Carol S Dweck and Daniel C Molden
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189636
- eISBN:
- 9780199868605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189636.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
The nature of free will is a philosophical issue; whether people believe they have it is a psychological one; and whether people actually have it is in the terrain in between. This chapter shows how ...
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The nature of free will is a philosophical issue; whether people believe they have it is a psychological one; and whether people actually have it is in the terrain in between. This chapter shows how people's self-theories — their conceptions of human qualities as fixed or as malleable — create different perceptions and experiences of free will. Interestingly, these different perceptions mirror those of different philosophical traditions. The chapter then shows how self-theories lead people to different psychological solutions for issues allied with free will, such as issues of moral responsibility and blame. How much free will do people actually have? The debate has often turned on whether the physical laws of nature allow for free will. To a psychologist, this seems surprising. Thus, the chapter ends by proposing that the issue of free will may, at least in part, turn on questions of human nature and how best to conceive of it.Less
The nature of free will is a philosophical issue; whether people believe they have it is a psychological one; and whether people actually have it is in the terrain in between. This chapter shows how people's self-theories — their conceptions of human qualities as fixed or as malleable — create different perceptions and experiences of free will. Interestingly, these different perceptions mirror those of different philosophical traditions. The chapter then shows how self-theories lead people to different psychological solutions for issues allied with free will, such as issues of moral responsibility and blame. How much free will do people actually have? The debate has often turned on whether the physical laws of nature allow for free will. To a psychologist, this seems surprising. Thus, the chapter ends by proposing that the issue of free will may, at least in part, turn on questions of human nature and how best to conceive of it.
B. Diane Lipsett
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199754519
- eISBN:
- 9780199827213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754519.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter examines the interplay in The Shepherd of Hermas between desire and self-restraint, and does so as an entrance into the text’s larger concern with metanoia (repentance or conversion), ...
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This chapter examines the interplay in The Shepherd of Hermas between desire and self-restraint, and does so as an entrance into the text’s larger concern with metanoia (repentance or conversion), self-scrutiny, and masculinity. The long, repetitive text evinces a striking array of techniques for self-examination, akin to those Foucault describes as ancient strategies for discursive self-formation. Scattered scenes with images of erotic desire are spread across the three sections of The Shepherd (Visions, Mandates, and Similitudes) and invite close analysis. Yet erotic sins or dangers seem less important than others, particularly economic sins, in the ethical register of this text. Rather, images of desire function metonymically within a broader discourse of virtue. In the end, metanoia and manliness in The Shepherd involve not so much the suppression of desire as the choice of its proper object, and even manly abandonment to holy desires.Less
This chapter examines the interplay in The Shepherd of Hermas between desire and self-restraint, and does so as an entrance into the text’s larger concern with metanoia (repentance or conversion), self-scrutiny, and masculinity. The long, repetitive text evinces a striking array of techniques for self-examination, akin to those Foucault describes as ancient strategies for discursive self-formation. Scattered scenes with images of erotic desire are spread across the three sections of The Shepherd (Visions, Mandates, and Similitudes) and invite close analysis. Yet erotic sins or dangers seem less important than others, particularly economic sins, in the ethical register of this text. Rather, images of desire function metonymically within a broader discourse of virtue. In the end, metanoia and manliness in The Shepherd involve not so much the suppression of desire as the choice of its proper object, and even manly abandonment to holy desires.
Moshe Sluhovsky
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226472850
- eISBN:
- 9780226473048
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226473048.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Early Christian monastic spiritual practices of self-formation became increasingly popular in late medieval and early modern Catholicism. Now, for the first time in the history of Christian ...
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Early Christian monastic spiritual practices of self-formation became increasingly popular in late medieval and early modern Catholicism. Now, for the first time in the history of Christian spirituality, religious orders, first and foremost among them Franciscans and Jesuits, trained devout people, men and women, lay and religious, in practices of meditation, introspection, and subjectivization. Thousands, if not ten of thousands of lay people now acquired techniques of self examination that enabled them to pursue life goals and transform themselves. The book examines four of the major spiritual practices of the period, traces their history, diffusion, and the challenges they presented to clerical authority. Spiritual direction and general confession, two of the practices of self-formation discussed in the book, served as safety belts to guarantee that practitioners remained subjected to the teachings of the church. But spiritual exercises, general examination of conscience, and general confession supplied practitioners with techniques of self-construction and self -affirmation. Using insights from Michel Foucault's later work on practices of truth-telling and subjectivization, the book proposes the first systematic investigation of the complexity of subjectivization in early modern Catholicism as both a mechanism of self-formation and of subjugationLess
Early Christian monastic spiritual practices of self-formation became increasingly popular in late medieval and early modern Catholicism. Now, for the first time in the history of Christian spirituality, religious orders, first and foremost among them Franciscans and Jesuits, trained devout people, men and women, lay and religious, in practices of meditation, introspection, and subjectivization. Thousands, if not ten of thousands of lay people now acquired techniques of self examination that enabled them to pursue life goals and transform themselves. The book examines four of the major spiritual practices of the period, traces their history, diffusion, and the challenges they presented to clerical authority. Spiritual direction and general confession, two of the practices of self-formation discussed in the book, served as safety belts to guarantee that practitioners remained subjected to the teachings of the church. But spiritual exercises, general examination of conscience, and general confession supplied practitioners with techniques of self-construction and self -affirmation. Using insights from Michel Foucault's later work on practices of truth-telling and subjectivization, the book proposes the first systematic investigation of the complexity of subjectivization in early modern Catholicism as both a mechanism of self-formation and of subjugation
Edith Wyschogrod
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226061
- eISBN:
- 9780823235148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226061.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Michel Foucault considers repressive self-formation to be an expression of what he calls “technologies of the self”, modes of imposing conformations of thought upon ...
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Michel Foucault considers repressive self-formation to be an expression of what he calls “technologies of the self”, modes of imposing conformations of thought upon corporeality, especially its sexual expressions. Similarly, for Martin Heidegger thought cannot escape the thinking of Being, even when Being is manifested in calculative representation, its current mode of disclosure, one that constitutes a clear and present danger, in which, however, there resides a saving power. This chapter pursues these lines of inquiry by envisioning each thinker as a questioner of the other. Rather than engage in an exercise in intellectual history, the chapter mentions influences upon and shifts within their thought when these are relevant to the larger narrative. The chapter first discusses the meaning of questioning as a point of orientation, a questioning that includes both existential involvement and distancing from the question. Then it turns to Heidegger's interrogation of Western philosophy's articulation of Being and truth and to Foucault's approaches to philosophical discourse.Less
Michel Foucault considers repressive self-formation to be an expression of what he calls “technologies of the self”, modes of imposing conformations of thought upon corporeality, especially its sexual expressions. Similarly, for Martin Heidegger thought cannot escape the thinking of Being, even when Being is manifested in calculative representation, its current mode of disclosure, one that constitutes a clear and present danger, in which, however, there resides a saving power. This chapter pursues these lines of inquiry by envisioning each thinker as a questioner of the other. Rather than engage in an exercise in intellectual history, the chapter mentions influences upon and shifts within their thought when these are relevant to the larger narrative. The chapter first discusses the meaning of questioning as a point of orientation, a questioning that includes both existential involvement and distancing from the question. Then it turns to Heidegger's interrogation of Western philosophy's articulation of Being and truth and to Foucault's approaches to philosophical discourse.
Judith H. Newman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190212216
- eISBN:
- 9780190212230
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190212216.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Although by no means offering a complete taxonomy of scripture formation, the book considers a wide range of literary genres and practices across the diverse population of Judeans throughout the ...
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Although by no means offering a complete taxonomy of scripture formation, the book considers a wide range of literary genres and practices across the diverse population of Judeans throughout the region. The conclusion draws out some of the implications for understanding the fluid nature of scriptures in the Hellenistic-Roman era. The search for the “original text” of the Bible is a vain one; rather, scriptures were formed through a traditioning process that involved sacralization through the entwinement of prayer practices and textual interpretation. These texts were mediated by learned teachers and leaders in textual communities.Less
Although by no means offering a complete taxonomy of scripture formation, the book considers a wide range of literary genres and practices across the diverse population of Judeans throughout the region. The conclusion draws out some of the implications for understanding the fluid nature of scriptures in the Hellenistic-Roman era. The search for the “original text” of the Bible is a vain one; rather, scriptures were formed through a traditioning process that involved sacralization through the entwinement of prayer practices and textual interpretation. These texts were mediated by learned teachers and leaders in textual communities.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226043401
- eISBN:
- 9780226043432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226043432.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the opera fans at the Colón Opera House. It explores the sociological significance of opera and the complex forms of emotional attachment to the ...
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This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the opera fans at the Colón Opera House. It explores the sociological significance of opera and the complex forms of emotional attachment to the opera. This chapter also suggests that the work of art can serve as a locus for personal and emotional investment or as a medium for moral self-formation instead of merely being a tool for the maximization of capital.Less
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the opera fans at the Colón Opera House. It explores the sociological significance of opera and the complex forms of emotional attachment to the opera. This chapter also suggests that the work of art can serve as a locus for personal and emotional investment or as a medium for moral self-formation instead of merely being a tool for the maximization of capital.
Ulrich Demmer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199466818
- eISBN:
- 9780199087303
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199466818.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
The Introduction presents the main arguments and the outline of the book. It describes why postcolonial anthropology, the study of identities, and an anthropology of ethics need another concept of ...
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The Introduction presents the main arguments and the outline of the book. It describes why postcolonial anthropology, the study of identities, and an anthropology of ethics need another concept of reason. It reviews the different conceptions of reason that anthropologists hitherto employed and it outlines an alternative conception of rationality, namely ‘engaged practical reason’. This concept, the study argues, is more appropriate if we wish to study the ways people shape ethically motivated ways of living since it pays tribute to the many voices and practices engaged in such processes of (individual and collective) ethical self-formation. The chapter also outlines the identity politics of becoming rather than being, the notion of the ‘ethico-political’ and reviews the current debates in both postcolonial anthropology and in the anthropology of ethics. It also contains a section on the ethnographic fieldwork which led to the book and it provides an overview of the book.Less
The Introduction presents the main arguments and the outline of the book. It describes why postcolonial anthropology, the study of identities, and an anthropology of ethics need another concept of reason. It reviews the different conceptions of reason that anthropologists hitherto employed and it outlines an alternative conception of rationality, namely ‘engaged practical reason’. This concept, the study argues, is more appropriate if we wish to study the ways people shape ethically motivated ways of living since it pays tribute to the many voices and practices engaged in such processes of (individual and collective) ethical self-formation. The chapter also outlines the identity politics of becoming rather than being, the notion of the ‘ethico-political’ and reviews the current debates in both postcolonial anthropology and in the anthropology of ethics. It also contains a section on the ethnographic fieldwork which led to the book and it provides an overview of the book.
Anna Smolentseva
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198828877
- eISBN:
- 9780191867347
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198828877.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
The chapter asks the ultimate question about high participation systems (HPS) of higher education: what kind of society is it when the majority of young people have higher education? It reviews ...
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The chapter asks the ultimate question about high participation systems (HPS) of higher education: what kind of society is it when the majority of young people have higher education? It reviews theories and concepts developed in two disciplinary traditions: social sciences (structural functionalism, neo-institutionalism, etc.) and educational philosophy (Bildung and growth theory among others). Those two strands of scholarship highlight two key dimensions in the relations between higher education and society: the social/occupational structure, and socialization as human development/self-formation. The Bildung idea of a dual human nature, both determined by the world and being self-determining, largely corresponds to these two disciplinary approaches and opens up an intellectual space for further cross-disciplinary, multi-dimensional research on the meanings of HPS higher education for individuals and society.Less
The chapter asks the ultimate question about high participation systems (HPS) of higher education: what kind of society is it when the majority of young people have higher education? It reviews theories and concepts developed in two disciplinary traditions: social sciences (structural functionalism, neo-institutionalism, etc.) and educational philosophy (Bildung and growth theory among others). Those two strands of scholarship highlight two key dimensions in the relations between higher education and society: the social/occupational structure, and socialization as human development/self-formation. The Bildung idea of a dual human nature, both determined by the world and being self-determining, largely corresponds to these two disciplinary approaches and opens up an intellectual space for further cross-disciplinary, multi-dimensional research on the meanings of HPS higher education for individuals and society.
