James K. Wellman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195300116
- eISBN:
- 9780199868742
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300116.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The book is the first in-depth ethnographic study of churched religion in the Pacific Northwest. It describes and explains how Protestant churches survive and thrive in the most unchurched region of ...
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The book is the first in-depth ethnographic study of churched religion in the Pacific Northwest. It describes and explains how Protestant churches survive and thrive in the most unchurched region of the country. The study is based on nearly 450 interviews from thirty-four vital liberal and evangelical Protestant churches in the Pacific Northwest. These two sets of congregations embody separate moral worldviews and the study shows how these moral worldviews conflict, compete, and, on rare occasions, find common ground in five areas: ideology; religious beliefs; organizational and ritual life; mission (both local and international), and finally, how each relates to the politics of the region and nation. Evangelicals have dominated the public discourse on American religious life and politics over the last decade; it has become popular to accuse them of advocating an American theocracy. There was no evidence for this claim in the data from this study. Evangelicals do want influence — focusing intense energy on a political culture to nurture families — but they express the same intense distrust of the government that was found among liberals. Moreover, the study found relative disinterest on the part of liberals in influencing the public square. There was little consensus among liberals in protesting the Iraq War. Nonetheless, liberals were committed to a “moral culture” like evangelicals, though with distinctively different values — embracing a culture of inclusiveness and hospitality for homosexuals, the homeless, and the hungry.Less
The book is the first in-depth ethnographic study of churched religion in the Pacific Northwest. It describes and explains how Protestant churches survive and thrive in the most unchurched region of the country. The study is based on nearly 450 interviews from thirty-four vital liberal and evangelical Protestant churches in the Pacific Northwest. These two sets of congregations embody separate moral worldviews and the study shows how these moral worldviews conflict, compete, and, on rare occasions, find common ground in five areas: ideology; religious beliefs; organizational and ritual life; mission (both local and international), and finally, how each relates to the politics of the region and nation. Evangelicals have dominated the public discourse on American religious life and politics over the last decade; it has become popular to accuse them of advocating an American theocracy. There was no evidence for this claim in the data from this study. Evangelicals do want influence — focusing intense energy on a political culture to nurture families — but they express the same intense distrust of the government that was found among liberals. Moreover, the study found relative disinterest on the part of liberals in influencing the public square. There was little consensus among liberals in protesting the Iraq War. Nonetheless, liberals were committed to a “moral culture” like evangelicals, though with distinctively different values — embracing a culture of inclusiveness and hospitality for homosexuals, the homeless, and the hungry.
Zeynep Devrim Gürsel
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520286368
- eISBN:
- 9780520961616
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520286368.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
How does a photograph become a news image? An ethnography of the labor behind international news images, this book ruptures the self-evidence of the journalistic photograph by revealing the many ...
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How does a photograph become a news image? An ethnography of the labor behind international news images, this book ruptures the self-evidence of the journalistic photograph by revealing the many factors determining how news audiences are shown people, events, and the world. News images, this book argues, function as formative fictions—fictional insofar as these images are constructed and culturally mediated, and formative because their public presence and circulation have real consequences in the world. Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror and based on fieldwork conducted at photojournalism's centers of power, the book offers an intimate look at an industry in crisis. At the turn of the 21st century, image brokers—the people who manage the distribution and restriction of news images—found the core technologies of their craft, the status of images, and their own professional standing all changing rapidly with the digitalization of the infrastructures of representation. From corporate sales meetings to wire service desks, newsrooms to photography workshops and festivals, the book investigates how news images are produced and how worldviews are reproduced in the process.Less
How does a photograph become a news image? An ethnography of the labor behind international news images, this book ruptures the self-evidence of the journalistic photograph by revealing the many factors determining how news audiences are shown people, events, and the world. News images, this book argues, function as formative fictions—fictional insofar as these images are constructed and culturally mediated, and formative because their public presence and circulation have real consequences in the world. Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror and based on fieldwork conducted at photojournalism's centers of power, the book offers an intimate look at an industry in crisis. At the turn of the 21st century, image brokers—the people who manage the distribution and restriction of news images—found the core technologies of their craft, the status of images, and their own professional standing all changing rapidly with the digitalization of the infrastructures of representation. From corporate sales meetings to wire service desks, newsrooms to photography workshops and festivals, the book investigates how news images are produced and how worldviews are reproduced in the process.
James K. Wellman Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195300116
- eISBN:
- 9780199868742
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300116.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter presents the theory of moral worldviews of each subculture; moral worldviews are not instrumental but organic — more like onions than tools. Each moral worldview has multiple layers, ...
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This chapter presents the theory of moral worldviews of each subculture; moral worldviews are not instrumental but organic — more like onions than tools. Each moral worldview has multiple layers, beginning with core allegiances; followed by moral values; moral projects, and aesthetic tastes and preferences. The closer that layers are to the core the more absolute and certain they are held, the further away, the more negotiable they are. For evangelicals, a personal, intimate relationship to Jesus Christ is the core; for liberals, the core is more a principle of inclusiveness and hospitality, exemplified more by Jesus ministry and actions than by Jesus as a god object.Less
This chapter presents the theory of moral worldviews of each subculture; moral worldviews are not instrumental but organic — more like onions than tools. Each moral worldview has multiple layers, beginning with core allegiances; followed by moral values; moral projects, and aesthetic tastes and preferences. The closer that layers are to the core the more absolute and certain they are held, the further away, the more negotiable they are. For evangelicals, a personal, intimate relationship to Jesus Christ is the core; for liberals, the core is more a principle of inclusiveness and hospitality, exemplified more by Jesus ministry and actions than by Jesus as a god object.
James W. Underhill
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748643158
- eISBN:
- 9780748651566
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748643158.003.0011
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. The three case studies confirm that metaphor is fundamental to conceptual thought. The conceptual patterning of our languages depends to a significant ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. The three case studies confirm that metaphor is fundamental to conceptual thought. The conceptual patterning of our languages depends to a significant degree upon metaphoric paths which we follow, resist, or refuse, as we strive to break out into alternative, original modes of thinking. The study of language showed that not only is language itself inescapable, all of our attempts to define language and to compare languages or to explain their relations to other linguistic communities must necessarily be formulated in metaphoric terms. A language is seen either as an invading force, a colonising power, or as a source of animation and inspiration in the ‘cross-fertilisation’ of cultural exchange. Linguistic philosophies cannot evade this inevitable propensity towards metaphoric representation, no matter what model is adopted or adapted. Language and metaphor may be inescapable, but what all writers and politically engaged individuals believe is a simple premise, namely that we can make a difference. Though worldviews are inescapable, worldviews are not imposed upon us by inhuman forces.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. The three case studies confirm that metaphor is fundamental to conceptual thought. The conceptual patterning of our languages depends to a significant degree upon metaphoric paths which we follow, resist, or refuse, as we strive to break out into alternative, original modes of thinking. The study of language showed that not only is language itself inescapable, all of our attempts to define language and to compare languages or to explain their relations to other linguistic communities must necessarily be formulated in metaphoric terms. A language is seen either as an invading force, a colonising power, or as a source of animation and inspiration in the ‘cross-fertilisation’ of cultural exchange. Linguistic philosophies cannot evade this inevitable propensity towards metaphoric representation, no matter what model is adopted or adapted. Language and metaphor may be inescapable, but what all writers and politically engaged individuals believe is a simple premise, namely that we can make a difference. Though worldviews are inescapable, worldviews are not imposed upon us by inhuman forces.
Francesco Boldizzoni
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144009
- eISBN:
- 9781400838851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144009.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter begins with a discussion of the roots of economic history. It then turns to the identity crisis faced by economic history today, brought about by the development of a movement founded in ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the roots of economic history. It then turns to the identity crisis faced by economic history today, brought about by the development of a movement founded in the United States at the end of the 1950s known as “new economic history” or “cliometrics.” History is normally expected to improve our understanding of the past. It is probably agreed that what distinguishes good historical research is its capacity to throw light on the workings of societies that differ to varying degrees from our own. However, the aim of cliometrics is not to increase our knowledge of the past. It is to create narratives of the past compatible with neoliberal economics, and often it is a highly ideological exercise to endorse specific worldviews, theories, and policy recommendations.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of the roots of economic history. It then turns to the identity crisis faced by economic history today, brought about by the development of a movement founded in the United States at the end of the 1950s known as “new economic history” or “cliometrics.” History is normally expected to improve our understanding of the past. It is probably agreed that what distinguishes good historical research is its capacity to throw light on the workings of societies that differ to varying degrees from our own. However, the aim of cliometrics is not to increase our knowledge of the past. It is to create narratives of the past compatible with neoliberal economics, and often it is a highly ideological exercise to endorse specific worldviews, theories, and policy recommendations.
Michael Barkun
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238053
- eISBN:
- 9780520939721
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238053.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
What do UFO believers, Christian millennialists, and right-wing conspiracy theorists have in common? It is well known that some Americans are obsessed with conspiracies. The Kennedy assassination, ...
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What do UFO believers, Christian millennialists, and right-wing conspiracy theorists have in common? It is well known that some Americans are obsessed with conspiracies. The Kennedy assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the 2001 terrorist attacks have all generated elaborate stories of hidden plots. What is far less known is the extent to which conspiracist worldviews have recently become linked in strange and unpredictable ways with other “fringe” notions such as a belief in UFOs, Nostradamus, and the Illuminati. This book, the most comprehensive and authoritative examination of contemporary American conspiracism to date, unravels the extraordinary genealogies and permutations of these increasingly widespread ideas, showing how this web of urban legends has spread among subcultures on the Internet and through mass media, how a new style of conspiracy thinking has recently arisen, and how this phenomenon relates to larger changes in American culture. The author discusses a range of material—involving inner-earth caves, government black helicopters, alien abductions, secret New World Order cabals, and much more—that few realize exists in our culture. Looking closely at the manifestations of these ideas in a wide range of literature and source material from religious and political literature, to New Age and UFO publications, to popular culture phenomena such as The X-Files, and to websites, radio programs, and more, he finds that America is in the throes of an unrivaled period of millenarian activity. His book underscores the importance of understanding why this phenomenon is now spreading into more mainstream segments of American culture.Less
What do UFO believers, Christian millennialists, and right-wing conspiracy theorists have in common? It is well known that some Americans are obsessed with conspiracies. The Kennedy assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the 2001 terrorist attacks have all generated elaborate stories of hidden plots. What is far less known is the extent to which conspiracist worldviews have recently become linked in strange and unpredictable ways with other “fringe” notions such as a belief in UFOs, Nostradamus, and the Illuminati. This book, the most comprehensive and authoritative examination of contemporary American conspiracism to date, unravels the extraordinary genealogies and permutations of these increasingly widespread ideas, showing how this web of urban legends has spread among subcultures on the Internet and through mass media, how a new style of conspiracy thinking has recently arisen, and how this phenomenon relates to larger changes in American culture. The author discusses a range of material—involving inner-earth caves, government black helicopters, alien abductions, secret New World Order cabals, and much more—that few realize exists in our culture. Looking closely at the manifestations of these ideas in a wide range of literature and source material from religious and political literature, to New Age and UFO publications, to popular culture phenomena such as The X-Files, and to websites, radio programs, and more, he finds that America is in the throes of an unrivaled period of millenarian activity. His book underscores the importance of understanding why this phenomenon is now spreading into more mainstream segments of American culture.
Andrzej Piotrowski
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816673049
- eISBN:
- 9781452945835
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816673049.001.0001
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
This book maps and conceptually explores material practices of the past, showing how physical artifacts and visual environments manifest culturally rooted modes of thought and participate in the most ...
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This book maps and conceptually explores material practices of the past, showing how physical artifacts and visual environments manifest culturally rooted modes of thought and participate in the most nuanced processes of negotiations and ideological exchanges. According to the text, material structures enable people to think in new ways—distill emerging or alter existing worldviews—before words can stabilize them as conventional narratives. Combining design thinking with academic methods of inquiry, the book traces ancient to modern architectural histories and—through critical readings of select buildings—examines the role of nonverbal exchanges in the development of an accumulated Western identity. Operating from the assertion that buildings are the most permanent record of unself-conscious beliefs and attitudes, it discusses Byzantium and the West after iconoclasm, the conquest and colonization of Mesoamerica, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Eastern Europe, the rise of the culture of consumerism in Victorian England, and High Modernism as its consequence. By moving beyond the assumption that historical structures reflect transcendental values and deterministic laws of physics or economy or have been shaped by self-conscious individuals, the book challenges the traditional knowledge of what architecture is and can be.Less
This book maps and conceptually explores material practices of the past, showing how physical artifacts and visual environments manifest culturally rooted modes of thought and participate in the most nuanced processes of negotiations and ideological exchanges. According to the text, material structures enable people to think in new ways—distill emerging or alter existing worldviews—before words can stabilize them as conventional narratives. Combining design thinking with academic methods of inquiry, the book traces ancient to modern architectural histories and—through critical readings of select buildings—examines the role of nonverbal exchanges in the development of an accumulated Western identity. Operating from the assertion that buildings are the most permanent record of unself-conscious beliefs and attitudes, it discusses Byzantium and the West after iconoclasm, the conquest and colonization of Mesoamerica, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Eastern Europe, the rise of the culture of consumerism in Victorian England, and High Modernism as its consequence. By moving beyond the assumption that historical structures reflect transcendental values and deterministic laws of physics or economy or have been shaped by self-conscious individuals, the book challenges the traditional knowledge of what architecture is and can be.
Henry R. Nau
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199937479
- eISBN:
- 9780199980727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937479.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine different domestic worldviews of foreign policy within five aspiring powers—China, India, Iran, Japan, and ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine different domestic worldviews of foreign policy within five aspiring powers—China, India, Iran, Japan, and Russia. It then explores the role of worldviews in the study of foreign policy, creates a framework to compare foreign policy worldviews or schools of thought across aspiring powers, and assesses some of the shifts in domestic debates within aspiring powers and their impact on US and other great power relations. Examples are drawn from the individual country chapters, which reveal for the first time the complexity and richness of domestic debates about worldviews, even in authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine different domestic worldviews of foreign policy within five aspiring powers—China, India, Iran, Japan, and Russia. It then explores the role of worldviews in the study of foreign policy, creates a framework to compare foreign policy worldviews or schools of thought across aspiring powers, and assesses some of the shifts in domestic debates within aspiring powers and their impact on US and other great power relations. Examples are drawn from the individual country chapters, which reveal for the first time the complexity and richness of domestic debates about worldviews, even in authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran.
Anna L. Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520226548
- eISBN:
- 9780520926059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520226548.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This chapter explores some important ethical and meta-ethical questions raised by the differences and relationships in human nature. It highlights the value of a narrative-based ethic, including its ...
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This chapter explores some important ethical and meta-ethical questions raised by the differences and relationships in human nature. It highlights the value of a narrative-based ethic, including its valuation of embodiment, relationality and utopian horizons as a framework for making sense and use of these diverse forms of knowledge. It explores the connections between ideas and practice, especially the ethical and political implications of alternative ways of conceiving and construing human nature. It also proposes a kind of ethic that must take all the different natures seriously as credible critiques of established worldviews rather than simply as quaint reminders that other people are different.Less
This chapter explores some important ethical and meta-ethical questions raised by the differences and relationships in human nature. It highlights the value of a narrative-based ethic, including its valuation of embodiment, relationality and utopian horizons as a framework for making sense and use of these diverse forms of knowledge. It explores the connections between ideas and practice, especially the ethical and political implications of alternative ways of conceiving and construing human nature. It also proposes a kind of ethic that must take all the different natures seriously as credible critiques of established worldviews rather than simply as quaint reminders that other people are different.
Russ Rodgers
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813037660
- eISBN:
- 9780813043104
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813037660.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter introduces readers to the specialized terms and literature that encompass the corpus of early Islamic historiography. Aspects of insurgency are examined to reveal how a movement first ...
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This chapter introduces readers to the specialized terms and literature that encompass the corpus of early Islamic historiography. Aspects of insurgency are examined to reveal how a movement first transforms the worldview of a targeted culture before engaging in any form of military operation. Early sources are examined for their accuracy, and critical perspectives are weighed in order to determine which are most trustworthy. Four distinct scholarly approaches have traditionally been brought to the analysis of early Islamic sources, and these, including those of Fred Donner and Albrecht Noth, are discussed in light of their impact on analysis of Muhammad's campaigns. Finally, while broadly assessing the scholarly field, this chapter also specifically informs readers of the author's key assumptions, particularly his use of an empirical approach to demonstrate that the early sources, such as the hadith literature, Ibn Ishaq, and al-Tabari, are largely accurate in their descriptions.Less
This chapter introduces readers to the specialized terms and literature that encompass the corpus of early Islamic historiography. Aspects of insurgency are examined to reveal how a movement first transforms the worldview of a targeted culture before engaging in any form of military operation. Early sources are examined for their accuracy, and critical perspectives are weighed in order to determine which are most trustworthy. Four distinct scholarly approaches have traditionally been brought to the analysis of early Islamic sources, and these, including those of Fred Donner and Albrecht Noth, are discussed in light of their impact on analysis of Muhammad's campaigns. Finally, while broadly assessing the scholarly field, this chapter also specifically informs readers of the author's key assumptions, particularly his use of an empirical approach to demonstrate that the early sources, such as the hadith literature, Ibn Ishaq, and al-Tabari, are largely accurate in their descriptions.
Michael Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520272330
- eISBN:
- 9780520951914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520272330.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter begins with the author's thoughts about anthropologist Galina Lindquist. He discusses how some writers are persuading us to move away from constituting the other as an object of ...
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This chapter begins with the author's thoughts about anthropologist Galina Lindquist. He discusses how some writers are persuading us to move away from constituting the other as an object of knowledge and, as a corollary, from constituting ourselves as possessing superior skills for acquiring knowledge of others. This means placing both oneself and the other on the same existential footing, and seeing all worldviews not as theories of knowledge about the world, but as existential means of achieving viable ways of living in and with the world. The author addresses the question of how we might evaluate radically different worldviews without invoking the pejorative dichotomies of premodern versus modern, religious versus scientific, and mythic versus real.Less
This chapter begins with the author's thoughts about anthropologist Galina Lindquist. He discusses how some writers are persuading us to move away from constituting the other as an object of knowledge and, as a corollary, from constituting ourselves as possessing superior skills for acquiring knowledge of others. This means placing both oneself and the other on the same existential footing, and seeing all worldviews not as theories of knowledge about the world, but as existential means of achieving viable ways of living in and with the world. The author addresses the question of how we might evaluate radically different worldviews without invoking the pejorative dichotomies of premodern versus modern, religious versus scientific, and mythic versus real.
James W. Underhill
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748643158
- eISBN:
- 9780748651566
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748643158.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter begins with a discussion of the notions of worldviews and pattering. It then sets out the focus of the book, namely the creation of worldviews: that is, with the way we create them, the ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the notions of worldviews and pattering. It then sets out the focus of the book, namely the creation of worldviews: that is, with the way we create them, the way we introduce them, maintain them, and transform them. The goal is to invite readers into the kind of intellectual adventure that translators set off upon when they enter into foreign worldviews; because translators must inhabit more than one ‘world’, if they are to be able to build bridges between worlds with their translations. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of the notions of worldviews and pattering. It then sets out the focus of the book, namely the creation of worldviews: that is, with the way we create them, the way we introduce them, maintain them, and transform them. The goal is to invite readers into the kind of intellectual adventure that translators set off upon when they enter into foreign worldviews; because translators must inhabit more than one ‘world’, if they are to be able to build bridges between worlds with their translations. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Dominic Boyer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451881
- eISBN:
- 9780801467356
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451881.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter works towards creating a general portrait of the state of news journalism today. Following Raymond Williams's analysis of the historical transformation of forms of electronic mediation, ...
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This chapter works towards creating a general portrait of the state of news journalism today. Following Raymond Williams's analysis of the historical transformation of forms of electronic mediation, it offers five reflections on how news journalism has been impacted both by the development and institutionalization of digital communication and information technology, and by the intensified legitimation of late and neoliberal worldviews in the past quarter century. It discusses in particular how the rebalancing of the radial and lateral potentialities of electronic communication with the institutionalization of the Internet and the popularization of mobile telephony has massively impacted and destabilized the mid-twentieth-century regime of news journalism.Less
This chapter works towards creating a general portrait of the state of news journalism today. Following Raymond Williams's analysis of the historical transformation of forms of electronic mediation, it offers five reflections on how news journalism has been impacted both by the development and institutionalization of digital communication and information technology, and by the intensified legitimation of late and neoliberal worldviews in the past quarter century. It discusses in particular how the rebalancing of the radial and lateral potentialities of electronic communication with the institutionalization of the Internet and the popularization of mobile telephony has massively impacted and destabilized the mid-twentieth-century regime of news journalism.
Strachan Donnelley
Ceara Donnelley and Bruce Jennings (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813167275
- eISBN:
- 9780813175669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813167275.003.0008
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter questions and challenges the tendency to define single ultimate values and then elevate them to grow into full-fledged worldviews by which we live. The principal example discussed here ...
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This chapter questions and challenges the tendency to define single ultimate values and then elevate them to grow into full-fledged worldviews by which we live. The principal example discussed here is the profit orientation and imperative of a market society. This chapter warns against embracing an exclusive economic approach to conservation and ecological issues, not because assigning a monetary value to ecosystem services and values cannot sometimes be useful, but because the monetary worldview is ultimately overweening and misleading for the conservation movement. The chapter concludes with a sketch and overview of the worldview that grows out of the philosophies of nature discussed later in the book as an ecocentric value-based alternative to profit-oriented market incentives.Less
This chapter questions and challenges the tendency to define single ultimate values and then elevate them to grow into full-fledged worldviews by which we live. The principal example discussed here is the profit orientation and imperative of a market society. This chapter warns against embracing an exclusive economic approach to conservation and ecological issues, not because assigning a monetary value to ecosystem services and values cannot sometimes be useful, but because the monetary worldview is ultimately overweening and misleading for the conservation movement. The chapter concludes with a sketch and overview of the worldview that grows out of the philosophies of nature discussed later in the book as an ecocentric value-based alternative to profit-oriented market incentives.
Strachan Donnelley
Ceara Donnelley and Bruce Jennings (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813167275
- eISBN:
- 9780813175669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813167275.003.0017
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
A struggle that began in the seventeenth century is still being waged today. It pits a mechanistic, reductionistic worldview that sets human being apart from the rest of being and mind or cognition ...
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A struggle that began in the seventeenth century is still being waged today. It pits a mechanistic, reductionistic worldview that sets human being apart from the rest of being and mind or cognition apart from the rest of natural reality, on the one side, against a worldview that aims at ontological monism and the relational being of humans and nature, on the other. This chapter presents the terms and aspects of this debate in a close discussion of Descartes and then considers the work of Spinoza and Whitehead against the background of Cartesian thought. Descartes severs an ontological connection between thought and material being, thereby making it impossible to talk about an interconnected web of being. Spinoza rejects this and views all forms of life and material being as finite manifestations of one unbounded active being, Nature (God).Less
A struggle that began in the seventeenth century is still being waged today. It pits a mechanistic, reductionistic worldview that sets human being apart from the rest of being and mind or cognition apart from the rest of natural reality, on the one side, against a worldview that aims at ontological monism and the relational being of humans and nature, on the other. This chapter presents the terms and aspects of this debate in a close discussion of Descartes and then considers the work of Spinoza and Whitehead against the background of Cartesian thought. Descartes severs an ontological connection between thought and material being, thereby making it impossible to talk about an interconnected web of being. Spinoza rejects this and views all forms of life and material being as finite manifestations of one unbounded active being, Nature (God).
Michael Barkun
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238053
- eISBN:
- 9780520939721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238053.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Belief in conspiracies is central to millennialism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The essence of conspiracy beliefs lies in attempts to delineate and explain evil, and has ...
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Belief in conspiracies is central to millennialism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The essence of conspiracy beliefs lies in attempts to delineate and explain evil, and has implications both for the role of secrecy and for the activities a conspiracy is believed to undertake. The conspiracy theorist's view is both frightening and reassuring because it magnifies the power of evil, leading in some cases to an outright dualism in which light and darkness struggle for cosmic supremacy. Millennialist worldviews have always predisposed their adherents to conspiracy beliefs. Such worldviews may be characterized as Manichaean, in the sense that they cast the world in terms of a struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, and hold that this polarization will persist until the end of history, when evil is finally, definitively defeated. Conspiracism explains failure, both for organizations and for the larger world.Less
Belief in conspiracies is central to millennialism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The essence of conspiracy beliefs lies in attempts to delineate and explain evil, and has implications both for the role of secrecy and for the activities a conspiracy is believed to undertake. The conspiracy theorist's view is both frightening and reassuring because it magnifies the power of evil, leading in some cases to an outright dualism in which light and darkness struggle for cosmic supremacy. Millennialist worldviews have always predisposed their adherents to conspiracy beliefs. Such worldviews may be characterized as Manichaean, in the sense that they cast the world in terms of a struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, and hold that this polarization will persist until the end of history, when evil is finally, definitively defeated. Conspiracism explains failure, both for organizations and for the larger world.
Michael F. Cairo
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136721
- eISBN:
- 9780813141275
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136721.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter offers an analysis of the lessons, both general and specific one can draw from a comparison of the Bush presidencies’ policies in the Middle East. The chapter begins by offering lessons ...
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This chapter offers an analysis of the lessons, both general and specific one can draw from a comparison of the Bush presidencies’ policies in the Middle East. The chapter begins by offering lessons from the analysis of the wars in Iraq, citing the importance of experience in the presidency, and arguing that the experience of George H.W. Bush contributed to policies that produced far better results than the policies of George W. Bush. Emphasizing the fact that experience coupled with each man’s worldview contributed to the policies and policy outcomes, the chapter suggests that it is important to understand the beliefs of presidents. The chapter next turns to an analysis of the lessons that emerged from the comparison of the peace process, stressing the pivotal importance of personal relations. Finally, the chapter offers a general analysis arguing for the study of presidential worldviews more generally.Less
This chapter offers an analysis of the lessons, both general and specific one can draw from a comparison of the Bush presidencies’ policies in the Middle East. The chapter begins by offering lessons from the analysis of the wars in Iraq, citing the importance of experience in the presidency, and arguing that the experience of George H.W. Bush contributed to policies that produced far better results than the policies of George W. Bush. Emphasizing the fact that experience coupled with each man’s worldview contributed to the policies and policy outcomes, the chapter suggests that it is important to understand the beliefs of presidents. The chapter next turns to an analysis of the lessons that emerged from the comparison of the peace process, stressing the pivotal importance of personal relations. Finally, the chapter offers a general analysis arguing for the study of presidential worldviews more generally.
Gene H. Bell-Villada
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833513
- eISBN:
- 9781469604473
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807895382_bell-villada.11
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Even when García Márquez was only in his early twenties, his writings (as a journalist) presented fully formed and mature worldviews coupled with his unmistakable wit and humor. Considering himself ...
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Even when García Márquez was only in his early twenties, his writings (as a journalist) presented fully formed and mature worldviews coupled with his unmistakable wit and humor. Considering himself as an antiacademic, antiestablishment, and antisolemn, García Márquez's political leftism was conveyed as subtlely as he allowed it to be. García Márquez considered himself as an independent leftist, a Marxist of his own kind, well until his mature years. In this chapter, his views of other countries such as the United States and Soviet Russia, and his political stance, are analyzed and discussed.Less
Even when García Márquez was only in his early twenties, his writings (as a journalist) presented fully formed and mature worldviews coupled with his unmistakable wit and humor. Considering himself as an antiacademic, antiestablishment, and antisolemn, García Márquez's political leftism was conveyed as subtlely as he allowed it to be. García Márquez considered himself as an independent leftist, a Marxist of his own kind, well until his mature years. In this chapter, his views of other countries such as the United States and Soviet Russia, and his political stance, are analyzed and discussed.
Gene H. Bell-Villada
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833513
- eISBN:
- 9781469604473
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807895382_bell-villada.12
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
As a popular and revered author, García Márquez has been ironically silent in terms of literary criticism. This chapter traces his literary foundations and how he came upon enriching his literary ...
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As a popular and revered author, García Márquez has been ironically silent in terms of literary criticism. This chapter traces his literary foundations and how he came upon enriching his literary education. It tells of García Márquez's ways and actions in establishing his literary repertory as a precursor to his writing of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Literary narratives that played key roles in the inspiration and vision of García Márquez in writing his novel are examined. These narratives are either works that interested him or spoke to his worldviews, thereby serving as his means to articulate his thoughts and vision. Being self-educated, all the works and narratives García Márquez read served as his “schools” and paved the way for his development as the writer he is most known as being.Less
As a popular and revered author, García Márquez has been ironically silent in terms of literary criticism. This chapter traces his literary foundations and how he came upon enriching his literary education. It tells of García Márquez's ways and actions in establishing his literary repertory as a precursor to his writing of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Literary narratives that played key roles in the inspiration and vision of García Márquez in writing his novel are examined. These narratives are either works that interested him or spoke to his worldviews, thereby serving as his means to articulate his thoughts and vision. Being self-educated, all the works and narratives García Márquez read served as his “schools” and paved the way for his development as the writer he is most known as being.
Candy Gunther Brown
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199985784
- eISBN:
- 9780199367801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199985784.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Chapter three shows that CAM worldviews differ from worldviews historically held by theologically conservative Christians, yet the reasoning processes used by evangelicals have led increasing numbers ...
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Chapter three shows that CAM worldviews differ from worldviews historically held by theologically conservative Christians, yet the reasoning processes used by evangelicals have led increasing numbers of them to CAM. Evangelicals engage in boundary-setting, or proscription of beliefs and actions that seem inherently corrupting, and appropriation of non-Christian resources for Christian purposes. Evangelicals classify practices either as legitimate, religiously neutral science, or as illicit, New Age spirituality or Eastern religion, using litmus tests of whether the roots and fruits are good to determine legitimacy. Assuming that something can be either scientific or religious, but not both, obscures religious aspects of procedures categorized as scientific techniques. Paradoxically, fear of theological contamination from investigating New Age and Eastern religion made evangelicals more likely to adopt practices that express the very worldviews that they find suspect. Although evangelicals stridently defend orthodoxy, the efficacy standard inhibits, instead of stimulates, theological reflection about CAM worldviews.Less
Chapter three shows that CAM worldviews differ from worldviews historically held by theologically conservative Christians, yet the reasoning processes used by evangelicals have led increasing numbers of them to CAM. Evangelicals engage in boundary-setting, or proscription of beliefs and actions that seem inherently corrupting, and appropriation of non-Christian resources for Christian purposes. Evangelicals classify practices either as legitimate, religiously neutral science, or as illicit, New Age spirituality or Eastern religion, using litmus tests of whether the roots and fruits are good to determine legitimacy. Assuming that something can be either scientific or religious, but not both, obscures religious aspects of procedures categorized as scientific techniques. Paradoxically, fear of theological contamination from investigating New Age and Eastern religion made evangelicals more likely to adopt practices that express the very worldviews that they find suspect. Although evangelicals stridently defend orthodoxy, the efficacy standard inhibits, instead of stimulates, theological reflection about CAM worldviews.
