Dray William H.
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198238812
- eISBN:
- 9780191679780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198238812.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This epilogue summarises what has emerged with regard to both R. G. Collingwood's view of the nature of historical understanding as re-enactment, and the place which that doctrine should occupy in a ...
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This epilogue summarises what has emerged with regard to both R. G. Collingwood's view of the nature of historical understanding as re-enactment, and the place which that doctrine should occupy in a broader Collingwoodian theory of historical understanding. The nature of Collingwood's theory of re-enactment has been explored, along with its limits and its relation to some other ideas which play, or are thought to play, a legitimate role in historical thinking. Collingwood's idea of re-enactive understanding has been discussed, and the idea that re-enactive explanation might simply be an incomplete form of scientific explanation has been noted and rejected. Two other Collingwoodian ideas which have been treated at some length are the idea of an a priori historical imagination and Collingwood's doctrine of the ideality of the past.Less
This epilogue summarises what has emerged with regard to both R. G. Collingwood's view of the nature of historical understanding as re-enactment, and the place which that doctrine should occupy in a broader Collingwoodian theory of historical understanding. The nature of Collingwood's theory of re-enactment has been explored, along with its limits and its relation to some other ideas which play, or are thought to play, a legitimate role in historical thinking. Collingwood's idea of re-enactive understanding has been discussed, and the idea that re-enactive explanation might simply be an incomplete form of scientific explanation has been noted and rejected. Two other Collingwoodian ideas which have been treated at some length are the idea of an a priori historical imagination and Collingwood's doctrine of the ideality of the past.
Louise Fitzgerald, Sue Dopson, Ewan Ferlie, and Louise Locock
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259014
- eISBN:
- 9780191718113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259014.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Public Management
This chapter seeks to draw together separated strands of analysis and to develop a more refined empirically-based explanation of how knowledge moves into use. It contains a range of illustrative ...
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This chapter seeks to draw together separated strands of analysis and to develop a more refined empirically-based explanation of how knowledge moves into use. It contains a range of illustrative vignettes, and concludes with five key integrative themes from the analysis.Less
This chapter seeks to draw together separated strands of analysis and to develop a more refined empirically-based explanation of how knowledge moves into use. It contains a range of illustrative vignettes, and concludes with five key integrative themes from the analysis.
Chun Wei Choo
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176780
- eISBN:
- 9780199789634
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176780.003.0003
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
In sensemaking, people seek answers to the questions: what is going on in the environment? What does it mean for us as an organization? According to Weick, organizations make sense of their ...
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In sensemaking, people seek answers to the questions: what is going on in the environment? What does it mean for us as an organization? According to Weick, organizations make sense of their environments through the processes of enactment, selection, and retention. Sensemaking is driven by organizational beliefs and actions that direct attention and frame the interpretation of information. The result of sensemaking is an enacted environment that is has been rendered meaningul and understandable. A central problem in sensemaking is how to reduce ambiguity and develop shared meanings so that the organization may act collectively.Less
In sensemaking, people seek answers to the questions: what is going on in the environment? What does it mean for us as an organization? According to Weick, organizations make sense of their environments through the processes of enactment, selection, and retention. Sensemaking is driven by organizational beliefs and actions that direct attention and frame the interpretation of information. The result of sensemaking is an enacted environment that is has been rendered meaningul and understandable. A central problem in sensemaking is how to reduce ambiguity and develop shared meanings so that the organization may act collectively.
Stephen J. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199258628
- eISBN:
- 9780191718052
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199258628.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Christian pilgrimage can be described as a set of practices oriented towards the Incarnation as an accessible event that — when imaginatively and physically claimed by imitation or re-enactment — ...
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Christian pilgrimage can be described as a set of practices oriented towards the Incarnation as an accessible event that — when imaginatively and physically claimed by imitation or re-enactment — helps facilitate for the participant a proleptic transformation in status from the earthly to the heavenly. In this way, pilgrimage, as a form of ritual, reaffirms the differences or boundaries between the sacred and the profane (the divine and the human), while at the same time allowing these boundaries ‘for a few careful minutes’ to break down. Re-enactments of the Incarnation took place in various locales, and in the process, not only the participants, but also the places themselves became sacralized; bodies and territory transformed into ritual sites where the earthly and heavenly came into creative contact. This chapter highlights how the late antique and early medieval landscape of Upper Egypt served as a setting for ritual re-enactment in Christian pilgrimage practice.Less
Christian pilgrimage can be described as a set of practices oriented towards the Incarnation as an accessible event that — when imaginatively and physically claimed by imitation or re-enactment — helps facilitate for the participant a proleptic transformation in status from the earthly to the heavenly. In this way, pilgrimage, as a form of ritual, reaffirms the differences or boundaries between the sacred and the profane (the divine and the human), while at the same time allowing these boundaries ‘for a few careful minutes’ to break down. Re-enactments of the Incarnation took place in various locales, and in the process, not only the participants, but also the places themselves became sacralized; bodies and territory transformed into ritual sites where the earthly and heavenly came into creative contact. This chapter highlights how the late antique and early medieval landscape of Upper Egypt served as a setting for ritual re-enactment in Christian pilgrimage practice.
Sandra L. Bloom and Brian Farragher
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195374803
- eISBN:
- 9780199865420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374803.003.0012
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
Because the existing mental model for organizations is based on notions of rationality, control and social engineering, the human reactions to loss of attachments is given little recognition. ...
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Because the existing mental model for organizations is based on notions of rationality, control and social engineering, the human reactions to loss of attachments is given little recognition. Nonetheless, loss, grief, traumatic loss have become commonplace components of human service environments. When this is occurring, staff feel increasingly angry, demoralized, helpless and hopeless about the people they are working to serve: they become “burned out”. All change involves loss, but without an ability to acknowledge, honor and work through repetitive loss, organizations are likely to develop ever-increasing problems and a powerful tendency to repeat ineffective strategies. This reenactment behavior can ultimately lead to organizational decline and even organizational death. This chapter deals with these issues at length, including the disturbing idea that the broader society may have unconsciously set up the social service sector to actually be successful failures.Less
Because the existing mental model for organizations is based on notions of rationality, control and social engineering, the human reactions to loss of attachments is given little recognition. Nonetheless, loss, grief, traumatic loss have become commonplace components of human service environments. When this is occurring, staff feel increasingly angry, demoralized, helpless and hopeless about the people they are working to serve: they become “burned out”. All change involves loss, but without an ability to acknowledge, honor and work through repetitive loss, organizations are likely to develop ever-increasing problems and a powerful tendency to repeat ineffective strategies. This reenactment behavior can ultimately lead to organizational decline and even organizational death. This chapter deals with these issues at length, including the disturbing idea that the broader society may have unconsciously set up the social service sector to actually be successful failures.
Alvin Goldman
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199275731
- eISBN:
- 9780191706103
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199275731.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter considers how imagination generates emotion. ‘Supposition-imagination’ (S-imagination) is distinguished from ‘enactment-imagination’ (E-imagination). The former kind of imagination ...
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This chapter considers how imagination generates emotion. ‘Supposition-imagination’ (S-imagination) is distinguished from ‘enactment-imagination’ (E-imagination). The former kind of imagination involves entertaining or supposing various hypothetical scenarios; with the latter kind of imagination, one tries to create a kind of facsimile of a mental state. Thus, one might try to create a perception-like state as in visual imagination or motoric imagination. It is argued that this much richer form of imagination generates typical emotional reactions to fiction. Emotional reactions to fiction are generated in several different ways, including a process in which we E-imagine being a hypothetical reader or observer of fact.Less
This chapter considers how imagination generates emotion. ‘Supposition-imagination’ (S-imagination) is distinguished from ‘enactment-imagination’ (E-imagination). The former kind of imagination involves entertaining or supposing various hypothetical scenarios; with the latter kind of imagination, one tries to create a kind of facsimile of a mental state. Thus, one might try to create a perception-like state as in visual imagination or motoric imagination. It is argued that this much richer form of imagination generates typical emotional reactions to fiction. Emotional reactions to fiction are generated in several different ways, including a process in which we E-imagine being a hypothetical reader or observer of fact.
Keith Beattie
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719078552
- eISBN:
- 9781781701836
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078552.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Humphrey Jennings has been described as the only real poet of British cinema. His documentary films employ a range of representational approaches – including collagist narrative structures and ...
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Humphrey Jennings has been described as the only real poet of British cinema. His documentary films employ a range of representational approaches – including collagist narrative structures and dramatic re-enactment – in ways that transcend accepted notions of wartime propaganda and revise the strict codes of British documentary film of the 1930s and 1940s. The resultant body of work is a remarkable record of Britain at peace and war. This study examines a productive ambiguity of meanings associated with the subtle interaction of images and sounds within Jennings' films, and considers the ideological and institutional contexts and forces that impacted on the formal structure of his films. Central and lesser-known films are analysed, including Spare Time, Words for Battle, Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started, The Silent Village, A Diary for Timothy and Family Portrait. Poet, propagandist, surrealist and documentary filmmaker – Jennings' work embodies a mix of apprehension, personal expression and representational innovation. This book examines and explains the central components of Jennings' most significant films, and considers the relevance of his filmmaking to British cinema and contemporary experience.Less
Humphrey Jennings has been described as the only real poet of British cinema. His documentary films employ a range of representational approaches – including collagist narrative structures and dramatic re-enactment – in ways that transcend accepted notions of wartime propaganda and revise the strict codes of British documentary film of the 1930s and 1940s. The resultant body of work is a remarkable record of Britain at peace and war. This study examines a productive ambiguity of meanings associated with the subtle interaction of images and sounds within Jennings' films, and considers the ideological and institutional contexts and forces that impacted on the formal structure of his films. Central and lesser-known films are analysed, including Spare Time, Words for Battle, Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started, The Silent Village, A Diary for Timothy and Family Portrait. Poet, propagandist, surrealist and documentary filmmaker – Jennings' work embodies a mix of apprehension, personal expression and representational innovation. This book examines and explains the central components of Jennings' most significant films, and considers the relevance of his filmmaking to British cinema and contemporary experience.
Donna Landry
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554157
- eISBN:
- 9780191720437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554157.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
In its perverse quotation and transfiguration of Orientalist tropes, William Beckford's Vathek (1786, 1816) is both reiterative and strangely personal. The text owes more to the Arabian Nights ...
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In its perverse quotation and transfiguration of Orientalist tropes, William Beckford's Vathek (1786, 1816) is both reiterative and strangely personal. The text owes more to the Arabian Nights Entertainments, and to the Islamic poetry with which the Nights was intertwined in Beckford's imagination, than to any other source. Vathek demonstrates in a radical way how writing, or otherwise attempting imaginatively to reenact events by representing or re-staging them, reveals those events very often to have been themselves reenactments, rescriptings of previous events and, inevitably, re-presentations of those events. Vathek reveals the abyssal vanishing point of reenactment as an approach to the past. In its satire on English rural society and sporting culture, conveyed deviously by means an Oriental screen, Vathek also exposes the way in English Orientalism was as often an escape from the intolerable as it was an investigation of the emulatable.Less
In its perverse quotation and transfiguration of Orientalist tropes, William Beckford's Vathek (1786, 1816) is both reiterative and strangely personal. The text owes more to the Arabian Nights Entertainments, and to the Islamic poetry with which the Nights was intertwined in Beckford's imagination, than to any other source. Vathek demonstrates in a radical way how writing, or otherwise attempting imaginatively to reenact events by representing or re-staging them, reveals those events very often to have been themselves reenactments, rescriptings of previous events and, inevitably, re-presentations of those events. Vathek reveals the abyssal vanishing point of reenactment as an approach to the past. In its satire on English rural society and sporting culture, conveyed deviously by means an Oriental screen, Vathek also exposes the way in English Orientalism was as often an escape from the intolerable as it was an investigation of the emulatable.
Tom Bingham
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198299127
- eISBN:
- 9780191685620
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198299127.003.0021
- Subject:
- Law, Legal Profession and Ethics, Philosophy of Law
This chapter calls for the enactment of a comprehensive, modern, and intelligible code of criminal law. Most countries in the world, including ...
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This chapter calls for the enactment of a comprehensive, modern, and intelligible code of criminal law. Most countries in the world, including Britain's former colonies, have such a code. The criminal law was the obvious candidate for codification. So a Criminal Code team was set up, notably including Professor Sir John Smith, whom most would gladly hail as the outstanding criminal lawyer of the time. A code was produced and published in 1985; it was revised and expanded in 1989. It has very largely withstood the appraisal and criticism to which it has been properly subjected, and has in general commanded respect and support. However, the code has not been enacted, not for want of confidence in its objects or its contents, but for lack of parliamentary time, a powerful but not, surely, an insuperable obstacle. The Law Commission has tried, with indifferent success, to achieve what it can on a partial, piecemeal basis.Less
This chapter calls for the enactment of a comprehensive, modern, and intelligible code of criminal law. Most countries in the world, including Britain's former colonies, have such a code. The criminal law was the obvious candidate for codification. So a Criminal Code team was set up, notably including Professor Sir John Smith, whom most would gladly hail as the outstanding criminal lawyer of the time. A code was produced and published in 1985; it was revised and expanded in 1989. It has very largely withstood the appraisal and criticism to which it has been properly subjected, and has in general commanded respect and support. However, the code has not been enacted, not for want of confidence in its objects or its contents, but for lack of parliamentary time, a powerful but not, surely, an insuperable obstacle. The Law Commission has tried, with indifferent success, to achieve what it can on a partial, piecemeal basis.
Jacqueline Corcoran
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195149524
- eISBN:
- 9780199865154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149524.003.0006
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health, Children and Families
This chapter begins with a brief overview of structural family therapy and then follows with an empirical rationale for the use of structural family therapy with adolescent conduct disorder. The ...
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This chapter begins with a brief overview of structural family therapy and then follows with an empirical rationale for the use of structural family therapy with adolescent conduct disorder. The central goal of structural family therapy is to create a well-functioning structure, which is hierarchically organized with clear boundaries around subsystems. These goals are achieved through enactments, working with interactions in the session, so that new patterns are formed. Assumptions of structural family therapy and its techniques are applied to a case study.Less
This chapter begins with a brief overview of structural family therapy and then follows with an empirical rationale for the use of structural family therapy with adolescent conduct disorder. The central goal of structural family therapy is to create a well-functioning structure, which is hierarchically organized with clear boundaries around subsystems. These goals are achieved through enactments, working with interactions in the session, so that new patterns are formed. Assumptions of structural family therapy and its techniques are applied to a case study.
Samantha Vice
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195320398
- eISBN:
- 9780199869534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320398.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, General
This paper explores the nature of ideals and their role in living a moral life, through a reading of Frank Capra’s 1941 film, Meet John Doe. The film deals particularly subtly both with the moral ...
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This paper explores the nature of ideals and their role in living a moral life, through a reading of Frank Capra’s 1941 film, Meet John Doe. The film deals particularly subtly both with the moral benefits of ideals and their potential dangers. It shows how we can be attracted to and motivated by an ideal through the physical presence of a particular admirable person, but it also shows the moral dangers of confusing the person who embodies ideals for us with those ideals themselves. I argue, further, that Meet John Doe is more than an illustration of the claims made about ideals. Rather, the film enacts the relation to ideals that we have in the non-fictional world and is for this reason of philosophical interest.Less
This paper explores the nature of ideals and their role in living a moral life, through a reading of Frank Capra’s 1941 film, Meet John Doe. The film deals particularly subtly both with the moral benefits of ideals and their potential dangers. It shows how we can be attracted to and motivated by an ideal through the physical presence of a particular admirable person, but it also shows the moral dangers of confusing the person who embodies ideals for us with those ideals themselves. I argue, further, that Meet John Doe is more than an illustration of the claims made about ideals. Rather, the film enacts the relation to ideals that we have in the non-fictional world and is for this reason of philosophical interest.
Chris Stamatakis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644407
- eISBN:
- 9780191738821
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644407.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Poetry
This chapter charts acts of performative rewriting in Wyatt’s epistolary texts—his two letters to his son, diplomatic correspondence, and three verse epistles. In different ways, these letters all ...
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This chapter charts acts of performative rewriting in Wyatt’s epistolary texts—his two letters to his son, diplomatic correspondence, and three verse epistles. In different ways, these letters all call upon a rhetoric of rewriting: their readers and addressees are urged towards rescriptive action. In his paternal letters, Wyatt invokes the culture of imitation advocated in humanist pedagogy to instruct his son to model himself on exemplary copy-texts: manual copying shades into ethical rewriting. As a diplomatic ‘orator’ on embassies in Europe, Wyatt composed letters to the home court which not only recount previous texts and conversations, but also prompt his readers to rescriptive performance: inert words are transformed into material deeds. Wyatt’s three verse epistles, which critics often reduce to satires, rewrite their sources so as to invite their own rewriting by his readers. Such turning of the epistolary coin reaffirms the textual friendship between writer and reader.Less
This chapter charts acts of performative rewriting in Wyatt’s epistolary texts—his two letters to his son, diplomatic correspondence, and three verse epistles. In different ways, these letters all call upon a rhetoric of rewriting: their readers and addressees are urged towards rescriptive action. In his paternal letters, Wyatt invokes the culture of imitation advocated in humanist pedagogy to instruct his son to model himself on exemplary copy-texts: manual copying shades into ethical rewriting. As a diplomatic ‘orator’ on embassies in Europe, Wyatt composed letters to the home court which not only recount previous texts and conversations, but also prompt his readers to rescriptive performance: inert words are transformed into material deeds. Wyatt’s three verse epistles, which critics often reduce to satires, rewrite their sources so as to invite their own rewriting by his readers. Such turning of the epistolary coin reaffirms the textual friendship between writer and reader.
Wolfgang Streeck
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199573981
- eISBN:
- 9780191702136
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573981.003.0018
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy, International Business
The notion of capitalism brings about the concept that the economy is inherently dynamic since historical social formation is defined by a certain descriptive dynamism that evolves with social ...
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The notion of capitalism brings about the concept that the economy is inherently dynamic since historical social formation is defined by a certain descriptive dynamism that evolves with social reality in real time. Also, capitalism veers away from fallacies of misplaced abstractness that prevents engaging in the world while events are happening. This chapter first provides a brief discussion on why it was a mistake that institutionalist theory and comparative political economy replaced capitalism with a functionalist concept called ‘the economy’. It then looks into Streeck and Thelen's model of institutional enactment to provide a micro-foundation for understanding the dynamic of institutional change under capitalism. It also argues that Polanyi's ‘double movement’ of market expansion allows for a more comprehensive interpretation of institutional change. Lastly, it suggests a way to accommodate both rationalization and globalization in a historical-institutionalist model of capitalism.Less
The notion of capitalism brings about the concept that the economy is inherently dynamic since historical social formation is defined by a certain descriptive dynamism that evolves with social reality in real time. Also, capitalism veers away from fallacies of misplaced abstractness that prevents engaging in the world while events are happening. This chapter first provides a brief discussion on why it was a mistake that institutionalist theory and comparative political economy replaced capitalism with a functionalist concept called ‘the economy’. It then looks into Streeck and Thelen's model of institutional enactment to provide a micro-foundation for understanding the dynamic of institutional change under capitalism. It also argues that Polanyi's ‘double movement’ of market expansion allows for a more comprehensive interpretation of institutional change. Lastly, it suggests a way to accommodate both rationalization and globalization in a historical-institutionalist model of capitalism.
Martin Meisel
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199215492
- eISBN:
- 9780191695957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215492.003.0018
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama
There are plays that actually put ‘an audience’ on the stage, supposedly witnessing a performance, and in fact directly participating in it. Such stage audiences play the role of targeted ...
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There are plays that actually put ‘an audience’ on the stage, supposedly witnessing a performance, and in fact directly participating in it. Such stage audiences play the role of targeted collaborator, whose function is attention and response, while actually providing the real audience with an object of attention, whose ‘responses’ are intended to generate a response. This chapter first takes note of a number of such staged audiences to see what the playwright makes of them. Then, after a look at some extreme ventures into transgressive mingling, it considers, in the more ordinary case of the audience as an offstage presence, some essentials of its collaborative functioning— notably, how expectation and response enter the fabric of the play and govern our experience as readers and viewers. Finally, it looks at some instances of purposive co-option of the actual audience, extending the stage world, as it were, to include it, often when the playwright has designs on that audience that go beyond art and entertainment.Less
There are plays that actually put ‘an audience’ on the stage, supposedly witnessing a performance, and in fact directly participating in it. Such stage audiences play the role of targeted collaborator, whose function is attention and response, while actually providing the real audience with an object of attention, whose ‘responses’ are intended to generate a response. This chapter first takes note of a number of such staged audiences to see what the playwright makes of them. Then, after a look at some extreme ventures into transgressive mingling, it considers, in the more ordinary case of the audience as an offstage presence, some essentials of its collaborative functioning— notably, how expectation and response enter the fabric of the play and govern our experience as readers and viewers. Finally, it looks at some instances of purposive co-option of the actual audience, extending the stage world, as it were, to include it, often when the playwright has designs on that audience that go beyond art and entertainment.
Frederique Apffel-Marglin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793853
- eISBN:
- 9780199919246
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793853.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book takes as a starting premise the insight that non-humans have agency, which was established predominantly in the field of science studies. It argues that rituals engage not “supernatural ...
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This book takes as a starting premise the insight that non-humans have agency, which was established predominantly in the field of science studies. It argues that rituals engage not “supernatural beings” but humans with other-than-humans. Other-than-humans are entities characterized by an entanglement of the human and the non-human aspects of the world. The book rejects the label “supernatural beings” since it implies a realm of nature as a pre-given universal reality outside and independent of human observation. These other-than-humans are entities stabilized through iterative ritual enactments that have acquired names, personalities and narratives that embody both aspects of the non-human place and aspects of the human collectivities in that place. Using the insights of one of the founding figures of quantum mechanics, Niels Bohr, and his theory of complementarity as interpreted by physicist-cum-philosopher Karen Barad, the book argues that neither time, space, or nature are universal pre-givens. Rather, these come into being through specific acts of observation. The book argues that rituals are akin to quantum experimental acts of observation insofar as they enact or perform a particular instance of the real. Ritual action is iterative because it aims at stabilizing enacted worlds that are inherently dynamic; rituals seek to establish the continuity of those enacted worlds as livable worlds. This view challenges the understanding of ritual as involving an imaginative projection on the part of humans onto the non-human and/or social human world, a move that is both anthropocentric and dualist. It also offers an alternative to the onto-epistemology of representationalism that divides the representing human mind from the represented world.Less
This book takes as a starting premise the insight that non-humans have agency, which was established predominantly in the field of science studies. It argues that rituals engage not “supernatural beings” but humans with other-than-humans. Other-than-humans are entities characterized by an entanglement of the human and the non-human aspects of the world. The book rejects the label “supernatural beings” since it implies a realm of nature as a pre-given universal reality outside and independent of human observation. These other-than-humans are entities stabilized through iterative ritual enactments that have acquired names, personalities and narratives that embody both aspects of the non-human place and aspects of the human collectivities in that place. Using the insights of one of the founding figures of quantum mechanics, Niels Bohr, and his theory of complementarity as interpreted by physicist-cum-philosopher Karen Barad, the book argues that neither time, space, or nature are universal pre-givens. Rather, these come into being through specific acts of observation. The book argues that rituals are akin to quantum experimental acts of observation insofar as they enact or perform a particular instance of the real. Ritual action is iterative because it aims at stabilizing enacted worlds that are inherently dynamic; rituals seek to establish the continuity of those enacted worlds as livable worlds. This view challenges the understanding of ritual as involving an imaginative projection on the part of humans onto the non-human and/or social human world, a move that is both anthropocentric and dualist. It also offers an alternative to the onto-epistemology of representationalism that divides the representing human mind from the represented world.
Ann Rigney
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644018
- eISBN:
- 9780191738784
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644018.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Chapter 4 pursues the case of Ivanhoe, concentrating on its afterlife in the USA and critically revisiting Mark Twain’s claim that Scott somehow ‘caused’ the American Civil War. An account is offered ...
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Chapter 4 pursues the case of Ivanhoe, concentrating on its afterlife in the USA and critically revisiting Mark Twain’s claim that Scott somehow ‘caused’ the American Civil War. An account is offered of the performative reception of Scott’s work in the USA, particularly of the re-enactments of Ivanhoe in the form of tournaments in the South and other appropriations of the story in material culture. It shows how Scott’s novels were used as a narrative template to understand the divisions within American society. It argues that Scott did not cause the Civil War, but that his work helped shape its political imaginary and, as a memory site known both North and South, its subsequent remembrance. As an imaginary resource, Scott’s work was appropriated in radically opposed ways by both those advancing racism (Griffith) and those opposing it (Chesnutt)Less
Chapter 4 pursues the case of Ivanhoe, concentrating on its afterlife in the USA and critically revisiting Mark Twain’s claim that Scott somehow ‘caused’ the American Civil War. An account is offered of the performative reception of Scott’s work in the USA, particularly of the re-enactments of Ivanhoe in the form of tournaments in the South and other appropriations of the story in material culture. It shows how Scott’s novels were used as a narrative template to understand the divisions within American society. It argues that Scott did not cause the Civil War, but that his work helped shape its political imaginary and, as a memory site known both North and South, its subsequent remembrance. As an imaginary resource, Scott’s work was appropriated in radically opposed ways by both those advancing racism (Griffith) and those opposing it (Chesnutt)
Dray William H.
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198238812
- eISBN:
- 9780191679780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198238812.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
If the philosophy of history is now in a flourishing state in English-speaking countries and in countries where English is read, this is due in no small measure to the stimulus provided by the ...
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If the philosophy of history is now in a flourishing state in English-speaking countries and in countries where English is read, this is due in no small measure to the stimulus provided by the writings of R. G. Collingwood. Much of the best work that has been done in this field since the posthumous publication in 1946 of his well-known book The Idea of History has been a conscious attempt to develop or to emend views which he expressed; and much of the rest has owed a good deal of its interest to its connection with those views. The extent to which Collingwood pioneered the subject in British philosophy is suggested by his own efforts in The Idea of History to name his British predecessors. This book presents a systematic critical examination of Collingwood's whole philosophy of history, focusing on his well-known contention that history is, or should be, a re-enactment of past experience or a re-thinking of past thought.Less
If the philosophy of history is now in a flourishing state in English-speaking countries and in countries where English is read, this is due in no small measure to the stimulus provided by the writings of R. G. Collingwood. Much of the best work that has been done in this field since the posthumous publication in 1946 of his well-known book The Idea of History has been a conscious attempt to develop or to emend views which he expressed; and much of the rest has owed a good deal of its interest to its connection with those views. The extent to which Collingwood pioneered the subject in British philosophy is suggested by his own efforts in The Idea of History to name his British predecessors. This book presents a systematic critical examination of Collingwood's whole philosophy of history, focusing on his well-known contention that history is, or should be, a re-enactment of past experience or a re-thinking of past thought.
Dray William H.
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198238812
- eISBN:
- 9780191679780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198238812.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter examines some things which R. G. Collingwood had to say about what he saw as paradigmatic cases of re-enactment: cases in which the past actions of particular individuals are understood ...
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This chapter examines some things which R. G. Collingwood had to say about what he saw as paradigmatic cases of re-enactment: cases in which the past actions of particular individuals are understood in terms of what the person concerned thought about his situation. Collingwood's chief claims in such cases are analysed and sometimes rephrased in language which he does not himself use but which will be more familiar to many readers. The first task is to set out in a little detail what Collingwood means when he insists that historical understanding requires a re-enactment of past experience or a re-thinking of past thought. As noted already, commentators have differed about the importance of this idea for his whole theory of historical inquiry. But there have also been disagreements about the viability, and even the coherence, of the idea itself.Less
This chapter examines some things which R. G. Collingwood had to say about what he saw as paradigmatic cases of re-enactment: cases in which the past actions of particular individuals are understood in terms of what the person concerned thought about his situation. Collingwood's chief claims in such cases are analysed and sometimes rephrased in language which he does not himself use but which will be more familiar to many readers. The first task is to set out in a little detail what Collingwood means when he insists that historical understanding requires a re-enactment of past experience or a re-thinking of past thought. As noted already, commentators have differed about the importance of this idea for his whole theory of historical inquiry. But there have also been disagreements about the viability, and even the coherence, of the idea itself.
Dray William H.
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198238812
- eISBN:
- 9780191679780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198238812.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter examines the kind of understanding which R. G. Collingwood himself more often contrasted with the re-enactive sort: understanding achieved through scientific explanation, or explanation ...
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This chapter examines the kind of understanding which R. G. Collingwood himself more often contrasted with the re-enactive sort: understanding achieved through scientific explanation, or explanation in terms of laws. Two views of re-enactive explanation itself are considered, along with some implications of Collingwood's theory for some related questions concerning re-enactment, such as the viability of assuming determinism in history and the extent to which historians properly use generalisations. Collingwood's ‘scientific’ theory of explanation is also sometimes known as the ‘nomological’ or ‘law-subsumption’ theory. The fact that Collingwood at least sometimes represents re-enactive explanation as logically excluding nomological explanation of the same thing raises the general question of where he stands on the issue of historical determinism.Less
This chapter examines the kind of understanding which R. G. Collingwood himself more often contrasted with the re-enactive sort: understanding achieved through scientific explanation, or explanation in terms of laws. Two views of re-enactive explanation itself are considered, along with some implications of Collingwood's theory for some related questions concerning re-enactment, such as the viability of assuming determinism in history and the extent to which historians properly use generalisations. Collingwood's ‘scientific’ theory of explanation is also sometimes known as the ‘nomological’ or ‘law-subsumption’ theory. The fact that Collingwood at least sometimes represents re-enactive explanation as logically excluding nomological explanation of the same thing raises the general question of where he stands on the issue of historical determinism.
Dray William H.
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198238812
- eISBN:
- 9780191679780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198238812.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter examines the question of whether R. G. Collingwood's theory of historical understanding is generally applicable to an historical subject-matter. Even those who have found much to admire ...
More
This chapter examines the question of whether R. G. Collingwood's theory of historical understanding is generally applicable to an historical subject-matter. Even those who have found much to admire in Collingwood's Idea of History and related writings have often complained that his idea of re-enactment is relevant only to a small part of what is normally regarded as history. Collingwood's theory of understanding has been charged with being too intellectualistic, too rationalistic, too action-oriented, too mentalistic, and too individualistic, to be regarded as an acceptable general account of the nature of historical understanding. This chapter first discusses the scope of re-enactment, then Collingwood's supposed intellectualism, rationality in Collingwood's subject-matter of history, his exclusion of perception, appetite, and emotion from the proper subject-matter of history, and how the idea of re-enactment can apply to the history of art and metaphysics.Less
This chapter examines the question of whether R. G. Collingwood's theory of historical understanding is generally applicable to an historical subject-matter. Even those who have found much to admire in Collingwood's Idea of History and related writings have often complained that his idea of re-enactment is relevant only to a small part of what is normally regarded as history. Collingwood's theory of understanding has been charged with being too intellectualistic, too rationalistic, too action-oriented, too mentalistic, and too individualistic, to be regarded as an acceptable general account of the nature of historical understanding. This chapter first discusses the scope of re-enactment, then Collingwood's supposed intellectualism, rationality in Collingwood's subject-matter of history, his exclusion of perception, appetite, and emotion from the proper subject-matter of history, and how the idea of re-enactment can apply to the history of art and metaphysics.
