Showing papers on "Human science published in 1988"

Narrative knowing and the human sciences

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Modernism, Postmodernism and Organizational Analysis: An Introduction

Abstract: The paper introduces the current debate in the human sciences between the opposing conceptual positions of 'modernism' and 'postmodernism' and discusses its implications for organizational analysis. The debate focusses on the nature of 'discourse' (information, knowledge, communication) and its role in social systems. The discourse of modernism rests on transcendent yet anthropocentric criteria such as 'progress' and 'reason' which are varyingly exemplified in the work of Bell, Luhmann and Habermas. In contrast, postmodern discourse (represented here mainly by the work of Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari) analyzes social life in terms of paradox and indeterminacy, thus rejecting the human agent as the centre of rational control and understanding. The paper then considers two contrasting views of the organizing process which follow from these opposing approaches to discourse. In the modernist model, organization is viewed as a social tool and an extension of human rationality. In the postmo...

After the Fact

Abstract: 'Suppose,' Clifford Geertz suggests, 'having entangled yourself every now and again over four decades or so in the goings-on in two provincial towns, one a Southeast Asian bend in the road, one a North African outpost and passage point, you wished to say something about how those goings-on had changed.' A narrative presents itself, a tour of indices and trends, perhaps a memoir? None, however, will suffice, because in forty years more has changed than those two towns--the anthropologist, for instance, anthropology itself, even the intellectual and moral world in which the discipline exists. And so, in looking back on four decades of anthropology in the field, Geertz has created a work that is characteristically unclassifiable, a personal history that is also a retrospective reflection on developments in the human sciences amid political, social, and cultural changes in the world. An elegant summation of one of the most remarkable careers in anthropology, it is at the same time an eloquent statement of the purposes and possibilities of anthropology's interpretive powers. To view his two towns in time, Pare in Indonesia and Sefrou in Morocco, Geertz adopts various perspectives on anthropological research and analysis during the post-colonial period, the Cold War, and the emergence of the new states of Asia and Africa. Throughout, he clarifies his own position on a broad series of issues at once empirical, methodological, theoretical, and personal. The result is a truly original book, one that displays a particular way of practicing the human sciences and thus a particular--and particularly efficacious--view of what these sciences are, have been, and should become.

Design in architecture : architecture and the human sciences / Geoffrey Broadbent

Abstract: Broadbent first investigates what an architect is as a person. Trying to understand how an architect thinks and what sets him apart from the other members of a building design team. To achieve this Broadbent makes a study of various psychological reports which have been generated about architects. Although it would seem that the reports are inconclusive about what characterizes an architect. In particular there would seem to be a great difference between the personality of average and outstanding architects. Characterizations have been made about personality types in general and they include, creative and non-creative, tolerant and prejudiced, introverted and extroverted. Many of these terms carry linguistic connotations which are perhaps misleading. One of the less emotionally loaded distinctions is between cyclothymes and schizothymes. Cyclothymes seem to be sensitive and sociable people with good verbal reasoning skills. By contrast the schizothymes dissociate intellectual and emotional aspects of life tending towards self-sufficiency, reserve and intolerance. Some outstanding designers have been characterized as the latter, whereas some studies would favour the former characteristics for average architects. Although there does not appear to be a clear definition of the character of an architect, some interesting distinctions between broad types of thinkers can be identified. One classification is between convergent and divergent thinkers. The difference between convergent and divergent thinkers re-occurs throughout the book. Convergent thinkers are generally associated with the sciences, and will work effectively towards one correct answer to a given problem. Divergent thinkers respond well to open-ended questions, taking pleasure from the task of proposing many alternatives to a given problem. Divergent thinkers seem to enjoy ambiguity in a problem and are happy to work in this situation, convergent thinkers prefer precise problem definitions avoiding "messy" situations. Convergent thinkers seek to find an abstract perfection, through precise logical arguments, something which divergent thinkers mistrust. Although all architects will fall somewhere between these two extremes, as with all the polarizations presented, there are examples of successful architects who show tendencies to either one of these types of thinking. It has been suggested that successful designing requires both types of thinking. The creative process described in simple terms relies upon the creation of a set of possible solutions and a critical selection process to choose the most suitable. Divergent thinking works best at producing alternatives, and convergent thinking works best at selecting the best solution from a given set. The divergent thinker works within a vague framework, while the convergent thinker works within the well-defined set of possibilities presented.

Introduction to the Human Sciences: An Attempt to Lay a Foundation for the Study of Society and History

Abstract: For some two centuries, scholars have wrestled with questions regarding the nature and logic of history as a discipline and, more broadly, with the entire complex of the "human sciences, " with include theology, philosophy, history, literature, the fine arts, and languages. The fundamental issue is whether the human sciences are a special class of studies with a specifically distinct object and method or whether they must be subsumed under the natural sciences. German philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey dedicated the bulk of his long career to there and related questions. His Introduction to the Human Sciences is a pioneering effort to elaborate a general theory of the human sciences, especially history, and to distinguish these sciences radically from the field of natural sciences. Though the Introduction was never completed, it remains one of the major statements of the topic. Together with other works by Dilthey, it has had a substantial influence on the recognition and human sciences as a fundamental division of human knowledge and on their separation from the natural sciences in origin, nature, and method. As a contribution to the issue of the methodologies of the humanities and social sciences, the Introduction rightly claims a place. This is the first time the entire work is available in English. In his introductory essay, translator Ramon J. Betanzos surveys Dilthey's life and thought and hails his efforts to create a foundational science for the particular human sciences, and at the same time, takes serious issue with Dilthey's historical/critical evaluation of metaphysics.

Phenomenology of Communication: Merleau Ponty's Thematics in Communicology and Semiology

Abstract: This work presents the first systemic account of the author's innovative theory of semiotic phenomenology and its place in the philosophy of communication and language. The creative and compelling project presented here spans more than fifteen years of systematic eidetic and empirical research into questions of human communication. Using the thematics of Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology, the author explores the concepts and practices of the human sciences that are grounded in communication theory, information theory, language, logic, linguistics, and semiotics. The hermeneutic discussion ranges over contemporary theories that include Roman Jakobson's phenomenological structuralism, the semiotics of Umberto Eco, Charles Pierce, and Alfred Schutz, the theory of speech acts offered by Jurgen Habermas and John Searle, and Michel Foucault's phenomenological rhetoric of discourse. In general, this highly developed study offers the reader a fresh account of the problematic issues in the philosophy of communication. It is a work that any scholar in communication, philosophy, linguistics, or social theory would welcome for its scope and sustained research.

Composition as a Human Science: Contributions to the Self-Understanding of a Discipline

Abstract: The last twenty years have seen an explosion of writing programmes in American schools and universities. However, while composition has firmly established itself as a subject worthy of study, the major philosophical premises that differentiate a subject from a discipline have yet to be agreed upon. This book goes some way to resolving these problems.

Human biology: an introduction to human evolution variation growth and adaptability 3rd edition.

Abstract: This textbook deals with the nature origins development and causes of human variety and with the biological organization of past and present human populations It is divided into 4 sections These cover some general principles of evolutionary theory the principle of the Primates the fossil evidence for human evolution aspects of Primate behavior the principles of human genetics as applied to population studies systematic descriptions of human variation the nature of human growth and the factors which determine it varieties of human physique and other constitutional traits and the ecology of human populations considered especially in terms of adaptation processes The book is intended primarily for students of human biology biological anthropology human sciences and medicine but it should continue to be of value also to everyone interested in the population biology of man

Worldly phenomenology : the continuing influence of Alfred Schutz on North American human science

Abstract: Although Alfred Schutz' thought focused on the phenomenological founding of interpretive sociology, he also believed it relevant for other social and even historical sciences. His thought has been internationally appreciated in a wide range of human scientific disciplines. This collection of essays assesses Schutz' impact and potential beyond sociology and philosophy. It includes essays from a geographer and an economist and addresses topics such as communicology, computerization, politics, and literature, as well as psychology and sociology. The sixteen contributors to this volume were asked to prepare essays that reviewed the impact of Schutz in their discipline, discussed the potential, and attempted novelly to actualize some of that potential.

In Search of a Human Science Psychology

Abstract: After a brief review of the diverse contributions of the pioneers Fechner, Wundt, and Titchener the unity of science hypothesis is considered and found to be inappropriate for psychology as a human science. The same applies to cybernetics and system theory, which are briefly reviewed. The realistic approach of Harre and Secord is an improvement on the positivist philosophies of science, but their view of man does not exclude the possibility of an advanced computer being considered human and is therefore vulnerable to technology. Support is given to the existential phenomenological approach and three salient questions for human scientific discourse are addressed, namely, the question of psychology's dialogue with psychotherapy, the question of truth as revealing (Entbergung), and that of critical psychology. In general, it is stressed that a human science psychology should be adequate to man and should start with our primary experience as interpreted in the light of anthropological and phenomenological phi...

Is Erving Goffman a Phenomenologist

Abstract: Phenomenology is a human science theory and methodology whose history runs from Edmund Husserl and Alfred Schutz to Maurice Merleau‐Ponty and his student, Michel Foucault. One applied form of this qualitative research tradition in the United States is the ethnomethodology of Erving Goffman. While many of his research practices are “phenomenological,” they are decidedly a‐theoretical, especially by comparison to the contemporary theory and methodology of semiotic phenomenology. Goffman's research on the experience of radio frames is critiqued by providing the results of a complete empirical phenomenological analysis of Goffman's report on data.

Sociology and Literature: The Voice of Fact and the Writing of Fiction

Abstract: It is argued that relations between the discourses of sociology and literature need to be rethought outside the appropriative, yet in appropriate, terms of 'the sociology of ...'. The work of Foucault, and particularly his location of the joint emergence of literature and the human sciences at a single 'moment', are enlisted towards this end. While the human sciences are seen to rely, broadly, on a number of fictional postulates and categories, literature can also be seen as a source of serious and advanced social theory. To illustrate this second point, the article concludes with a preliminary analysis of the baptism passage from Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan.

Comment l'histoire et la géographie sont-elles enseignées ? [Exemple des classes de CM2 et 6e]

Abstract: The teaching of history, geography, social sciences Introductory Note. — For some years the didactics of these three subjects has aroused an increased concern. The collection of three articles presented below consider some aspects of the work achieved by the Human Sciences team of the INRP Department of Didactics.

Zur Uberwindung neuzeitlicher Wissenschaftsauffassungen

Abstract: Not ‘human sciences’, but physics is said to be the measure for that what is called “science”. Deficiencies of human sciences are led back to complexity, external influences etc. If one differentiates several orientations for that what is called “science”, another reason is determinable. The conceptions of science in modern thinking are monistically orientated, because they have the aim to reach exceptional knowledge, that lets eliminate alternatives. Elimination combined with competition leads to prejudices. Competition does not reduce the irrationality, like Popper, Toulmin and others assumed, but further it. Only a polyistic orientation, for which the aim of science would be the making and maintenance of alternatives, would diminish the causes for prejudices. Since in the ‘human sciences’ unlike natural sciences prejudices are objects of research this leads to a weakening of the object orientated elimination. What therefore has become an ideal for physics, has fatal consequences for ‘human sciences’, which a physics orientated philosophy of science consolidates. For that reason a polyistic orientated understanding of science has to be developed, that can be divided in eclectic (pluralistic) and systematic conceptions. As an intensional combinatorics produces systematically alternatives systematic polyism and combinatorics are connected with each other.

Natural Selection of Culture

Abstract: The formal similarities between biological evolution and human history have repeatedly tempted students of one topic to borrow ideas from the other. The most famous and fruitful example of borrowing by biologists of an idea from the human sciences was the use made, by both Darwin and Wallace, of Malthus’s picture of human competition for resources as a foundation for their own theory of evolution by natural selection. At a less exalted level, I have myself spent much of the last fifteen years applying the mathematical theory of games, first developed for use in economics, to solve problems in evolution. Indeed, I am by no means the only recent biologist to exploit mathematical economics as a source of ideas.

Groundwork for political negotiation in South Africa

Abstract: This paper was presented to the symposium on The Communication Process of Political Negotiations at the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit on 12 August 1988. It was condensed from the forthcoming book Pursuing Justice and Peace in South Africa, published by Routledge in London. The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Human Sciences Research Council in the form of a senior research grant for study abroad. Opinions expressed or conclusions arrived at are those of the author, and are not to be regarded as those of the Human Sciences Research Council.

Power and beliefs in South Africa : economic potency structures in South Africa and their interaction with patterns of conviction in the light of Christian ethic

Abstract: This study was conducted within the framework of the ‘Investigation into Intergroup Relations’ of the South African Human Sciences Research Council.

Models and Interpretation in Human Sciences: Anthropology and the Theoretical Notion of Field

Abstract: The present paper consists of three parts. In the introduction (I), I describe briefly the epistemological model which is the premise of my analysis. My argument is that knowledge in human sciences is essentially interpretive knowledge. In the central part of my paper (II), I deal with the problem of defining what interpretation is in a particular human science, that is anthropology. Once assumed, as I do, that an anthropological fact is only given in relation to a point of view, or to a pre-compre-hension of the fact, we must analyze the specific features of such a relation. The framework of the cognitive relation, in the ethnographic experience, is the field. Given that, the field is not to be taken as a background or a generic container of this relation. Rather, it determines its specific features. As we shall see, these features are basically dialogical. Finally, in the third part (III), I shall put forward some points in order to discuss the role of language and dialogic interaction in the cognitive strategies of anthropology.

The Human sciences : their contribution to society and future research needs

Abstract: The importance of continued funding of research within the scholarly community, especially in the humanities and social sciences, has become a major consideration as Canadian universities plan for the future.

Droit, pouvoir et sciences humaines dans la pensée de Michel Foucault

Abstract: Michel Foucault has been one of the top French thinkers of the twentieth century, one of the masters of suspicion about our civilisation. He has invited those who work in the fields of law and the human sciences to examine the genealogy of their respective domains of activity. In particular, Foucault has questioned the ability of the dominant juridical model, that of sovereignty, to give an account of the field of power relations at the onset of modernity. He studied the remodeling of individuals and populations through a series of disciplinary and regulatory practices. The latter would have been unthinkable without the close collaboration of the nascent human sciences. According to Foucault, the practitioners of law and of the human sciences join their forces in the ontological productivity of bio-power. In order to counter such an alliance, one must first of all become conscious of its might.