the characteristics of a sugar molecule cannot be understood in terms of a complete knowledge of the attributes of the included atoms taken one at a time. In social terms, self, society, and culture are emergent in that individuals acting alone cannot produce these items. Social power is social in that it emerges from the coordinated labor of many--hence it cannot be the "property" of one except by force or fraud.
Empiricism:
Greek: empeiria = experienced in; skilled at. In modern science, it is the philosophical position that "real knowledge" is gained through measurement and observation." It takes the view that if something exists or is true, you can measure it. A problem arises when, in empiricism, quantity is made the focus of attention at the expense of quality. Empiricism tends to freeze all of history in present findings. Empiricism also leads one to suppose that social relations are controlled by external and eternal "laws" of nature made visible by statistics. Such a view minimizes the role of judgment, intent, and human activity in producing society. The radical position is that three methodologies are necessary to a rational and decent society. Empiricism (also called positivism) is informed by the human interest in prediction and control. Marxists argue that hermeneutics and emancipatory science are also necessary.
Encoding:
The process of assigning meaning to a particular sign in a particular sign system (see Semiotics). For example: the phrase "the mentally ill" is a sign-phrase. It can be interpreted (i.e., encoded) in one of several ways. In the language of psychiatric medicine such a person is often understood as in need of treatment, or diseased. In the language of religion, the person is often defined as 'touched by God,' or 'invaded by Satan.'
Ethnocentrism:
The belief that the values, practices, and general social set-up of one's own native culture are superior to all others. Such a view tends to justify exploitation by more militant societies.
ill result.
Euclid/euclidean geometry:
Euclid (3rd c. BCE) was a Greek mathematician and the founder of euclidean geometry which specified three dimensions and clear boundaries as well as precise mathematical relationships between these aspects of space and the things within it. For three centuries, euclidean algebra was taught as the major pathway to understand the features of real objects or systems. It was thought that all non-euclidean geometries were merely imaginary games. Today, there is considerable evidence that nature does not fit euclidean geometry. Mandelbrot developed his Fractal Geometry of nature and developed a method to quantify fractal forms. String theory in physics suggests there may be as many as 26 dimensions in nature. Postmodern philosophers of science say that such dimensions are a feature of our ways of looking at nature and society.
Evolution, (Organic):
A theory and body of facts which support the idea that living organisms evolved from the simple to the complex via competition, a struggle for survival, survival of the fittest and chance changes in genetic patterns some of which made survival more likely. Charles Darwin is credited with the first systematic statement and extensive research to support the theory. There are many skips, jumps, twists and reversals in plant, animal and human evolution which lead some to suppose a God created each species and continues to create new species. A revision of Darwin called 'Punctuated Equilibrium' explains these jumps empirically rather than theologically. More generally, Chaos theory can be used to explain many of such sudden, inexplicable changes; this does not mean that all miracles and mysteries can be explained scientifically; there is always room for doubt, wonder and poetic genius.
Evolution, (Social):
Generally, a view that society is changing for the better as a consequence of the struggle for survival in which the best (fittest) social forms survive. There are many well-known generalizations about the direction of evolution among which are; the transition from religious to scientific societies (Comte), the transition of social relations from status to contract (Sir Henry Maine), the transition of human bonds from mechanical to organic solidarity (Durkheim), from traditional to legal-rational authority (Weber), from sacred to secular social life (Becker), from community to society (Tonnies), from the simple to the complex (Spencer) and from trial and error in social evolution to scientific self-control of society (Ward). Most such theories celebrate what ever benefits their sponsors. There is a little evidence that things are getting better and certainly no assurance that things get better all by themselves. See social darwinism.
Existentialism:
Founded by Kierkegaard (1813-55), existentialism sees people in a state of profound tension always haunted by a sense of sin and their betrayal of their God. The outlook is pessimistic: at best individuals can come to terms with their God and, failing that, lose God and face le Neant, nothingness. Modern existentialism (after Sartre) connects human anguish to a poorly designed social life world but retains an interest in the intense personal struggle of (wo)man; an element structuralists often neglect in a one-sided concentration on class and political struggle. Like-wise, structuralist charge existentialist with giving too much freedom and personal responsibility for her/his fate.
Fascism, techno-:
The use of computers and other electronic devises to monitor the behavior of workers, customers, voters, students and petty criminals. These range from software which count the numbers/time/topics of employees who use the computer to electronic 'dogs' which sniff out all sorts of forbidden chemicals. Soon every automobile will come with a chip with which police can monitor speed, location and fix their location via communications satellites. A growth industry.
Foucault, Michel (1926-1984):
French psychologist who stopped working within the existing systems of social control and began to criticize them. He made the point that knowledge is an important form of power which can be used for or against people. Foucault went on to criticize the psychiatry in his book on Madness and Civilization, Medicine in The Birth of the Clinic, and the criminal justice system in his book, Discipline and Punish. These all concerned the use of language/power against those confined/treated by such institutions. He studied the 'games of truth' in his last work and argued that truth-telling was a political virtue.
Fractal/fractal geometry:
A structure which occupies only a part of the space/time available to it [after Mandelbrot]. In Euclidean geometry and newtonian physics, structures occupy 1, 2, 3 or 4 dimensions...and exhibit rational, i.e., linear behavior. In Chaos theory, complex natural and social systems have a different structure and behavior. Since nonlinear behavior is compatible to dialectics, the socialist theorist should know of this new concept. Since the same set of variables can produce different sets of fractals [outcomes], most of the assumptions of modern science are reduced in epistemological value; that is, prediction, replication, falsification, and tight correlations are much less helpful in the knowledge process than had been thought.
Feedback/feedback loops:
Complex social and natural systems change through three kinds of feedback loops; 1) positive loops in which the behavior of a system increases in complexity until it reaches full chaos [think of the feedback between two microphones which turn into a high pitched shriek]; 2) a negative feedback loop in which the behavior of a system tends to slow down until it stops [think of an animal species slowly poisoned by DDT]; and 3) nonlinear feedback in which feedback alternates between positive and negative without any clear pattern. It is surprising but, systems with nonlinear feedback can be very stable.
Foundationalism:
A pejorative term applied to the effort to ground some set of principles upon pre-given facts. Postmodernists are generally opposed to foundationalism; affirmative postmodernists accept foundations as long as those who set them accept responsibility for so doing; thus it is possible to 'ground' morality but only as a set of behaviors special to a given social life world constructed by humans for particular, historical purposes
Geneology:
The practice of looking at history in order to re-claim forms of knowledge and being which have been omitted, excluded, disqualified or local. Geneology dismisses any history which is presented as an accurate and complete account of 'that which happened,' or 'ideas about what constitutes a science.' After Foucault.
Gestalt:
German; form, shape, figure. A school in psychology founded by Wertheimer and others which held that sense perceptions were not simple impressions which mirrored nature but rather psychological constructs interpreted by human beings within a whole/context. Thus an event or an aspect of nature and/or society is not registered unless it is significant to the beholder in terms of some cultural theme or practice. The concept of gender is a case in point; most of us 'see' only two gender; in terms of the physiology and chemistry of actually existing human beings, any number of gender could be perceived/named. Such a view of the knowledge process is one of the many beginnings of postmodern sensibility.
Group dynamics:
Group dynamics are complex and ever-changing but there are some patterns one can see; there are engagement activities [Goffman calls these 'clearance moves'], there is socio-emotional activity to deal with conflicts and there is task-oriented behavior. Central to all group activity is symbolic interaction in which intersubjective understanding emerges. Groups often have status hierarchy which also pre-shape behavior of members. Then there are 'dis-engagement' activities in which people recognize that the claims each has on the other are to be set aside until the next time the 'group' meets. Bales has shown that there are patterns of interaction in which some few persons come to dominate symbolic interaction...at least in the groups he studied.
Hedonism:
Greek; hedon = delight, pleasure. Epicureans held pleasure to be central to happiness but it carried spiritual values of prudence and restraint. The term now carries negative emotional content and refers to those who define happiness in terms of wealth and luxurious living. In capitalism, hedonism is grounded by J. Bentham and utilitarianism which see.
Hegelian dialectic:
A view offered by Hegel that all "A" implies "Not A;" that "Not-A" tends to negate "A"; and that a new "A" emerges out of the conflict between "A" and "Not-A". Hegel was concerned to show that one approached absolute knowledge by such a process. Marx' critique was that knowledge was a product of creative human beings, not an absolute to be approached through a dialectic. Marx did, however, accept the principle of the dialectic to account for class conflict and social change.
Hegemony, Ideological:
The use of law, religion, art, science, cinema or literature to celebrate and legitimate one way of doing things to the discredit of alternative ways. It is often used in preference to direct force. Marx put it succinctly, 'In every epoch, the ruling ideas have been the ideas of the ruling class.' Law, religion, art and literature has been and is still being used to justify racism, sexism, class privilege, religious bigotry and ethno-centricism.
Hermeneutics:
The science of inter-subjective understanding. A study of how humans mutually organize each other's consciousness. The study of interpersonal (shared) understandings. An inquiry into how human beings can create social life worlds which are sensible to them and shared by them. Ordinarily we think that we think all by ourselves. Yet we recognize that others understand us and we understand them. Such intersubjective understanding probably means that we work together to create meaning. Symbolic interactional theory, ethnomethodology, phenomenology, and dramaturgical analysis all focus in on how social reality is constructed by intending, insightful, cooperative humans. (Greek: hermeneuein; to interpret).
Historicism:
A pejorative term used to reject the belief that there is pattern in history and that the future is determined by the past. The term was introduced by Mannheim and adopted by Troelsch to place more responsibility on humans and to open up the future to alternative, well considered futures..
Historicity:
The particular combination of concretely existing social factors, the interactive effect of which produces a unique event. Since humans create meaning through intention, the causality of an event thus can have a variable pattern. That varying pattern is what we call "history." This contrasts to Ahistoricism in which one seeks unchanging, universal laws with which to explain events.
Historiography:
One's approach to history and to its study is said to be a historiography. There are several theories about how to understand the sweep and patterns in history. There is marxist thought and dialectical materialism as a theory of history; there is the Great Man theory; there is a theological view accepted by most people on earth in which a God or gods exist; have a plan for social life and make changes now and again for good reason. There is technological determinism which says that great inventions create turning points in history; fire, the wheel, the alphabet, irrigated farming, metal working, the steam engine, automobiles, radio, television and now, computers are given great emphasis in explaining the twists and turns in history.
The marxist perspective is that "man makes history and that history has no independent causal power ... thus "historical necessity" and "History decides" are mystifications nowise different from attributing such reified and deified powers to gods, nature, the "absolute" or such. "History does nothing, it fights no battles, owns no riches, and does not use men for its purposes; it is nothing but the activity of men pursuing his ends." Real people do set conditions in concert with other real people which do limit the freedom of choice of other people. If the price of bread or milk is set by an agreement by suppliers and distributors or if only one version of history is permitted, then there are "historical" conditions which "determine" behavior but this does not mean that history determines human affairs as some (including some marxists) would have it. The better view is that there are degrees of freedom for human agency within differing historical contexts.
Humanism:
An ideology in which human dignity and the collective good is emphasized. Humanism usually uses science and logic to address problems rather than supernatural or mystical approaches. Freedom of the intellect, of criticism and of association are highly valued as well. As such humanism often opposes institutions which are coercive and/or exploitative. Sometimes humanists are criticized by marxists as lacking a sociology, i.e., as not understanding the roots of oppression in the class struggle.
Hyper-reality:
A concept coined by the French postmodernist, Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard argues that objects (commodities) have more control over us then we do of them. The term used to make the claim that whatever reality exists has been replaced by image, illusion or 'simulacrum.' This occurs in late monopoly capitalism [Jameson] and is made possible by mass electronic media [Baudrillard] harnessed to the profit needs of commodity capitalism or the managerial needs of the capitalist state [Marcuse]. In a consumer-driven society, we buy things for the signs and statements they make rather than for their utility. The hyper-real is a copy of a copy of a copy ad infinitum such that no original can be found. Thus LB Johnson tries to present himself as a fictionalized FD Roosevelt or a Ronald Reagan tries to act like a president rather than an actor portraying a president.
Hyper-space:
This term refers to the difficulty of locating firm and indisputable boundaries on both social groups, nations, peoples, races, genders, universities or even physical objects [see fractal]. The allied concept of cyber-space eliminates the concept of geographical space altogether.
Ideology:
A generalized blueprint by which a given social life world is created. That which given meaning and purpose to life. Art, music, poetry, prose, science, myths, jokes, and song. Religion is an especially important part of an ideology. Sometimes ideology becomes reified into dogma and comes to be more than a general guide to the construction of social reality but rather a superorganic thing beyond the control of humans.
As a term, it is used to put down any social philosophy with which one disagrees. The term began as 'the study of ideas' by Destutt de Tracy (1775-1836) in opposition to the ideological hegemony of Napoleon. All social life requires a set of fairly comprehensive [but not necessarily compatible] ideas as the beginning point for the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' in the construction of a social life world. The only interesting questions are: which set of ideas, how are they to be transmitted to young people and how much criticism is to be allowed? Marx held 1) ideology varies with the kind of political economy at hand, 2) it varies with position with class, race, gender and ethnicity, 3) it is necessary for solidarity purposes, and 4) it can be progressive or oppressive depending on which ideas are valued most highly.
Ideological Hegemony:
The attempt on the part of all ruling classes to universalize their own beliefs, values, morality, and opinions as part of the "natural order of things." Control of schools, law, churches, the media, as well as the political process aids in consolidating hegemony. (Gramsci)
Imperialism/Empire:
A set of nations, countries, peoples all controlled by a central nation which benefits from empire. Imperialism includes: 1) expansion of production and distribution outside national borders, 2) central control of money supply and finance, 3) export of finished goods to client nations, 3) division of labor; manual labor in the colonies, intellectual labor in the core country, 4) restriction of human/civil rights in the periphery. Often direct military control is used until a 'friendly' government can be installed. Both capitalist countries, monarchies, dictatorships and Soviet socialism established empires.
Individualism:
A social philosophy which sets the single person as the measure and repository of all judgment, wisdom, sin, folly and morality. Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer provided the arguments for individualism. It is part of the Protestant ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism since it justifies private interests above collective/public interests. It is progressive in that it opposed monarchy, church hierarchy, deadening collectivism and suppression of human rights. See Praxis for a more balanced social philosophy.
Instinct:
A form of behavior programmed by genetic codes. Many people believe that some (or all) human behavior is preprogrammed as a result of countless generations of evolution during which maladaptive behavior was eliminated in the struggle for survival. Most research suggests that culture and socialization can supplant and override any such predispositions to act. War, male dominance, stratification, mothering, and many other behavior patterns are often said to be instinctual. The concept of culture is used to emphasize the learned nature of these behaviors.
Intertextual:
Infinitely complex interconnections between stories about nature, society or history which do not permit of clear and identifiable beginnings, boundaries, endings or binary oppositions.
Absolute intertextuality presumes everything is connected.
Intuition:
Latin: in + tueri = to look at. It is used to refer to the idea that one can come to the truth of a thing by reflection and meditation. Socrates held that one was part of the spirit world before one was born and thus 'knew' everything. The shock of birth suppressed the memories of ultimate truth but, in quiet moments, these can come back in revelations. More likely, such intuitions are the result of the human brain organizing a lot of diverse data and putting them together in a new and insightful pattern. Remarkable thing, your brain, if you let it work.
Kantian Imperative:
A grounding for human behavior absent Gods or Natural Laws for so doing: Act as if the maxim of thy act were to become by thy will, a universal law of Nature. Add to this imperative, his book on Perpetual Peace in which Kant called for a human political form in which each person were a full participant and for a 'universal union of states' and 'a permanent congress of nations.' One would do well to read and reflect on this admirable scholar.
Lacan, Jacques (1901-1981):
The architect of postmodern psychoanalytic semiotics, He combined Freud, Saussure, Levi-Strauss and Kojeve. Lacan maintained that the unconscious was structured much like a language, thus it was essential to identify the inner workings of that discourse located within the unconscious. The unconscious was the repository of knowledge, power, agency, and desire. In brief, however, Lacan argued that the speaking subject was not in control of what s/he said; rather, the structure of language pre-shaped thought and desire. This is what Lacan meant when he claimed the subject was divided ($) or decentered. For Lacan. the subject could not be so purposive, in control, self-aware, because the discourse of the unconscious was the crucial arbiter of all experience, knowing, and living. This was a direct assault on the rational, logocentrism implied in Descartes' maxim "I think therefore I am."
Law, natural:
When spelled with a lower case 'n,' natural law refers to those laws detected by scientists which describe regular and recurring patterns in physics, chemistry, physiology, biology, psychology and sociology as well as economics. The new sciences of Chaos and Complexity teach us that 1) close connections between variables loosen as bifurcations increase in a dynamical regime and 2) that feedback loops displace the notion of causality.
Liebniz, Gottfried (1746-1716):
German philosopher who took a degree in law at Altdorf. Liebniz invented a machine which could extract square roots and argued with Newton who invented calculus first. His philosophy included the concept of the monad, a basic unit of reality which now seems strange. He argued that if God existed, He would create the best possible of all worlds...a very conservative view.
Linear/Linearity:
This concept refers to the case when a change produces an effect in perfect ratio to its effect. Thus a one pound push may move your car two foot; a two pound push may move it four foot; a three pound push may move it eight foot and so on. All modern predictive science relies upon linearity to yield the precision of predictions which is said to ground the highest, best theory. Chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics [see which] challenge these ideas; most systems have turning points at which small change produce large, unpredictable changes. See Chaos Theory.
Logic:
Greek: logos = reason, word, discourse or ratio. In everyday usage it refers to the role of formal reasoning in the knowledge process. Logic is the branch of philosophy which deals with rational thinking. Aristotle argued that formal logic was the bedrock of scientific knowledge and set forth the rules of valid inference. Aristotle set forth syllogistic reasoning in an 'if-then' model; If all men are mortal, 2) if Plato is a man, 3) then Plato is mortal. The truth value of 3) depends upon the truth value of 1), if all men are, in fact mortal and 2) if Plato is, indeed, a man [human being], then there is no escaping the fact that sometime Plato will die. This seems to be a fine pathway to truth but note that it says nothing about the degree to which 1) and 2) are, in fact, true. Bacon, in his work De Novum Organum (1620), set forth the rules of scientific enquiry upon which statements about the truth of 1) and 2) can be made. Marx referred to it as the lower mathematics of reasoning and set Dialectics [which see] as the higher mathematics of reasoning. See Scientific Method; see also Science, postmodern for differing views.
Logic, Syllogistic:
There are three parts to syllogistic logic; a major term in which something is posited as true, a middle term in which a another case is posited as true and a minor term generated by a very careful and rational combination of the first two terms. See Fallacies for some misuses of syllogistic logic.
Logic, Fuzzy:
A term with which to refer to a form of computer programming or decision making in which the boundaries of the sets [algorithms] used to guide decisions are permitted to change, sometime in unpredictable ways. Compare to the rationality of syllogistic logic.
Logical Empiricism/Positivism:
A school, founded in Vienna, which holds that all proper science is grounded upon both empirical observation and the use of formal logic with which to generate propositions and to determine their status as valid laws of nature and society. Chaos theory and new findings about non-linear dynamics de-center logical positivism.
Logocentric:
A term describing systems of thought which claim legitimacy by reference to external, universally valid propositions. Postmodernists are opposed to logocentricism and say such systems are grounded upon circular logic. After Derrida.
Looking Glass Process:
Charles Horton Cooley set forth this idea about how human behavior is organized. It stands in opposition to the idea that behavior is grounded on instincts or in-born urges. It says, in brief, that we observe how others respond to our behavior and, being pleased or embarrassed by their reaction, we modify our own behavior. A rather simple way to refer to the fact that one's self is the product of many people working together. This principle is of limited validity in a stratified system since those at the top do not worry about guilt, shame or embarrassment.
Mass/masses:
Latin: massa = a body of material which can be shaped or molded as in kneading bread dough. In sociology it means a collection of individuals with few if any social relationships: atomized individuals whose behavior is not mediated by roles, norms, values or community. It is often used by elitists as a term of open contempt for the common people who are thought to be too ignorant, lazy, selfish, unstable and easily lead for democracy.
Mass Action:
According to Luxemburg, the objective roots of mass strikes and demonstrations are to be found in the soil of capitalist class relationships. She demanded that socialists treat the mass action of the working class as the central focus of all revolutionary activity. This view tended to place leninist theory of revolutionary organization in the context of class struggle. For Luxemburg, leninism emphasized the political sphere at the expense of the total social process. A revolutionary party structure takes its form and tactics from the larger social struggle not from the writings of Lenin about what must be done in Russia in 1917.
Mass communication:
A system of organizing the flow of information such that it is unilaterally reproduced as mass cult rather than produced collectively as culture. Print, electronics, and cinema could be organized to provide for collective production (as is the case with CB radio, home movies, and typed correspondence). Electronics media need not be organized to exclude communication-only where there is an interest in the unilateral control of consciousness or in the use of information sets as commodity does such a system exist.
Mass cult:
a cultural item produced with capital intensive means and sold as a commodity. Ordinarily, the production of culture requires intention and social interaction. Machine production eliminates both. Mass vaccination, mass produced sermons, mass produced editorials, and mass education are mass cult in that the particular and concretely existing historical conditions of situated individuals and groups are not considered in the act of production. Culture stripped of its social matrix and distributed as a commodity for private profit, power, or status.
Mass media:
Any information flow system (radio, newsprint, television, journals, magazines) in which an elite transmits information to a large audience of unknown others. Such use destroys social relations (and produces a mass society) in that there is no collective sharing in the construction of the information sets in question. Often a set of specialists is hired to tailor the information set in such a way as to manage the consciousness of a population without the use of force, law, or face-to-face conflict. Compare to the personal media available to humans to construct social reality in face-to-face situations.
Mass Movements:
Political, religious and economic protests involving large numbers of people who work outside of institutional politics...largely because governments and political parties work against their interests and/or refuse to respond to collective needs and concerns.
Masspol:
The transformation of political culture (usually votes) into a commodity. Public relations firms, using dramaturgical technology, package and sell candidate and policies in the same way cereals and colas are sold. See also massmed, masscult. Advertising firms now deliver so many votes at so much cost per million (cpm) just as they deliver viewers for other commodities.
Mass society:
A society of unrelated individuals passively consuming mass produced culture (masscult). There are several factors at work to destroy social relationships since the end (1688-1789) of the feudal system. Capitalism destroys social relationships by producing for profit rather than for community. If one has nothing to exchange, then there is no relationship in the various delivery systems of the society. Bureaucracy destroys social relationships by treating all clients as objects to be processed in accordance to uniformity applied rules. The factory system removes fathers, children and mothers from the home for 8-10 hours per day. The structure of mass, impersonal education takes children from both the family nexus and the peer group nexus and assigns them to groups convenient to administrative needs. The division of labor also progressively divides a population into a small elite which produced culture (for profit) and a large mass which consumes items as more or less fragmented others. This is progressively true in medicine, sports, politics, religion as well as drama and literature. C.Wright Mills viewed American society to be two-fold: an elite and a mass. The power and wealth is stratified and maintained using as its technology, modern mass media.
Mathematical Sociology:
An effort to transform all social relationships and all social change into precise mathematical formulae. Such effort ignores the qualitative transformations in politics, religion, speech, sports and other human activities in which non-linear transformations occur. It ignores the qualitative nature of the self-fulling prophecy in which people believe, trust, hope and act on the expectation that social reality will emerge. See also Positivism, Quantification; compare to non-linear dynamics.
Mathematics:
A set of numbering systems and a series of rules to use in the manipulation of numbers. The numbers are said to be valid ways to measure quantity; that qualities have no form or substance thus are epiphenomena to quantity. Math began in Akkad in what is now Iran about 5000 years ago. Its modern form comes from the early work in Greece in the years 600 BCE to 300 BCE. For the most part it was used in construction and surveying but gradually came to be understood as an aspect of a Universal and Omnipresent God. Astronomers sought portents and revelations in the mathematical precision of the stars. This quest gradually developed numbering systems and rules which came to ground modern science and to pre-empt all competing pathways to knowledge. Today, in the new physics and nonlinear dynamics of complex systems, a sort of 'rubber' math is emerging which provides information on qualitative changes. Morris Kline has a wonderful three volume set on Mathematical Thought from ancient to modern times. Roger Penrose, in the Emperor's New Mind, lays out some of the postmodern math. Both are very readable in that one can skip over the formal proofs to catch the larger ideas.
McDonaldization of Society:
George Ritzer coined the term to refer to the effort to control all aspects of the production and distribution of goods via a highly organized set of rules. It embodies the bureaucracy of which Weber called an 'iron cage.' All employees must wear the clothing specified, use the words rehearsed, work the hours set and make the hamburgers exactly the same way in Moscow, London, Peoria and Hong Kong. This routinization of the labor process tends to destroy both variety and human agency. Not to worry, the hamburgers are very different in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Vienna and San Francisco...even McDonald's cannot do away with culture, human creativity or variety.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1908-1961):
A French social psychologist who insisted that being include physical and emotional as well as cognitive functionings. Along with Foucault and Lacan, Merleau-Ponty expanded the Cartesian notion of being [I think, therefore I am] to include feeling, touching, smelling, tasting and any other bodily sense which implied there is a sensing person there and that there is something out there to be touched, tasted, smelled or seen. I caress, and am caressed; I smell and am smelled; I taste and am tasted; I love and am loved, therefore I am. Merleau-Ponty accepted the importance of language, speech and symbolic interaction as foundations of human behavior [against instincts and/or theological sources] but discussed desire and body pleasure in additions to roles, norms, sanctions and other interactive dynamics as important to social life. Initially drawn to marxism, M-P later took the position that there were many sources of human alienation and many avenues for progressive politics; but whatever one did, one must reach out to justice and sociality.
Metaphysics:
Beyond Physics. A branch of formal philosophy having to do with the ultimate nature of reality. It deals with the question of that which really exists [ontology] rather than that which seems to exist; that which we would like to exist; that which exists for but the moment. Those in pre-modern modalities tend to argue that there is another, invisible world which takes precedence in human affairs to this world. Modern scientists tend to argue that there is only one reality and it has clear and sharp categories which can be measured, and can be known through the scientific method. Postmodernists, in their more pessimistic moments argue that one can never be sure of anything; more affirmative postmodernists argue that some limited truths can be asserted. See Chaos theory for a special view of the nature of reality [fractal] and dynamics [nonlinear].
Modern, modernism, modern science:
Latin: modus, modo = recent, current practices. The word is now used to refer to the kind of science and approach to solving problems modelled after Newton's [1687] most successful tracking of the movement of stars and falling objects. Modern science and modernity have given us a great many benefits; better communication, better transportation, better roads, buildings, bridges, sewer systems and better housing. It continues to improve the means of production of food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. Yet, it has many problems in that it dismisses complexity; dismisses mystery; objects to surprize and is hostile to the emotions which expand the endpoints of human endeavor. It is an magician's apprentice which may well be misused with applications to war, to exploitation of people and environment as well as to the reproduction of its own lifeless, soulless, amoral approach to human knowledge and human frailty. See postmodern
Morality:
A term referring to the degree to which the norms, laws, values, customs and morés of a society are embodied in the everyday life of a person. People of high moral standing take care to live in conformity to the normative structure. Two things to think about: 1) how do these norms and customs speak to exploitation, inequality and oppression, 2) what is the social location of the norm/rule/law making process. When moral agency resides in an elite in stratified societies, individual morality becomes difficult. All forms of government and business which rely upon bureaucracy thus defeat morality. In socialist theory, moral agency is to be distributed broadly throughout the population and is to work in all domains of life.
Mystification:
A process of information control by which a person or class cannot identify self-interests. The. marxian position is that whoever controls the means of production controls the means to produce ideological culture: art, literature, drama, religion and will use this control to mystify its opposition. Also the process by which false consciousness is created. Usually coercion or repression underwrite false consciousness but sometimes, in the U.S. especially, the authority of respected persons can mystify voters, customers, students, children and others by asserting that as true which does not correspond to one's experience in a concrete situation.
Negentropy:
Order, structure, predictability. The opposite of entropy: chaos, chance, random contact. In systems theory, systems solve the problem of order by transferring order from the environment. In sociology, A society must solve its problems of order or change. Some societies use force and coercion, especially economic and legal coercion to produce order. Others use collective interaction and socialization to solve the problem of order. The production of negentropy is a fundamental question for the survival of all systems. (See systems theory).
New World Order:
The polite term for the capitalist world system. This phrase refers to a model of global economy in which some 1000 huge multi-national firms produce and distribute goods across national borders. When one looks more closely, one can see a hierarchy of nations; a core in which most of these firms are located; at the top is the Group of Seven [which see]; then there is a layer of NICs [newly industrial states: Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia]; below them are semi-feudal states including most of the Islamic nations and the more industrial African, Latin American and Asian nations. At the bottom are the 'basket cases,' some 20 or so nations which are very, very poor and which cannot compete on the world market.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844-1900):
A brilliant student in Germany who was appointed professor before he finished his degree; a very rare occurrence in German universities. He held, in The Birth of Tragedy, that both apollonian calm and Dionysian passion were important to the art and to life. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche reduced all moral systems to those which favored master morality or those which promoted slave morality. Master morality is superior and is based in social rules but society needs both moralities. N. held that the 'will to power' lay behind all human action and that slave mortality was a disease which infected both democracy and Christianity. N. held that one should philosophize 'with a hammer' breaking up old superstitions. Modern science had resulted in the Death of God and that, out of that death could and should arise a superman [sic]; a person of high integrity, without prejudice, intellectual, proud of his/her reason and responsibility and with a 'greatness of soul.' N. is seen as a progenitor of postmodern sensibility.
Nihilism:
Latin: no thing. In common usage, the term refers to the view that there is nothing upon which moral behavior can be grounded; all such moral grounding is a matter of personal desire or cultural tradition. Since there have been some 3-4000 different cultures in human history, such groundings are variable and arbitrary. Compare to Theism and Humanism which hold that grounding of moral behavior is possible and necessary.
Nominalism:
Latin: nomen = name, naming. An idea from philosophy that the names we give objects in nature and society are mere convenience. The question is whether objects exist in and of themselves or are merely names we give to some vague and slippery aspect of reality. For example, can we speak of a forest or only of individual trees. Postmodern philosophy of science holds 1) such collectives become real when they begin to affect the behavior of other systems in the environment, 2) that there is a reality-creating process in which the name of a thing calls it forth [e.g., as when we name someone a 'friend,''wife,' or 'son.'] 3) in fractal geometry, systems occupy only part of the space available and thus have fractal facticity; naming then begins to be a poetic and a political act.
Objectification:
The process of turning a subject into an object. Any process which tends to reduce intentionality and self-determination. People are objectified when they are treated as a means to an end. Power objectifies by forcing people to do things they judge to be inappropriate. People are also objectified when they are turned into commodities (football players, prostitutes, slaves, and so on) in a market.
Objectivity:
A stance of impartiality and disinterest in the search for truth. This stance assumes, erroneously, that there is a truth about society and nature which exists apart from the subjective activity of intending human beings. See Phenomenology, Postmodern.
Phenomenology, postmodern:
The postmodern position is that humans create scientific categories and social facts. Social facts are created by first proclaiming the existence of some social form (phenomena) and then, through their own efforts, creating that reality (noumena). The result is a facticity which varies greatly according to time and place but still has come commonalities; our notion of family is a case in point; families do not exist apart from the ideas and activities of the members; no two families are ever precisely identical; over time, a given family unit has variable facticity. Interesting, isn't it??
Scientific categories, also, are established by human beings. We select just that part of incredibly complex and interconnected natural and social events which fits/creates the category and then treating all other events/elements as observer error, faulty research design, chance or poor reasoning. There are no noumena or objective categories of nature or society apart from or beyond the act of creating. There is no built-in tendency [teleology] for a thing to move in any given direction while the concept of perfection is, again, a political historical way to legitimate whatever exists or one thinks should exist. In postmodern philosophy of science, forms of reality may have a very fragile fractal and changing mix of order and disorder.
Philosophical Anthropology:
A set of assumptions about how human nature arises. Some say it is built into genes; others say it is formed in infancy and childhood; others say it is a social construct which can be very variable [labile]. Marxism assumes that humans create themselves as species being in the process of forming social relationships and, within those social relationships, create culture. See Macro-social psychology.
Piaget, Jean (1896-1980):
A Swiss psychologist, Piaget traced the development of concepts in a child: shape, size, space, time, causality, chance, velocity and such. This work provides a basis for a postmodern phenomenology in which all such concepts are the work of human beings and do not exist as such prior to and apart from human thought and human interests in controlling nature.
Pluralism:
The postmodern view that all human cultures are to be honored and respected; that no one culture [or society] is superior to all others; that each culture has much to contribute to the human process. In fact, there are an infinite set of adequate cultures. The Human Areas Files at Yale counts between 3 and 4000 cultures in human history. Sometimes, pluralism is a claim that there is no inequality in power or social honor for different populations within the same society.
Police State:
A country in which the state uses police to prevent change in governing officials, in government systems or to prevent resistance to privileged classes, races, genders or ethnic groups. In capitalist societies, the underclass is most heavily policed; the upper classes seldom policed.
Positivism:
A philosophy of science which holds the view that, if it exists, it can be measured; if it can be measured, it can be modeled and predicted. Thus, all human behavior can be recorded in 'facts.' Nothing else of interest to science exists but these facts. Saint-Simon introduced the concept; Comte made it an article of faith in his sociology. The concern of Positivism with measurement and prediction lends itself excellently well to social control and management science, thus it is suspect for those in the emancipatory sciences.
The major criticism of positivism is that it freezes the moment into all of history since it deals with that which is rather than that which could be. Emancipatory knowledge processes are concerned with change from what is to what could be in terms of praxis and human dignity.
A second criticism is that from the hermeneutical sciences which notes that human imagination and human interpretation are important parts of the social process not recorded nor recordable in number systems.
Politicization:
The process of returning questions of public interest to collective discourse. Sexism, racism, foreign policy and science (via abortion and euthanasia) have recently been politicized where formerly they were the taken-for-granted aspects of human life.
Postmodern:
A loose body of thought/criticism which holds that all knowledge processes are richly informed by personal aims and cultural world-views. All knowledge processes, including modern scientific theories, are constructed in and for a given socio-cultural life world; thus social theory may best be seen as a subjective narrative or text which legitimates existing or desired social relationships. Modern science talk privileges objectivity, rationality, power, control, inequality and hierarchy. Postmodern sociologists deconstruct each theory and each social practice by locating it in its larger socio-historical context in order to reveal the human hand and the group interests which shape the course of self-understanding of women, minorities and others. The political point of postmodernism is to enable women and others now excluded from such truth-claims to make and assert truth-claims which empower and honor different, more uncertain social-life worlds.
Postmodern, Affirmative:
Many see postmodern sensibility as liberating. Old standards of truth and certainty are called into question. Traditional models of masculinity, femininity and gender relations are re-examined for their alienating effects. Old claims of social development [and underdevelopment] deconstructed to show their biases. Old models of governance and economics are given new life and more democracy by challenging the modernist tendency to control and to manage everything in a factory, school, office or church. See Pauline Vaillancourt-Rosenau's fine book on Postmodernism for the Social Sciences for both affirmative and nihilistic forms. Thus postmodern sensibility offers human beings considerably more scope for understanding and human agency than found in either pre-modern or modern world views. Pre-modern views tend to locate agency and full capacities to know in Gods or abstract realms of nature. Modern science retains the view that valid knowledge is buried in the dynamics of nature and that human beings must bend to natural laws if they are to be rational.
Postmodern, Nihilistic:
The view that the knowledge process is hopelessly contaminated by subjective desires and political objectives; that there can be no basis for objective standards of truth, beauty, ethics, or philosophies of life. Universal and comprehensive theories of nature or society are impossible since, a) they do not exist and b) even if they did, one searches for them through the lens of one's own limited cultural concepts and values. Some more nihilistic postmodernists take the view a step further and claim that since there is no objective bases for ethics, all is permitted; all is possible if one has the will and resources to impose that will on others.
Postmodernity:
A term which refers to that epistemological and historical break from the Enlightenment world of modernity in which truth claims about a retrievable, reducible, knowable, certifiable world were rejected. The postmodern historical period reflects a disenchantment with the limitations of the modernist agenda (e.g., the oppression of groups via capitalist market dynamics, the suffering and exploitation of those whose thinking departed from the presumed superiority of rational logic). Postmodernity marks the birth of a new aesthetics; one devoid of absolutistic, positivistic, essentialistic notions of justice, peace, community, society, culture and such. The postmodern historical period is much more attune to the incommensurable complexity of life in a social order and being human; that is, the non-linear dimensions of existence, e.g., its ironies, absurdities, inconsistencies, contradictions).
Postmodern Philosophy of Science:
Postmodern philosophy of science accepts variety, contrariety, difference, loose causal connections as well as sudden reverses in causality in its discourse about natural and social dynamics. While modern philosophy of science favors the search for order and for tight correlations between two or more variables, postmodern scientists hold that causality is first of all a political construct which favors control and stratification of power. Affirmative postmodern philosophy of science holds that valid statements can be made which are limited but truth values change with changing dynamical regimes. Marx held that each social formation had its own laws or tendencies; that which produced crime in one society might not in another. Pre-modern philosophies tend to be more closely aligned with postmodern. Lots of fun to sort these things out.
Postmodernity, Sources of:
There are several sources, often independent of each other, in which critique of modern knowledge and its tendency to totalize, simplify and depoliticize the knowledge process are made. Women object to the tendency of modern science to adopt euro-centered masculine values of power, control, order and hierarchy. Third world people criticize modern science tendency to set European standards for excellence/perfection in art, music, literature and poetry. Religious people criticize modern science for removing the mystery and magic of human life from its knowledge products. Homosexuals and lesbians criticize the confinement of human sexuality to Patriarchal values and social forms. Deconstructionists [after Derrida] put all this together to locate the knowledge process in the larger socio-cultural context in which they arise and tend to reproduce. Together, they reveal the partisan nature of all knowledge claims.
Postmodern scientists, informed by the new sciences of Chaos and Complexity, have objected to its concern and preference with order, prediction, and discrete categorization. Postmodernist scientists see dis-order and connectedness in most really existing systems. Such sciences provide an elegant empirical grounding for variety, difference, contrariety and change.
Post-structuralism:
Post-structuralists maintain that no eternal truths or laws governing the social order; that knowledge of institutions and other systems depends on language. Post-structuralists argue that speaking/discoursing about social and natural reality is utterly dependent on language, and since the act of naming, describing, interpreting, understanding varies widely across cultures, then it follows that the assigning of meaning to institutions and systems of a culture/society is an arbitrary (subjective) process of selection; that is, it depends on people sharing similar meanings. Since people interact and communicate through many language systems, no precise, final, objective truths can ever be discovered; no 'deep structures' can ever be found. At best, there can only be approximations to the incredibly complex, variable and constantly changing patterns of social life and natural events. These approximations are themselves subject to divergent interpretations, dependent on the multiple codes through which individuals interpret and understand social phenomena. See also Fractals, Strange Attractors, and postmodern philosophy of science, Nonlinear.
Power, forms of:
There are four major forms of power used to reproduce inequality: social power, moral power, economic power and physical violence or threat of violence. Add to that all the norms and values which legitimate inequality as well as all the established practices in everyday life which require compliance to inequality. Direct use of power is seldom necessary in 'well socialized' persons or in 'well organized' societies.
1. Social Power: this form of power comes from social relationships, social roles, and social institutions. When ever one is in a role, one must respond to role-others or sanctions/re-socialization ensues. Social life cannot go on unless there is response to the requests and needs of others in a role-set; parent-child, teacher-student, husband-wife, doctor-patient or boss-worker. The question then becomes just how much equality is necessary in such relationships.
2. Moral Power: this form of power comes from shared values and religious teachings. Even without role relationships, one is expected to respond to the needs of unknown others who are defined as persons in law and have social status in a group. Conversely, one can rob, maim, murder or ignore those who do not have social status in one's own religion or group.
3. Economic Power is the power of money: In societies which use money as the primary medium for the transfer of goods [rather than social status], money comes to have great power. As Shakespeare said, 'Yellow, precious glittering gold gives title, knee and approbation to the thief, plucks the pillow from beneath the head and refreshes the hoar leper to the April Day.' When one has no other economic system within which to get the necessities and the desires of life, one must get money. In capitalism, the only legitimate way is to sell one's labor power. When one cannot or will not sell it, one can turn to family, to charity, to crime or to state welfare.
4. Physical power: Physical power comes from the fist, club, gun or threat of force. It does not always depend upon size or skill in arms but often upon status; small men have the moral right to beat women; women do not have the moral right to beat large men or small children. States claim a monopoly over physical power; racist, sexist and class organized states often allow men, whites, the wealthy or ethnic groups the right to use physical force. See Underground structures.
Power-elite thesis:
A view advanced by C. Wright Mills, G. William Domhoff and others to the effect that power in the United States is concentrated in a relatively cohesive and cooperating elite. Big business, big government and big military are held to constitute a power bloc wherein the basic political and economic decisions are made. Fiscal policy such as taxes, interest rates, money supply, unemployment, deficit spending as well as foreign policy, housing starts, energy policy, welfare policy, research policy, and much more are said to be set by the interests of the power elite. Many would add big unions and a technological elite to the power elite.
Pragmatism:
A theory of knowledge which holds that the truth value of an idea is to be found in its practical application in everyday life. P. rejects the idea of universal and eternally valid laws which explain all behavior and rejects the notion of objectivity as a correct unbiased image (or copy) of nature (after Chas Pierce, (1839-1914). Pragmatism holds that only through our interests and actions do we know the world since we construct it pragmatically as we act on those interests. (After Franks). Pragmatism often reduces itself to a cheerful notion that one can do anything at all if it works; it has been used to justify aggression, imperialism and the expediencies of the moment still there is much of value.
Quantification theory:
In quantification theory, the process by which one reveals the underlaying causal connections in natural and social phenomena by comparing the characteristics of a data set with 'normal,' expected or chance distributions is called inference. There are several such characteristics one can use to make guesses about whether causality is at work; one can look at the flatness of a curve when one creates a distribution along a variable. One can assume that very different outcomes which are seen when a new variable is introduced [or removed] proves causal connection. One can look at deviations from a center point and conclude that some cause is at work. This process does not take into account the qualitative changes which occur in the same set of variables when one of them makes a slight curve as a critical [feigenbaum] point. There is a logical form of quantification but it requires no data nor gives a grounding to inferences. See Logic, syllogistic.
Repression:
The process by which unacceptable views and actions are excluded from a social life world. A given social paradigm is constructed and maintained by law, religion, morality and socialization and re-socialization. Authorities use a wide range of punishments [sanctions] from moral condemnation to editing, "correcting," ignoring, as well as the judicious use of rewards. Control over the means to produce meaning (the media) is a major approach in modern repressive technique.
Revisionism:
A pejorative term used by Right and Left to denigrate theories, views, analysis with which they disagree. When the Left rewrites the history of slavery, warfare or gender relations to credit slaves, colonies or women with positive qualities, the Right uses the term. When orthodox marxism is challenged or modified, the term is used as a way to discredit such work.
Revisionism, Theory of:
Rosa Luxemburg identifies three major elements in revisionist practice on the Left: (a) reformist programs defined by the limits of what is possible within capitalist ideology, (b) a subordination of socialist theory to tactics, and (c) opportunism and willingness to stop agitation in order to win concessions. Such an agreement eliminates the threat of militant opposition to capitalist control. Luxemburg's point is that practice must be guided by revolutionary theory else it degenerates into liberalism. The revolutionary theory is always class oppression, class struggle, social revolution, communism.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905-1980):
A french postmodern philosopher best known for his work on Existentialism. Sartre held that human beings had a much greater freedom than most believe; that it was bad faith and/or self exculpation to refuse/fail to act on that freedom. Human beings invent a 'human nature' for themselves and then act as if it were natural and inevitable [existence precedes essence]. Human beings thus negate the nothingness of the world by acting [don't forget, they/we could act otherwise]. Since God is dead, we must invent our own values and standards in life; S. says invent yourself and invent it 'with all your heart.' S. says that when we chose, 'We chose for all mankind;' a touch of the Kantian Imperative there. God is a name for our desire to bring order and stability out of ceaseless change and the somethingness we create out of the nothingness we find. Sartre claimed to be a marxist but there is little concern for oppression, exploitation, alienation and coercion with which Marx dealt.
Science, philosophy of:
A discipline which locates science in the larger social context in which it is found; which tries to reveal the political agenda which gives rise and shapes scientific work; which points to the class, racist and gender biases which drive the knowledge process as well as the connection of science to ethics, aesthetics, logic, and metaphysics. There is great controversy about the role of science, empiricism and induction in the knowledge process. Generally, modern science claims hegemony over the knowledge process; pre-modernist give priority to inspiration and revelation. Nihilist postmodernists tend to reject the possibility of both theory and reliable knowledge. Affirmative postmodernists tend to accept the value of pre-modern, modern and postmodern knowledge processes while stressing the poetics and politics which are intrinsic to any and every human product.
Science, Pre-modern:
Pre-modern knowledge processes uses trust, belief, faith and hope to engage the reality construction process. These social psychological activities convert prophecies into social practices, social relationships and social institutions in a sort of social magic in which the knowing comes from the doing. Pre-modern knowledge processes are fundamental to all other knowledge processes including modern and postmodern science.
Science, Postmodern:
Postmodern philosophy of science makes a place for variety, difference, unpredictable change and dis-order generally. It argues that the knowledge process has many pathways to truth and wisdom; that only short term truth statements are possible for complex systems. Feminist Standpoint epistemology (S.S. Rixecker) teaches us that there are many different and valid standpoints from which to 'know' how a system works and should work. Marx made the point that one's consciousness varies with one's position in the social structure. The present author takes the position that a fully human knowledge process requires pre-modern, modern and postmodern knowledge process. See each for its assumptions, limitations and contributions.
Second Law (of Thermodynamics):
A statement which generalized the tendency of all systems to decay. In formal terms the "law" specifies that all systems tend to their most probable state. The most probable state is disorder, entropy, chaos, or random rather than ordered relationship. It is a very improbable event that six molecules or six people will be in the same place at the same time with one and only one pattern of organization relating them. The secret to order is that there are "segregating" mechanisms each of which "constrain" or reduce part of the improbability. For human systems those segregating mechanisms are rules, roles, values, goals, and social relationships.
Semantics:
A science dealing with the sources of and vehicles for conveying meaning between two or more human beings. Some say that words have intrinsic and universal meaning; others say they are conventional and are used loosely; that the exchange of information requires an open semantic system.
Semiotics:
Greek: semeiotikos: sema = a mark + otikos = theory of. Semeiotics is the study of language understood as 'signs.' All words, phrases, gestures, or cues, all communication spoken or written, are signs. All language systems are themselves various sign system (e.g., engineering, computers, accounting gangs, prison inmates). Semioticians study the evolving meanings communicated through speech or through a text. For example: the word 'gay' could refer to someone who is lively or animated or someone who is homosexual. Then too, those who are homosexual work to change meaning. As recently as twenty years ago, referring to someone as gay was insulting, derisive, and resulted in ostracism and social disgrace. Today, however, one can speak of "Gay Pride" month or "Gay Awareness" indicating that to be gay/homosexual is something to treat as 'normal,' feel good about, and to celebrate.
Sign:
In semiotic terminology, all words or phrases, whether written or spoken, are signs. A sign is that which stands not only for something other but something more added by those using the signs. The sign is composed of two elements: the "signifier" and the "signified." Signifiers are the words or phrases themselves (e.g., car, house, gravely disabled). The signified is the content of the signifier; that is, the meaning assigned to the signifier (e.g., a mode of transportation, a place in which to keep warm, a person who is homeless). Thus, the sign is the relationship between the signifier + the signified. It can change content depending upon the class, gender, culture and interests of those 'reading' them.
Sign, accenting the:
In postmodern semiotic terminology, all words, phrases, gestures within a given system of communication (e.g., sports, law, medicine, gangs) are given preferred meaning. They are loaded with positive or negative emotional or power content. This is not a problem with codes of speech that are readily available to all people in a society. Thus, the languages of popular culture and commercialism accent words or phrases in ways that are accessible to large constituencies. A problem, however, presents itself in dominant discourse; speech codes that regulate and control our lives (e.g., law, news, finance, bureaucracy). There is limited access to "law talk," "corporate talk," "medical talk." In such instances, the meaning of words or phrases are reduced to certain contents. These contents maintain the power of dominant discourse to exclude, to distance, to marginalize, and to alienate. This reduction in meaning is termed uni-accentuality. We feel frustrated, uncertain, and left out despite our wanting to genuinely understand. According to postmodern semiotics, the aim is to enable everyone who uses dominant and hierarchical 'grammars' to accept and embrace alternative and more complete contents for the words or phrases they use. This explosion in meaning is termed multi-accentuality. Multi-accentuality makes possible a reduction in psychic dis-equilibrium and social disorganization. It promotes richer, fuller relationships between and among citizens than does dominant grammars.
Social darwinism:
A theory of social change (Herbert Spencer) which holds that progress is inevitable if only people will cease their interference with nature. By this is meant that if others stop interfering with the plans of private business, there will be progress. The implicit assumption is, of course, that whatever capitalism does is natural and whatever the liberals or radicals do is interference. Charles Darwin is said to have repudiated social darwinism which itself is a more formal version of laissez faire (let it be) cloaked in the language of science.
Social Magic:
The folk process by which social reality is constructed. Involving faith, trust, innocence, naivete and hope, social magic produces wide range of social phenomena including healing, love, community, self-systems, marriage, authority and other such social forms. Social magic has at least four parts: (a) an ideational process involving goals, purposes and intents, (b) a reification process involving a ceremony or ritual, (c) a performance phase in which trusting humans organize their behavior "as-if" the magical ceremony had validity and (c) all this tied to seriously understood social endeavor (rather than make-believe, just pretend, or "practice.") Social magic gains its efficacy from the remarkable ability of people to understand, believe, and fulfill. It is a folk method for constructing social reality in contrast to scientific methods and theories used to create an ordered society. Social magic is part of the legacy from pre-modern thought without which society would be impossible. See self-fulfilling prophecy; Pygmalion studies.
Soul:
Anglo-saxon term for the governing center and/or vital principle in human beings. The Latin synonym is anima; the Greek is psyche or pneuma. Socrates and Plato regarded the soul as the deepest human reality. Plato divided the soul into reason, will and appetite. Aristotle viewed the soul as unity of the living body. Christians and other religious people believe the soul is immortal and lives on after physical death. Wilhelm Wundt viewed the soul as process rather than entity. Gilbert Ryle held the soul is a categorical error in which one reifies the living, thinking animal and assigns it a spiritual essence beyond mere living. Postmodern theology argues that the soul is a collective process with a variable reality and with very differing characteristics depending on both social and personal experiences. Have a good day.
Stoic/stoicism:
A school of social philosophy founded by Zeno in Athens in 100 BCE. The name comes from the Greek word, Stoa = porch, where the stoics met. They contributed much to modern social philosophy; the idea that there is a natural law which orders all things according to universal reason [logos] and can be understood by human beings. This view informed Roman law [see Natural law] which in turn lead to the Enlightenment and to modern fascism. Stoics held that control of social life by reason required one to enter public discourse and assume the duty/responsibility for social life. Human law was superseded by this natural law and led to the concept of the cosmopolis; a society in which people would know and live according to the laws of the cosmos. Stoicism takes it name from the capacity of stoics to commit suicide when they failed in their public duty. Hegel elevated the idea of Natural law to a theory that all rationality resided in the state sector informed by natural law. This justifies state control of all aspects of social life and informs both fascism and neo-fascism.
Subjectivity:
1) a personal point of view seen to be partial and distorted when compared to objectivity [see which], an impersonal and more accurate view of nature or society. 2) postmodernists use the term to warn one away from treating a person as 'subject;' that is, as the sole author of his/her own beliefs, intentions, actions or understandings. The acting subject is lost in an age of images, appearances, simulations and dramaturgical enactments. It is also lost in a bureaucratic, elitist social form since agency is concentrated in top echelons. The subject is thus a fiction for which no stable original 'real self' exists in postmodern thinking.
System (generally):
A set of entropy segregating mechanisms; any fairly structured entity which has a discernible boundary between it and its environment. These range from the layers of sand, gravel and rocks lain down by a river to complex living things. The human body can segregate entropy (pick out amino acids, sugars, fats, and other things from what is ingested; it can pick out oxygen molecules from others in the air and so on. The human body is a working system (is alive) only if it segregates entropy and thus re-produces order.
Chaos/Complexity theory teaches us that the boundaries of most systems are open with fuzzy boundaries; their geometry is fractal, that is, systems do not occupy all the space available in a time/space region. If one changes scale of observation, even the denser system can be seen to be loosely connected; think of atoms, molecules, the human body and the classes you attend at college. They seem solid and stable but they are really quite open and unpredictable.
Systems theory:
A set of propositions about how order is produced across all levels of physical and social reality. Generally a system depends upon the transfer of order from its environment if it is to survive as an improbable arrangement of events. The radical aspect of systems theory is that, if a system is not able to draw order from its environment, either the environment must be changed or the system must change. If the environment is threatened by the transfer or order, then the system itself must change. Theories of society, family, bureaucracy, crime, deviance or disorder which ignore the environment (human and physical) of a society are political obstacles to adequate understanding and to a search for adequate variety.
Technocracy:
The rule by experts; engineers, scientists and specialists. The role and function of the politician is preempted by the expert. In the 30's, many workers thought that technocracy would be better than the elitist version of politics which everywhere thrived. The thought is that there is a natural division of labor and that the experts should make decisions since they alone know what is right and natural. But the use of experts to determine foreign policy, manage workers, generate publics and set medical policy strips away important social values; praxis and community. In a well designed society, the knowledge process would be widely available such that professionals and lay persons would share the research process as well as decisions about how to use knowledge gained from it. Under capitalism (and bureaucratic socialism), knowledge and technology become instruments of domination and contribute to the growth of the surplus population.
Technology:
Social knowledge objectified in the form of machines and routines. Any system for the transformation of natural material into cultural goods and services. In systems theory, a means of segregating entropy.
Text:
A postmodern term which treats all theories, all events, all persons, places or things as a special construction in a special socio-cultural world. Everything is text including this definition of text. See simulacrum.
Theology, Postmodern:
There are two major postmodern views on religion: affirmative and nihilistic. Both forms of postmodern theology hold that the god concept is a human product rather than a supernatural being who created the universe and who gives all natural and social laws. Durkheim argued that the experience of extra-ordinary effects occur during religious activity and is taken to be proof of supernatural beings. It is, he says, these effects of special acts and psychogens which produce feelings of ecstacy and visions of the past and future which are, in turn, viewed as proof of the existence of a supernatural world; theism is completely natural in this account. Nihilistic postmodern views argue that since God is dead/non-existence, each person has an equal right to claim or do what s/he believes best for him/her. Since there is no final authority nor any firm anchor point for moral/ethical behavior, one can do as one wishes. Affirmative Postmodern theology asserts that, even without the god concept to endorse them, there are good reasons to act ethically and to embody many of the teachings of great spiritual leaders. Young argues that dramas of the Holy are progressive when they sanctify people to each other and to the good earth. The political question then revolves around the ways those who use different dramas of the Holy are treated. Liberation theology requires these be respected and honored in their own right.
Value, Postmodern view of:
The main point made in postmodern economic theory here is that art, music, cinema and scripts are used together in advertizing to create a 'hyper-text' in which the value of a commodity is artificially enhanced by borrowing on the art and craft of singers, sports stars, esteemed persons and deep anxieties in order to create layer after layer of 'false needs.' In such a world, value and price bears little relationship to use value, which see. Both use value and exchange value are displaced by the use of psychology, sociology, mass communications and dramaturgy to create false needs [Marcuse].
Yuppie:
This acronym stands for Young, Upwardly mobile person who are concerned only with their own lifestyle and economic security. It is used as a term of opprobrium and or amused teasing. The perfect person in a capitalist society is one who maximizes his/her own pleasure; who helps extract surplus value from working class people and who spends discretionary money as fast as possible.
Zeno of Elea (490-430 BCE):
Aristotle held Zeno to be the inventor of the dialectic in his famous paradoxes: 1) one grain of millet makes no sound when it falls to earth; 10,000 grains make a noise. How can 10,000 noiseless things make a noise? 2) Space is a nonsense notion since if it exists, it can be divided; if divided, either it has finite or infinite parts. Space with finite parts have magnitude; space with infinite parts have no magnitude. How can space exist if it has no magnitude? 3) A flying arrow cannot be flying since it must be either moving in a place where it is or moving in a space where it is not. It cannot be moving in a place where it is since or it would be there and not moving; it cannot be moving in a place where it is not since it is not there. These paradoxes are now understood to be language games, which bear no connection to the dynamics of natural and social systems. However, at the time, they did present one with a dialectic of analytic categories and thus reveals the human role in creating categories with which nature and society are analysed.
For more knowledge check out these PostModernist meccas:
