Against Theory

Author : W. J. Thomas Mitchell
Publisher : Chicago : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against Theory written by W. J. Thomas Mitchell and published by Chicago : University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Against Theory," the title essay in this volume, challenges the notion that literary theory has any real work to do, or any results to show. This challenge--issued by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels in Critical Inquiry (8:4)--strikes some critics as scandalous, others as provocative and productive. The argument is directed against both sides of the current debates in literary theory, criticizing theoretical "objectivists" like E. D. Hirsch, Jr., on the one hand, and proponents of indeterminacy like Paul de Man on the other. The attack is not just on a particular way of doing theory but on the entire project of literary theory. The challenge is not only to a way of thinking and writing but to a way of making a living. The resulting controversy has drawn so much attention among literary critics that it has been collected in a single volume so that the debate can be followed from start to finish. This collection includes the essay "Against Theory," seven responses to it, and a rejoinder by Knapp and Michaels (originally published in Critical Inquiry 9:4); in addition, there are two new statements plus a final reply by Knapp and Michaels. The debate chronicled in this volume raises the most fundamental issues in the theory of meaning and the practice of interpretation. Are Knapp and Michaels confronting literary theory with a new "pragmatic" form of theory? Or are they (as some of their respondents suggest) arguing for a new form of nihilism? "If it is a nihilism," writes editor W. J. T. Mitchell, "it is one that demands an answer, not easy polemical dismissal, one that calls for theory to clarify its claims, not to mystify them and the easy assurance of intellectual fashion and institutional authority." It is the intention of Against Theory to aid in that clarification.

Author : I. Leudar
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230234380
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against Theory of Mind written by I. Leudar and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-03-19 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'theory of mind' framework has been the fastest growing body of empirical research in contemporary psychology. It has given rise to a range of positions on what it takes to relate to others as intentional beings. This book brings together disparate strands of ToM research, lays out historical roots of the idea and indicates better alternatives

Author : Dwight Furrow
Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 9780415910804
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against Theory written by Dwight Furrow and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against Theory's is a remarkable synthesis of both the continental and analytical philosophical traditions around the subject of morality. Its singularity lies in its analysis of the implications postmodernism has had on ethics.

Author : David Simpson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226759466
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Romanticism, Nationalism, and the Revolt Against Theory written by David Simpson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1993-06 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why has Anglo-American culture for so long regarded "theory" with intense suspicion? In this important contribution to the history of critical theory, David Simpson argues that a nationalist myth underlies contemporary attacks on theory. Theory's antagonists, Simpson shows, invoke the same criteria of common sense and national solidarity as did the British intellectuals who rebelled against "theory" and "method" during the French Revolution. Simpson demonstrates the close association between "theory" and "method" and shows that by the mid-eighteenth century, "method" had acquired distinctly subversive associations in England. Attributed increasingly to the French and the Germans, "method" paradoxically evoked images both of inhuman rationality and unbridled sentimentality; in either incarnation, it was seen as a threat to what was claimed to be authentically British. Simpson develops these paradigms in relation to feminism, the gendering of Anglo-American culture, and the emergence of literature and literary criticism as antitheoretical discourses. He then looks at the Romantic poets' response to this confining ideology of the cultural role of literature. Finally, Simpson considers postmodern theory's claims for the radical energy of nonrational or antirationalist positions. This is an essential book not only for students of the Romantic period and intellectual historians concerned with the idea of "method," but for anyone interested in the historical background of today's debates over the excesses and possibilities of "theory."

Author : Steven Vogel
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791430453
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against Nature written by Steven Vogel and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against Nature examines the history of the concept of nature in the tradition of Critical Theory, with chapters on Lukacs, Horkheimer and Adorno, Marcuse, and Habermas. It argues that the tradition has been marked by significant difficulties with respect to that concept; that these problems are relevant to contemporary environmental philosophy as well; and that a solution to them requires taking seriously--and literally--the idea of nature as socially constructed.

Author : Paul Feyerabend
Publisher : Verso
ISBN 13 : 9780860916468
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against Method written by Paul Feyerabend and published by Verso. This book was released on 1993 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern philosophy of science has paid great attention to the understanding of scientific 'practice', in contrast to concentration on scientific 'method'. Paul Feyerabend's acclaimed work, which has contributed greatly to this new emphasis, shows the deficiencies of some widespread ideas about the nature of knowledge. He argues that the only feasible explanations of scientific successes are historical explanations, and that anarchism must now replace rationalism in the theory of knowledge. The third edition of this classic text contains a new preface and additional reflections at various points in which the author takes account both of recent debates on science and on the impact of scientific products and practices on the human community. While disavowing populism or relativism, Feyerabend continues to insist that the voice of the inexpert must be heard. Thus many environmental perils were first identified by non-experts against prevailing assumptions in the scientific community. Feyerabend's challenging reassessment of scientific claims and understandings are as pungent and timely as ever.

Author : Aaron James
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385535686
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Assholes written by Aaron James and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spirit of the mega-selling On Bullshit, philosopher Aaron James presents a theory of the asshole that is both intellectually provocative and existentially necessary. What does it mean for someone to be an asshole? The answer is not obvious, despite the fact that we are often personally stuck dealing with people for whom there is no better name. Try as we might to avoid them, assholes are found everywhere—at work, at home, on the road, and in the public sphere. Encountering one causes great difficulty and personal strain, especially because we often cannot understand why exactly someone should be acting like that. Asshole management begins with asshole understanding. Much as Machiavelli illuminated political strategy for princes, this book finally gives us the concepts to think or say why assholes disturb us so, and explains why such people seem part of the human social condition, especially in an age of raging narcissism and unbridled capitalism. These concepts are also practically useful, as understanding the asshole we are stuck with helps us think constructively about how to handle problems he (and they are mostly all men) presents. We get a better sense of when the asshole is best resisted, and when he is best ignored—a better sense of what is, and what is not, worth fighting for.

Author : Crispin Sartwell
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 0791478351
Total Pages : 138 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against the State written by Crispin Sartwell and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2014-02-07 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Irreverent and incisive critique of liberal theories of the state.

Author : Stephan Fuchs
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674037410
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against Essentialism written by Stephan Fuchs and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against Essentialism presents a sociological theory of culture. This interdisciplinary and foundational work deals with basic issues common to current debates in social theory, including society, culture, meaning, truth, and communication. Stephan Fuchs argues that many mysteries about these concepts lose their mysteriousness when dynamic variations are introduced. Fuchs proposes a theory of culture and society that merges two core traditions--American network theory and European (Luhmannian) systems theory. His book distinguishes four major types of social observers--encounters, groups, organizations, and networks. Society takes place in these four modes of association. Each generates levels of observation linked with each other into a culture--the unity of these observations. Against Essentialism presents a groundbreaking new approach to the construction of society, culture, and personhood. The book invites both social scientists and philosophers to see what happens when essentialism is abandoned.

Author : Christopher Norris
Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN 13 : 9780631198642
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Against Relativism written by Christopher Norris and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 1997-11-10 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a vigorous and constructive challenge to relativism by examining a wide range of anti-realist theories, and in response offering a variety of arguments amounting to a strong defence of critical realism in the natural and social sciences.