Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579976
- eISBN:
- 9780191722615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579976.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Philosophy
This chapter emphasizes that in offering an alternative to interminablist interpretations of the Kantian aesthetic, the present work has striven to develop avenues of understanding opened up through ...
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This chapter emphasizes that in offering an alternative to interminablist interpretations of the Kantian aesthetic, the present work has striven to develop avenues of understanding opened up through his key concepts and arguments. In particular, great emphasis has been placed on meta-aesthetic factors, which reveal the deep grounding of aesthetic phenomena on structures that are experientially decisive (as the basis of objective knowledge and the unity of self-consciousness). Through this means it has been possible, also, to show that the aesthetic domain has a depth of meaning that invests it with a validity that exceeds the levelling instincts of global consumerism and cultural relativism. It offers the basis of a critical justification of higher cultural phenomena.Less
This chapter emphasizes that in offering an alternative to interminablist interpretations of the Kantian aesthetic, the present work has striven to develop avenues of understanding opened up through his key concepts and arguments. In particular, great emphasis has been placed on meta-aesthetic factors, which reveal the deep grounding of aesthetic phenomena on structures that are experientially decisive (as the basis of objective knowledge and the unity of self-consciousness). Through this means it has been possible, also, to show that the aesthetic domain has a depth of meaning that invests it with a validity that exceeds the levelling instincts of global consumerism and cultural relativism. It offers the basis of a critical justification of higher cultural phenomena.
John G. Stackhouse
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195138078
- eISBN:
- 9780199834679
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138074.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Presents a conception of apologetics appropriate for the contemporary cultural context. This conception avoids the destructive and self‐defeating problems of dogmatism and triumphalism, ...
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Presents a conception of apologetics appropriate for the contemporary cultural context. This conception avoids the destructive and self‐defeating problems of dogmatism and triumphalism, all‐too‐typical of most apologetics. Part I locates apologetics within the context of contemporary culture, discussing the most salient challenges to apologetical conversation in contemporary North American culture: pluralism, postmodernity, the problem of plausibility, and consumerism. Part II moves from analysis of the cultural context of apologetical conversation to a theological and epistemological exploration of the definition of apologetics. It establishes that a proper understanding and practice of apologetics will be located within the context of God's overarching mission of conversion and will also recognize its own limitations in light of several basic principles of epistemology guiding all decision making. This section defines apologetics as including anything that commends the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christianity, thereby rendering it more plausible. Several modes and objectives of apologetics are defined and apologetics itself is defended as a worthy engagement for Christians. In Part III, apologetics is located within the context of basic principles of communication, patterned after the ministry of Jesus Christ. A variety of audience‐specific approaches to apologetics are defined and their usefulness is assessed in light of these principles. Practical applications are then drawn from these principles. The book concludes that apologetics must be reconceived as humble, i.e., as a defense of the faith that lovingly offers our neighbors what we think we know of the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the hope that God will bring others to encounter Jesus – as only he can.Less
Presents a conception of apologetics appropriate for the contemporary cultural context. This conception avoids the destructive and self‐defeating problems of dogmatism and triumphalism, all‐too‐typical of most apologetics. Part I locates apologetics within the context of contemporary culture, discussing the most salient challenges to apologetical conversation in contemporary North American culture: pluralism, postmodernity, the problem of plausibility, and consumerism. Part II moves from analysis of the cultural context of apologetical conversation to a theological and epistemological exploration of the definition of apologetics. It establishes that a proper understanding and practice of apologetics will be located within the context of God's overarching mission of conversion and will also recognize its own limitations in light of several basic principles of epistemology guiding all decision making. This section defines apologetics as including anything that commends the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christianity, thereby rendering it more plausible. Several modes and objectives of apologetics are defined and apologetics itself is defended as a worthy engagement for Christians. In Part III, apologetics is located within the context of basic principles of communication, patterned after the ministry of Jesus Christ. A variety of audience‐specific approaches to apologetics are defined and their usefulness is assessed in light of these principles. Practical applications are then drawn from these principles. The book concludes that apologetics must be reconceived as humble, i.e., as a defense of the faith that lovingly offers our neighbors what we think we know of the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the hope that God will bring others to encounter Jesus – as only he can.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198236238
- eISBN:
- 9780191597268
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198236239.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Considerable controversy has raged around the question of postmodern culture and its products. This book attempts to overcome some of the antagonistic viewpoints involved by developing themes from ...
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Considerable controversy has raged around the question of postmodern culture and its products. This book attempts to overcome some of the antagonistic viewpoints involved by developing themes from the work of Kant, Benjamin, and Merleau–Ponty in the context of themes from contemporary culture. Attention is paid to such topics as the relation between art and politics, the problematics of poststructuralist and feminist approaches to art, the emergence and re‐emergence of theories of the sublime, and the continuing possibility of artistic creativity. The central theme is that there are experiential constants around which art and philosophy constellate. At the same time, however, due account must be given of the ways in which such constants are historically mediated. By articulating various aspects of this relation, it is shown how postmodern sensibility can be more than that of an alienated consumerism. Understood in the proper theoretical context, it is grounded on experiences and artefacts that humanize.Less
Considerable controversy has raged around the question of postmodern culture and its products. This book attempts to overcome some of the antagonistic viewpoints involved by developing themes from the work of Kant, Benjamin, and Merleau–Ponty in the context of themes from contemporary culture. Attention is paid to such topics as the relation between art and politics, the problematics of poststructuralist and feminist approaches to art, the emergence and re‐emergence of theories of the sublime, and the continuing possibility of artistic creativity. The central theme is that there are experiential constants around which art and philosophy constellate. At the same time, however, due account must be given of the ways in which such constants are historically mediated. By articulating various aspects of this relation, it is shown how postmodern sensibility can be more than that of an alienated consumerism. Understood in the proper theoretical context, it is grounded on experiences and artefacts that humanize.
Francis O’Gorman (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199281923
- eISBN:
- 9780191712951
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281923.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Victorian Britain offered the world an economic structure of unique complexity. The trading nation, at the heart of a great empire, developed the practices of advanced capitalism — currency, banking, ...
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Victorian Britain offered the world an economic structure of unique complexity. The trading nation, at the heart of a great empire, developed the practices of advanced capitalism — currency, banking, investment, money markets, business practices and theory, intellectual property legislation — from which the financial systems of the contemporary world emerged. Cultural forms in Victorian Britain transacted with high capitalism in a variety of ways but literary critics interested in economics have traditionally been preoccupied either with writers' hostility to industrial capitalism in terms of its shaping of class, or with the development of consumerism. This book is the first extended study to take seriously the relationships between literary forms and those more complex discourses of Victorian high finance. The chapters move beyond the examination of literature that was merely impatient with the perceived consequences of capitalism to analyse creative relationships between culture and economic structures. Considering such topics as the nature of currency, women and the culture of investment, the profits of a modern media age, the dramatization of risk on the Victorian stage, the practice of realism in relation to business theory, the culture of speculation at the end of the century, and arguments about the uncomfortable relationship between literary and financial capital, this book sets new terms for understanding and theorizing the relationship between high finance and literary writing in the 19th century.Less
Victorian Britain offered the world an economic structure of unique complexity. The trading nation, at the heart of a great empire, developed the practices of advanced capitalism — currency, banking, investment, money markets, business practices and theory, intellectual property legislation — from which the financial systems of the contemporary world emerged. Cultural forms in Victorian Britain transacted with high capitalism in a variety of ways but literary critics interested in economics have traditionally been preoccupied either with writers' hostility to industrial capitalism in terms of its shaping of class, or with the development of consumerism. This book is the first extended study to take seriously the relationships between literary forms and those more complex discourses of Victorian high finance. The chapters move beyond the examination of literature that was merely impatient with the perceived consequences of capitalism to analyse creative relationships between culture and economic structures. Considering such topics as the nature of currency, women and the culture of investment, the profits of a modern media age, the dramatization of risk on the Victorian stage, the practice of realism in relation to business theory, the culture of speculation at the end of the century, and arguments about the uncomfortable relationship between literary and financial capital, this book sets new terms for understanding and theorizing the relationship between high finance and literary writing in the 19th century.
Fiona Randall and R. S. Downie
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199547333
- eISBN:
- 9780191730405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547333.003.0012
- Subject:
- Palliative Care, Patient Care and End-of-Life Decision Making, Palliative Medicine Research
This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on patient choice in end of life care. The philosophy of medicine and of end of life care in particular which emerged in the second half ...
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This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on patient choice in end of life care. The philosophy of medicine and of end of life care in particular which emerged in the second half of the 20th century stressed the importance of patient choice in the light of information provided by the doctor. Consumerism is taking over health care, and the best interests of patients are being seen as patients getting whatever it is they choose, in terms of treatments, care and place of death. This chapter suggests that an end of life service should have the following characteristics: realism, fairness, humanity, and adoptability.Less
This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on patient choice in end of life care. The philosophy of medicine and of end of life care in particular which emerged in the second half of the 20th century stressed the importance of patient choice in the light of information provided by the doctor. Consumerism is taking over health care, and the best interests of patients are being seen as patients getting whatever it is they choose, in terms of treatments, care and place of death. This chapter suggests that an end of life service should have the following characteristics: realism, fairness, humanity, and adoptability.
Eamonn Callan
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242689
- eISBN:
- 9780191598715
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242682.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Autonomy is important to leading a good life but a common liberal instrumental construal of the way in which it contributes to the leading of a good life is defective. A one‐sided focus on the ...
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Autonomy is important to leading a good life but a common liberal instrumental construal of the way in which it contributes to the leading of a good life is defective. A one‐sided focus on the development of capacities for revision of conceptions of the good should be corrected by attention to the value of developing capacities permitting a rational adherence to a conception of the good. Exposing children to a diverse but shallow secular and consumer culture might not facilitate goodness‐enhancing autonomy in a way that is superior to the more insular strategies of religious minorities whose child‐rearing practices are criticized by liberals.Less
Autonomy is important to leading a good life but a common liberal instrumental construal of the way in which it contributes to the leading of a good life is defective. A one‐sided focus on the development of capacities for revision of conceptions of the good should be corrected by attention to the value of developing capacities permitting a rational adherence to a conception of the good. Exposing children to a diverse but shallow secular and consumer culture might not facilitate goodness‐enhancing autonomy in a way that is superior to the more insular strategies of religious minorities whose child‐rearing practices are criticized by liberals.
George Cheney, Daniel J. Lair, Dean Ritz, and Brenden E. Kendall
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195182774
- eISBN:
- 9780199871001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182774.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Corporate Governance and Accountability
This chapter focuses on ethics at the market level, arguing that, contrary to popular wisdom, the market is not amoral. In typical contemporary framings, the market is presumed to be both inherently ...
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This chapter focuses on ethics at the market level, arguing that, contrary to popular wisdom, the market is not amoral. In typical contemporary framings, the market is presumed to be both inherently good-as in, the best way to do business and organize society-and yet amoral, in terms of bracketing out or holding at bay ethical judgments. The chapter includes a detailed discussion of the meanings of the market in everyday talk in addition to including accounts of historical and contemporary cases where the presumed “super-agency” of the market led people and societies astray. The chapter also reviews relevant research on happiness, especially as it bears on conceptions of economic productivity and success. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the possibilities for the ethical reform of the market through making visible what we mean when we invoke the term “market.”Less
This chapter focuses on ethics at the market level, arguing that, contrary to popular wisdom, the market is not amoral. In typical contemporary framings, the market is presumed to be both inherently good-as in, the best way to do business and organize society-and yet amoral, in terms of bracketing out or holding at bay ethical judgments. The chapter includes a detailed discussion of the meanings of the market in everyday talk in addition to including accounts of historical and contemporary cases where the presumed “super-agency” of the market led people and societies astray. The chapter also reviews relevant research on happiness, especially as it bears on conceptions of economic productivity and success. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the possibilities for the ethical reform of the market through making visible what we mean when we invoke the term “market.”
Alex Mold
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719095313
- eISBN:
- 9781781708606
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719095313.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
Over the last fifty years, British patients have been made into consumers. This book considers how and why the figure of the patient-consumer was brought into being, paying particular attention to ...
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Over the last fifty years, British patients have been made into consumers. This book considers how and why the figure of the patient-consumer was brought into being, paying particular attention to the role played by patient organisations. Making the Patient-Consumer explores the development of patient-consumerism from the 1960s to 2010 in relation to seven key areas. Patient autonomy, representation, complaint, rights, information, voice and choice were all central to the making of the patient-consumer. These concepts were used initially by patient organisations to construct the figure of the patient-consumer, but by the 1990s the government had taken over as the main actor shaping ideas about patient consumerism. Making the Patient-Consumer is the first empirical, historical account of a fundamental shift in modern British health policy and practice. The book will be of use to historians, public policy analysts and all those attempting to better understand the nature of contemporary healthcare.Less
Over the last fifty years, British patients have been made into consumers. This book considers how and why the figure of the patient-consumer was brought into being, paying particular attention to the role played by patient organisations. Making the Patient-Consumer explores the development of patient-consumerism from the 1960s to 2010 in relation to seven key areas. Patient autonomy, representation, complaint, rights, information, voice and choice were all central to the making of the patient-consumer. These concepts were used initially by patient organisations to construct the figure of the patient-consumer, but by the 1990s the government had taken over as the main actor shaping ideas about patient consumerism. Making the Patient-Consumer is the first empirical, historical account of a fundamental shift in modern British health policy and practice. The book will be of use to historians, public policy analysts and all those attempting to better understand the nature of contemporary healthcare.
Heidi R. M. Pauwels
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369908
- eISBN:
- 9780199871322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369908.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Chapter 3 traces the portrayal of divine wedding ceremonies over time. These ceremonies are an important public ritual in which values and gender ideologies are articulated and tradition is ...
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Chapter 3 traces the portrayal of divine wedding ceremonies over time. These ceremonies are an important public ritual in which values and gender ideologies are articulated and tradition is constructed; they encapsulate what is understood to constitute love and its relationship to the matrimonial bond. Sita and Rama's wedding is very influential this way; Radha and Krishna's secret wedding (love marriage or Gandharva vivaha) does not really subvert this ideal, in the movies, such rituals lead to an unhappy outcome. Sending a positive message, the televised Ramayan emphatically corrects for the real‐life inequality between the bride's and the groom's parties and advocates understanding by the in‐laws for a young wife's plight. However, it is more conservative than the older sources in making the total submission of the woman to the man's family a prerequisite for her being treated well. In the “wedding wave” movies of the nineties, such submission is rewarded by an abundance of consumer goods. Movies discussed are Aradhana, Dil, Hum aapke hain koun..!, Lajja, and 7 1/2 Phere. Less
Chapter 3 traces the portrayal of divine wedding ceremonies over time. These ceremonies are an important public ritual in which values and gender ideologies are articulated and tradition is constructed; they encapsulate what is understood to constitute love and its relationship to the matrimonial bond. Sita and Rama's wedding is very influential this way; Radha and Krishna's secret wedding (love marriage or Gandharva vivaha) does not really subvert this ideal, in the movies, such rituals lead to an unhappy outcome. Sending a positive message, the televised Ramayan emphatically corrects for the real‐life inequality between the bride's and the groom's parties and advocates understanding by the in‐laws for a young wife's plight. However, it is more conservative than the older sources in making the total submission of the woman to the man's family a prerequisite for her being treated well. In the “wedding wave” movies of the nineties, such submission is rewarded by an abundance of consumer goods. Movies discussed are Aradhana, Dil, Hum aapke hain koun..!, Lajja, and 7 1/2 Phere.
Heidi R. M. Pauwels
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369908
- eISBN:
- 9780199871322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369908.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The conclusion first discusses the Indian Women's Movement's engagement with the goddess as role model and calls for a nuanced understanding before activist appropriation. Then, it brings together ...
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The conclusion first discusses the Indian Women's Movement's engagement with the goddess as role model and calls for a nuanced understanding before activist appropriation. Then, it brings together what insights can be drawn from this study for the construction of traditional South Asian “womanhood,” and how that construction has developed over time. It looks first at the devotional construction and then at the modern one. The latter is influenced by the rise of Hindutva in politics and by a consumerist context, not unlike Soap Serials. As Radha has come to resemble Sita, women who subordinate themselves to patriarchy are shown to be rewarded. Is this oppressive or catering to what women want? A test case is presented, studying recent attitudes toward dowry. Finally, suggestions are made for further investigation that might complicate these conclusions, but on the whole it seems that we can speak of a victory of dharma over love‐ at least for now.Less
The conclusion first discusses the Indian Women's Movement's engagement with the goddess as role model and calls for a nuanced understanding before activist appropriation. Then, it brings together what insights can be drawn from this study for the construction of traditional South Asian “womanhood,” and how that construction has developed over time. It looks first at the devotional construction and then at the modern one. The latter is influenced by the rise of Hindutva in politics and by a consumerist context, not unlike Soap Serials. As Radha has come to resemble Sita, women who subordinate themselves to patriarchy are shown to be rewarded. Is this oppressive or catering to what women want? A test case is presented, studying recent attitudes toward dowry. Finally, suggestions are made for further investigation that might complicate these conclusions, but on the whole it seems that we can speak of a victory of dharma over love‐ at least for now.
Michael P. Roller
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056081
- eISBN:
- 9780813053875
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056081.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Using evidence of historical changes in landscape, community life, and material culture from a coal mining company town in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeast Pennsylvania, Michael Roller ...
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Using evidence of historical changes in landscape, community life, and material culture from a coal mining company town in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeast Pennsylvania, Michael Roller introduces an archaeological approach to the structural violence on workers, citizens, and consumers that developed across the twentieth century. The study begins with an analysis of a moment of explicit violence at the end of the nineteenth century, an event known as the Lattimer Massacre, in which as many as nineteen immigrant miners were shot by a posse of local businessmen. From this touchstone, material history and theoretical contexts across the twentieth century are documented in a manner both locally specific and broadly generalizable. Historical archaeology is used strategically, opportunistically, and dialectically, supported, amplified, and illuminated by archival and ethnographic research, spatial analysis, and social theory. In the process, attention is brought to contradictions, ironies, and absences in our understandings of this formative era in labor history. This study illuminates the development of systematized violence and soft forms of social control enacted by the collusion of state and capital through materialities such as infrastructure, urban redevelopment, mass consumerism, governmentality, biopolitics, and the shifting boundaries of sovereign power. Varied in its use of sources, the study returns again and again to the material life and the shifting landscapes of the company towns and shanty enclaves of the region, as well as the violence of the Massacre. This archaeology of the recent past shows us the unconscious material foundations for present social troubles.Less
Using evidence of historical changes in landscape, community life, and material culture from a coal mining company town in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeast Pennsylvania, Michael Roller introduces an archaeological approach to the structural violence on workers, citizens, and consumers that developed across the twentieth century. The study begins with an analysis of a moment of explicit violence at the end of the nineteenth century, an event known as the Lattimer Massacre, in which as many as nineteen immigrant miners were shot by a posse of local businessmen. From this touchstone, material history and theoretical contexts across the twentieth century are documented in a manner both locally specific and broadly generalizable. Historical archaeology is used strategically, opportunistically, and dialectically, supported, amplified, and illuminated by archival and ethnographic research, spatial analysis, and social theory. In the process, attention is brought to contradictions, ironies, and absences in our understandings of this formative era in labor history. This study illuminates the development of systematized violence and soft forms of social control enacted by the collusion of state and capital through materialities such as infrastructure, urban redevelopment, mass consumerism, governmentality, biopolitics, and the shifting boundaries of sovereign power. Varied in its use of sources, the study returns again and again to the material life and the shifting landscapes of the company towns and shanty enclaves of the region, as well as the violence of the Massacre. This archaeology of the recent past shows us the unconscious material foundations for present social troubles.
Jean-Luc Nancy
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230365
- eISBN:
- 9780823235476
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230365.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This book concerns the particular communication of thoughts that takes place by means of the business of writing, producing, and selling books. The author's reflection is born out of his relation to ...
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This book concerns the particular communication of thoughts that takes place by means of the business of writing, producing, and selling books. The author's reflection is born out of his relation to the bookstore, in the first place his neighborhood one, but beyond that any such “perfumery, rotisserie, patisserie,” as he calls them; dispensaries “of scents and flavors through which something like a fragrance or bouquet of the book is divined, presumed, sensed.” The book is thus not only something of a semiology of the specific cultural practice that begins with the unique character of the writer's voice and culminates in a customer crossing the bookstore threshold, package under arm, on the way home to a comfortable chair, but also an understated yet persuasive plea in favor of an endangered species. In evoking the peddler who, in times past, plied the streets with books and pamphlets literally hanging off him, the author emphasizes the sensuality of this commerce and reminds us that this form of consumerism is like no other, one that ends in an experience—reading—that is the beginning of a limitless dispersion, metamorphosis, and dissemination of ideas. Making, selling, and buying books has all the elements of the exchange economy that Marx analyzed—from commodification to fetishism—yet each book retains throughout an absolute and unique value, that of its subject. With reading, it gets repeatedly reprinted and rebound. For the author, the book thus functions only if it remains at the same time open and shut, like some Moebius strip. Closed, it represents the idea and takes its place in a canon by means of its monumental form and the title and author's name displayed on its spine. But it also opens itself to us, indeed consents to being shaken to its core, in being read each time anew.Less
This book concerns the particular communication of thoughts that takes place by means of the business of writing, producing, and selling books. The author's reflection is born out of his relation to the bookstore, in the first place his neighborhood one, but beyond that any such “perfumery, rotisserie, patisserie,” as he calls them; dispensaries “of scents and flavors through which something like a fragrance or bouquet of the book is divined, presumed, sensed.” The book is thus not only something of a semiology of the specific cultural practice that begins with the unique character of the writer's voice and culminates in a customer crossing the bookstore threshold, package under arm, on the way home to a comfortable chair, but also an understated yet persuasive plea in favor of an endangered species. In evoking the peddler who, in times past, plied the streets with books and pamphlets literally hanging off him, the author emphasizes the sensuality of this commerce and reminds us that this form of consumerism is like no other, one that ends in an experience—reading—that is the beginning of a limitless dispersion, metamorphosis, and dissemination of ideas. Making, selling, and buying books has all the elements of the exchange economy that Marx analyzed—from commodification to fetishism—yet each book retains throughout an absolute and unique value, that of its subject. With reading, it gets repeatedly reprinted and rebound. For the author, the book thus functions only if it remains at the same time open and shut, like some Moebius strip. Closed, it represents the idea and takes its place in a canon by means of its monumental form and the title and author's name displayed on its spine. But it also opens itself to us, indeed consents to being shaken to its core, in being read each time anew.
Kieran Laird
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623860
- eISBN:
- 9780748652808
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623860.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
What does it mean to ‘think differently’? What are the conditions under which original thought can take place and what are the obstacles to it? The ability to create thoughts is what lies at the base ...
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What does it mean to ‘think differently’? What are the conditions under which original thought can take place and what are the obstacles to it? The ability to create thoughts is what lies at the base of philosophy and political theory and practice. One cannot hope to change the world, or even adequately critique it, without the possibility of the new in mental life. This book seeks to explore the possibility of thinking differently through connecting neuropsychological material on consciousness, nonconsciousness and affect to political theory. It spans many diverse disciplines – from hard-edged neuropsychology to sociology, economics, political theory and Eastern and Western philosophy. The book's originality lies in its ability to draw meaningful connections between such disparate literatures, weaving a coherent whole. It then applies the concepts created to the currently popular topics of consumerism and the anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation movements. The book addresses an enormous breadth of material in exploring the manufacture of the self in consumer society.Less
What does it mean to ‘think differently’? What are the conditions under which original thought can take place and what are the obstacles to it? The ability to create thoughts is what lies at the base of philosophy and political theory and practice. One cannot hope to change the world, or even adequately critique it, without the possibility of the new in mental life. This book seeks to explore the possibility of thinking differently through connecting neuropsychological material on consciousness, nonconsciousness and affect to political theory. It spans many diverse disciplines – from hard-edged neuropsychology to sociology, economics, political theory and Eastern and Western philosophy. The book's originality lies in its ability to draw meaningful connections between such disparate literatures, weaving a coherent whole. It then applies the concepts created to the currently popular topics of consumerism and the anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation movements. The book addresses an enormous breadth of material in exploring the manufacture of the self in consumer society.
Richard M. Fried
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195043617
- eISBN:
- 9780199853724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1954, several developments combined to check the momentum of anti-Communist extremism. McCarthy's censure by the Senate was both a sign of and force for change. In the next three years, the ...
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In 1954, several developments combined to check the momentum of anti-Communist extremism. McCarthy's censure by the Senate was both a sign of and force for change. In the next three years, the atmosphere of the McCarthy era would dissipate. Many institutional underpinnings of the Red Scare endured, but the change was nonetheless profound. About a year into Eisenhower's first term, the loyalty-security apparatus began to attract rising criticism. Previously, publicity had nourished Red-hunters like McCarthy; now it operated to highlight the system's harshness and to discredit, if not the premise of anti-communism, at least the methods by which it was enforced. Potent social forces of the 1950s as consumerism and suburbanization may in some ways have helped cool the fever of McCarthyism.Less
In 1954, several developments combined to check the momentum of anti-Communist extremism. McCarthy's censure by the Senate was both a sign of and force for change. In the next three years, the atmosphere of the McCarthy era would dissipate. Many institutional underpinnings of the Red Scare endured, but the change was nonetheless profound. About a year into Eisenhower's first term, the loyalty-security apparatus began to attract rising criticism. Previously, publicity had nourished Red-hunters like McCarthy; now it operated to highlight the system's harshness and to discredit, if not the premise of anti-communism, at least the methods by which it was enforced. Potent social forces of the 1950s as consumerism and suburbanization may in some ways have helped cool the fever of McCarthyism.
Gary Cross
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195156669
- eISBN:
- 9780199868254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156669.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Today's newspapers and magazines regularly feature stories about schools — reports on test scores, changes in the curriculum, proposed laws to raise academic performance — and the latest findings on ...
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Today's newspapers and magazines regularly feature stories about schools — reports on test scores, changes in the curriculum, proposed laws to raise academic performance — and the latest findings on child rearing, such as the impact of reading stories or playing classical music upon the later success of toddlers. At the same time, children's TV, beyond the toddler years, has been largely shorn of “educational” content and has little to do with growing up to success. These battles between consumerism and education have been with us for generations. Parents are frequently confused about how to balance serious effort with fun in their children's lives, especially when the ubiquitous commercial culture is so successful at the serious business of promoting fun. As a result, the very meaning of innocence has changed: the idea of sheltered innocence, with its insistence on effort, reason, and work, has ceded much influence to wondrous innocence, with its appeal to desire, imagination, and gratification.Less
Today's newspapers and magazines regularly feature stories about schools — reports on test scores, changes in the curriculum, proposed laws to raise academic performance — and the latest findings on child rearing, such as the impact of reading stories or playing classical music upon the later success of toddlers. At the same time, children's TV, beyond the toddler years, has been largely shorn of “educational” content and has little to do with growing up to success. These battles between consumerism and education have been with us for generations. Parents are frequently confused about how to balance serious effort with fun in their children's lives, especially when the ubiquitous commercial culture is so successful at the serious business of promoting fun. As a result, the very meaning of innocence has changed: the idea of sheltered innocence, with its insistence on effort, reason, and work, has ceded much influence to wondrous innocence, with its appeal to desire, imagination, and gratification.
Gary Cross
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195156669
- eISBN:
- 9780199868254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156669.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The modern notion of the child as “cute” as opposed to merely adorable or even charming crosses a boundary. The meaning of the word “cute” underwent a transformation, from the manipulative and ...
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The modern notion of the child as “cute” as opposed to merely adorable or even charming crosses a boundary. The meaning of the word “cute” underwent a transformation, from the manipulative and devious adult to the lively charm of the willful child, suggesting a new tolerance for the headstrong, even manipulative, youngster. This suggests that the attractive, bubbling enthusiasm associated with children is no longer seen negatively as manipulative or devilish, but positively as charming and even desirable. The cute became the look of wondrous innocence. Cute children became the New Kids in dolls, illustrated stories, magazines, and advertisements. This chapter examines how parents contributed to the idea of the cute child through their style of child rearing, and how this image promoted consumerism.Less
The modern notion of the child as “cute” as opposed to merely adorable or even charming crosses a boundary. The meaning of the word “cute” underwent a transformation, from the manipulative and devious adult to the lively charm of the willful child, suggesting a new tolerance for the headstrong, even manipulative, youngster. This suggests that the attractive, bubbling enthusiasm associated with children is no longer seen negatively as manipulative or devilish, but positively as charming and even desirable. The cute became the look of wondrous innocence. Cute children became the New Kids in dolls, illustrated stories, magazines, and advertisements. This chapter examines how parents contributed to the idea of the cute child through their style of child rearing, and how this image promoted consumerism.
Gary Cross
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195156669
- eISBN:
- 9780199868254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156669.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and birthdays are rituals invented by adults to evoke in their children the wonder of innocence. The images of the cute child were realized in these rituals, very often ...
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Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and birthdays are rituals invented by adults to evoke in their children the wonder of innocence. The images of the cute child were realized in these rituals, very often expressed in gift giving. Holidays and pilgrimages, once expressions of deep communal needs, became the quintessential festivals of wondrous innocence, while vacations and tourist sites increasingly were changed into children's times and places. This transformation coincided both with new attitudes toward the young and with the rise of consumerism. To make sense of these subtle and ambiguous changes, the present chapter reconsiders the traditional meanings of festival rites and why they have survived the revolutionary changes of modern capitalism.Less
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and birthdays are rituals invented by adults to evoke in their children the wonder of innocence. The images of the cute child were realized in these rituals, very often expressed in gift giving. Holidays and pilgrimages, once expressions of deep communal needs, became the quintessential festivals of wondrous innocence, while vacations and tourist sites increasingly were changed into children's times and places. This transformation coincided both with new attitudes toward the young and with the rise of consumerism. To make sense of these subtle and ambiguous changes, the present chapter reconsiders the traditional meanings of festival rites and why they have survived the revolutionary changes of modern capitalism.
Gary Cross
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195156669
- eISBN:
- 9780199868254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156669.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Commercial culture abhors a vacuum and thus never leaves unsatisfied a marketable desire. Because modern adults often see their children's longings as innocent and kids' satisfactions as measures of ...
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Commercial culture abhors a vacuum and thus never leaves unsatisfied a marketable desire. Because modern adults often see their children's longings as innocent and kids' satisfactions as measures of their own happiness, the family becomes commercialized. This is especially true in middle-class America and has spread with increasing affluence. But when children's desires get away from parents' control and understanding and when capitalism draws out those youthful longings in ways that meet the immediate, but not the long-term, needs of children, parents see red. They demand boundaries and reassert older meanings of innocence, seeking shelter rather than wonder. When adults conceded that their offspring have autonomous needs and desires, merchandisers learned to sell the cool to kids. The modern penchant for associating childhood with wonder and the way that the cute becomes the cool have led inevitably to a renewed demand for the sheltered child.Less
Commercial culture abhors a vacuum and thus never leaves unsatisfied a marketable desire. Because modern adults often see their children's longings as innocent and kids' satisfactions as measures of their own happiness, the family becomes commercialized. This is especially true in middle-class America and has spread with increasing affluence. But when children's desires get away from parents' control and understanding and when capitalism draws out those youthful longings in ways that meet the immediate, but not the long-term, needs of children, parents see red. They demand boundaries and reassert older meanings of innocence, seeking shelter rather than wonder. When adults conceded that their offspring have autonomous needs and desires, merchandisers learned to sell the cool to kids. The modern penchant for associating childhood with wonder and the way that the cute becomes the cool have led inevitably to a renewed demand for the sheltered child.
John G. Stackhouse
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195138078
- eISBN:
- 9780199834679
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138074.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Investigates the meaning and significance of postmodernity as the most recent cultural situation to arise within North America's pluralistic culture. It defines postmodernity as the condition of lost ...
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Investigates the meaning and significance of postmodernity as the most recent cultural situation to arise within North America's pluralistic culture. It defines postmodernity as the condition of lost confidence in the modern project's ability to discover the truth and to reshape the world in light of that discovery. Instead, it recognizes that all human perception and thought is necessarily perspectival or subjective – from somewhere and by someone. Postmodernism is distinguished as the collective array of responses to postmodernity that accept its view of things and then attempt to construct a view of the world, and perhaps an entire way of life, on that basis. The multiculturalism of North American culture further exacerbates the situation of pluralism and postmodernity. The discussion of pluralism and postmodernity concludes by arguing that the present situation is distinct from former conditions in the scope and amount of plurality, the pace of change, the ubiquity of doubt, and finally, consumerism.Less
Investigates the meaning and significance of postmodernity as the most recent cultural situation to arise within North America's pluralistic culture. It defines postmodernity as the condition of lost confidence in the modern project's ability to discover the truth and to reshape the world in light of that discovery. Instead, it recognizes that all human perception and thought is necessarily perspectival or subjective – from somewhere and by someone. Postmodernism is distinguished as the collective array of responses to postmodernity that accept its view of things and then attempt to construct a view of the world, and perhaps an entire way of life, on that basis. The multiculturalism of North American culture further exacerbates the situation of pluralism and postmodernity. The discussion of pluralism and postmodernity concludes by arguing that the present situation is distinct from former conditions in the scope and amount of plurality, the pace of change, the ubiquity of doubt, and finally, consumerism.
John G. Stackhouse
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195138078
- eISBN:
- 9780199834679
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138074.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Consumerism is an outlook that frames everything in terms of consumption by the sovereign self. After having scrutinized basic convictions of consumerism, this chapter lists the effects of ...
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Consumerism is an outlook that frames everything in terms of consumption by the sovereign self. After having scrutinized basic convictions of consumerism, this chapter lists the effects of consumerism on the shape of religion in the private and public sphere. In the private sphere, religion becomes viewed as a consumer good; religions themselves become segmented into parts from which one may freely pick and choose according to one's needs, i.e., “Sheilaism.” Religion is selected or constructed by the self for the self, evident even in traditional Christian circles in the practice of “church‐shopping.” In the public sphere, consumerism reshapes religion such that any traits of religion contrary to the consumerist impulse are discarded. The chapter concludes, however, with the hopeful suggestion that because authentic Christianity is countercultural, it has the possibility of revitalizing modernity, rather than merely perpetuating it.Less
Consumerism is an outlook that frames everything in terms of consumption by the sovereign self. After having scrutinized basic convictions of consumerism, this chapter lists the effects of consumerism on the shape of religion in the private and public sphere. In the private sphere, religion becomes viewed as a consumer good; religions themselves become segmented into parts from which one may freely pick and choose according to one's needs, i.e., “Sheilaism.” Religion is selected or constructed by the self for the self, evident even in traditional Christian circles in the practice of “church‐shopping.” In the public sphere, consumerism reshapes religion such that any traits of religion contrary to the consumerist impulse are discarded. The chapter concludes, however, with the hopeful suggestion that because authentic Christianity is countercultural, it has the possibility of revitalizing modernity, rather than merely perpetuating it.
