Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 1977"

Outline of a Theory of Practice: STRUCTURES AND THE HABITUS

Abstract: Pierre Bourdieu’s Outline of the Theory of Practice is frequently used by the authors represented in this collection as the basis for rethinking “linguistic turn” historiography in terms of concepts of agency, experience, and practice. In this seminal work, originally published in French in 1972, Bourdieu set out to examine the theoretical and social conditions that make objective knowledge possible by specifying the mode of production and functioning through which social actors exercise their practical mastery of the underlying schemes and codes of any given cultural configuration. In particular, Bourdieu wanted to frame a theory of practice sensitive to the ambiguities, equivocations, and indeterminacy of life as it is actually lived, thereby permitting the investigator to move, as he claimed, from the “mechanics of the model to the dialectic of strategies.” For this reason, he focused on the strategies and tactics employed by social actors to negotiate social norms explicitly governing practice, so as to uncover the fundamental logic of practice as a logic distinct from that of a culture’s underlying codes. In that sense, Bourdieu is interested in how culture is used by individuals in pursuit of goals and interests, thereby opening a space for intentionality and agency. An additional benefit of a focus on strategies and the realization of cultural models through practice, Bourdieu believed, was the recovery of time and temporal duration for consideration by the social scientist, a dimension previously obliterated by the concentration on timeless structures and models. For Bourdieu, what is most important is to understand how underlying cultural schemes work themselves out, in and through time, by means of actual social practices, which disclose actors’ practical mastery of the symbolism of social interaction. Only in this way, he claimed, is it possible “to restore to practice its practical truth.”

Cult and Sport: The Case of Big Red

Abstract: This paper explores the importance of sport in our society. Several metaphors for sports are presented, including the military and religion. It is argued that for some fans, sport takes on the quality of a secular religion which serves to offer continuity in life, an institutionalized agency for catharsis, a transcendent experience giving followers an escape from the mundane, and a sense of belonging. Using football at the University of Nebraska as an example, empirical support is given for the notion of sport as civil

Can We Speculate on How God Acts

Abstract: Out of the welter of confusion that has characterized much recent theology there is a growing consensus that the one critical issue to be dealt with is the problem of God: whether talk about God is, in any sense, meaningful and, if it is, can talk about divine activity in the world be made intelligible. To see this as an issue is, at the same time, to see the need to utilize philosophical concepts and categories to articulate one's basic convictions and to render them intelligible to current secular modes of thought. There is surprising agreement today on this need to employ philosophical ideas for theological themes. Yet even more remarkable than this is the nearly unanimous rejection of the primacy of the idea of "Being itself" as applicable to God in favor of the conviction that God is to be conceived, if at all, fundamentally as transcendent Person and Agent.' Because the nonpersonal models seem inevitably to give rise to an "empty transcendence" or, at best, a reality which is incapable of "acting and loving,"2 the only God thought to be worth defending as adequate to both religious and secular concerns is a personal God. This is not, however, a merely defensive move. The various efforts at working out the philosophical meaning and implications of personality and agency reflect a widespread conviction that the biblical picture of an eminently personal God who acts in our world can be rendered intelligible in terms of our most rigorous secular thought. And precisely because these efforts hold out the promise of a theological reawakening, they should be given careful scrutiny and criticism.

System stability and transformation: a global system approach

Abstract: THERE are several reasons why we understand so much less about social processes and conditions at the global level than we do about comparable processes and conditions at lower levels of aggregation. One is, of course, that we are dealing with a larger empirical domain and one that is apparently more heterogeneous and complex. Another might be that the behaviour of nations – the key actors at this level of aggregation – has been shrouded more in mystery and taboo than the behaviour of other classes of social entity. By keeping diplomacy and military strategy in the category of the arcane, elites have inhibited serious inquiry, even if there were those unpatriotic enough to ask. A third and related factor may be the extent to which the national state has been the major source of material and psychic sustenance for the world's people over the past century or so and thus not an agency whose external behaviour will be questioned or examined closely. Others might be added to our list, but one that surely merits closer attention may be the way in which we conceptualize world affairs.

A New Look at Miracles

Abstract: Recently several philosophers have claimed that miracles cannot occur or that belief in them involves a misunderstanding of the scientific enterprise. In this paper I will argue that these claims, particularly the latter, are mistaken. By examining the characteristics of the believer's conception of the miraculous I will be able to show how he can meet these sceptical challenges. In particular, I will argue that the believer can hold that certain particular events are the result of intervention by divine agency and are thus not to be explained scientifically but nevertheless can grant the scientist autonomy to investigate all types of events. While I urge that belief in the miraculous does not rest on a confusion I do not argue whether or not this belief is rational or justified.

Equality and Human Need

Abstract: This paper has the twofold purpose of exploring how and whether it may be said that value arises from human need and, in particular, how the value of equality may arise from an alleged human need for recognition. It traces two opposite dispositions toward recognition, one seeing it as destructive of the minimum conditions for political life, the other viewing it as the principal agency through which men achieve their humanity. The concept of a basic human need is then exposed to the criticism of “social apperception,” which apparently renders meaningless the concept altogether. Nevertheless, two “faces” of recognition are explored – one affirming that common human nature in virtue of which all men are said to be equal, and the other, affirming the concrete specificity of each individual. The paper concludes by arguing that this second aspect of the drive for recognition, which is viewed by some as the primary political obligation, is actually not a legitimate aspiration of political life.

Expanding the categories of feedback

Abstract: The contention of this paper is that feedback is a genus of information categories that should be expanded to include, in addition to positive and negative feedback, what is here termed mnemonic or structure-continuing feedback. An informal argument is first advanced to establish a view of information generally as an active agency in the functioning of systems. The informal argument is next complemented by a set of formal expressions for the views advanced. Both formal and informal considerations are supported by numerous illustrations from biological and computer sciences as well as by more general observations from the philosophy of science. Since the overriding intent is to present the thesis that each systemic element of a system's structure has information value in its own right and in a decidedly nontrivial sense, it endeavors to solidify the reasons for regarding this thesis as sound, but does not employ the thesis outside the bounds of theory. In this sense the discussion is purely theoretical although it intends as much to unify the observations of several fields as to advance an expanded conceptualization of feedback suitable to both information and systems theory.