Between Magic And Rationality

Author : Vibeke Steffen,Steffen Jöhncke,Kirsten Marie Raahauge
Publisher : Museum Tusculanum Press
Page : 382 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2015-04-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9788763542135

Get Book

Between Magic and Rationality by Vibeke Steffen,Steffen Jöhncke,Kirsten Marie Raahauge Pdf

In Between Magic and Reality, Vibeke Steffen, Steffen Jöhncke, and Kirsten Marie Raahauge bring together a diverse range of ethnographies that examine and explore the forms of reflection, action, and interaction that govern the ways different contemporary societies create and challenge the limits of reason. The essays here visit an impressive array of settings, including international scientific laboratories, British spiritualist meetings, Chinese villages, Danish rehabilitation centers, and Uzbeki homes, where they encounter a diverse assortment of people whose beliefs and concerns exhibit an unusual but central contemporary dichotomy: scientific reason versus spiritual/paranormal belief. Exploring the paradoxical way these modes of thought push against reason's boundaries, they offer a deep look at the complex ways they coexist, contest one another, and are ultimately intertwined. Vibeke Steffen is associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, where Steffen Jöncke is senior advisor. Kirsten Marie Raahauge is associate professor in the School of Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

Author : Manfred Horstmanshoff,Marten Stol
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 423 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2018-07-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9789047414315

Get Book

Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine by Manfred Horstmanshoff,Marten Stol Pdf

A study of methods in Ancient Near Eastern and Greek and Roman medicine, based on representative text corpora. Central is the question of what is "rational", or not, in the various systems.

Author : Stanley J. Tambiah
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 1990-03-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521376319

Get Book

Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality by Stanley J. Tambiah Pdf

This accessible and illuminating book explores the classical opposition between magic, science and religion.

Author : J. Agassi,I.C. Jarvie
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 469 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789400934917

Get Book

Rationality: The Critical View by J. Agassi,I.C. Jarvie Pdf

In our papers on the rationality of magic, we distinghuished, for purposes of analysis, three levels of rationality. First and lowest (rationalitYl) the goal directed action of an agent with given aims and circumstances, where among his circumstances we included his knowledge and opinions. On this level the magician's treatment of illness by incantation is as rational as any traditional doctor's blood-letting or any modern one's use of anti-biotics. At the second level (rationalitY2) we add the element of rational thinking or thinking which obeys some set of explicit rules, a level which is not found in magic in general, though it is sometimes given to specific details of magical thinking within the magical thought-system. It was the late Sir Edward E. Evans-Pritchard who observed that when considering magic in detail the magician may be as consistent or critical as anyone else; but when considering magic in general, or any system of thought in general, the magician could not be critical or even comprehend the criticism. Evans-Pritchard went even further: he was sceptical as to whether it could be done in a truly consistent manner: one cannot be critical of one's own system, he thought. On this level (rationalitY2) of discussion we have explained (earlier) why we prefer to wed Evans Pritchard's view of the magician's capacity for piece-meal rationality to Sir James Frazer's view that magic in general is pseudo-rational because it lacks standards of rational thinking.

Author : Konrad Talmont-Kaminski
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2014-10-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317544739

Get Book

Religion as Magical Ideology by Konrad Talmont-Kaminski Pdf

'Religion as Magical Ideology' examines the relationship between rationality and supernatural beliefs arguing that such beliefs are products of evolution, cognition and culture. The book does not offer a false rapprochement between reason and religion; instead, it explores their interrelationship as a series of complex adaptations between cognitive and cultural processes. Exploring the nature of the tension between religious traditions and reason, 'Religion as Magical Ideology' develops a dual inheritance theory of religion - which combines the cognitive byproduct and prosocial adaptation accounts - and analyses the connection between the function of a belief and the degree of protection it gets from potential counter-evidence. With discussion ranging from individual cognitive mechanisms, general functional considerations, to the limits of evolutionary and cognitive processes, the book offers readers a systematic account of how cognition shapes religious beliefs and practices.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 187 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:1137153535

Get Book

Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality by Anonim Pdf

Author : Kei Yoshida
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 157 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2014-08-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780739174005

Get Book

Rationality and Cultural Interpretivism by Kei Yoshida Pdf

Rationality and Cultural Interpretivism: A Critical Assessment of Failed Solutions critically assesses cultural interpretivism by scrutinizing five different proponents of it and their solutions to the problem of rationality. The book examines the works of Peter Winch, Charles Taylor, Clifford Geertz, Marshall Sahlins, and Gananath Obeyesekere and their contributions to the so-called rationality debate in the philosophy of the social sciences. This debate began with Winch’s criticism of Edward Evans-Pritchard and has become one of the central debates in the field since 1960s, continuing as a controversy between Sahlins and Obeyesekere. Kei Yoshida reveals the need for a cogent solution to the problem of rationality. He identifies two main problems with previous theories: first, that they exaggerate the differences between the natural and the social/cultural, and hence they also exaggerate the differences between the natural and the social sciences; and second, that they ignore important social science problems, particularly outcomes from the unintended consequences of human actions. Yoshida urges social scientists not simply to interpret agents’ intentions or symbolic systems, but also to explain the unintended consequences of human actions. Still entangled in positivism, cultural interpretivists claim that the social sciences differ from the natural sciences and thus reject any unity of method. Yoshida argues that we need to overcome the mistaken positivist image of science in order to develop a more fruitful philosophy of the social sciences. The analysis presented in this book will be of value to students and scholars of social epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of the social sciences, and the social sciences themselves, as well as anyone interested in the philosophical problem of rationality and relativism.

Author : I.C. Jarvie
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2015-07-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317401179

Get Book

Rationality and Relativism by I.C. Jarvie Pdf

Anthropology revolves round answers to problems about the nature, development and unity of mankind; problems that are both philosophical and scientific. In this book, first published in 1984, Professor Jarvie applies Popper’s philosophy of science to understanding the history and theory of anthropology. Jarvie describes how the ancient view that the aim of science and philosophy was to get at the truth is challenged in anthropology by the doctrine of cultural relativism; that is, that truth varies with the cultural framework. He shows how philosophers as various as Peter Winch, W.V.O. Quine, W.T. Jones, Nelson Goodman and Richard Rorty were influenced by this doctrine. Yet these philosophers also accept the value of rational argument. Jarvie believes that there is a contradiction between relativism and any notion of human rationality that centres around argument. Forced by the contradiction to choose between rationality and relativism, he argues strongly that logical, scientific and moral considerations favour rationality and urge repudiation of relativism. The central argument of the book is that relativism is intellectually disastrous and has fostered intellectual attitudes from which anthropology still suffers.

Author : Charles Webel
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2013-12-04
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781134490370

Get Book

The Politics of Rationality by Charles Webel Pdf

What are reason and rationality? How significant are recent postmodernist and neuroscientific challenges to these longheld notions? Should we abandon a belief in reason and an adherence to rationality? Or can reason and rationality be reformulated and reframed? And what does politics have to do with how we think about reason and why we act more or less rationally? The Politics of Rationality differs from other books with "reason" or “rationality” due to its historical, political, depth-psychological, and multidisciplinary approach to understanding reason through history. Charles P. Webel eloquently clarifies the links among ideas, their creators, the relevant mental processes, and the political cultures within which such important concepts as reasons and rationality take hold. He demonstrates how reason and rationality/irrationality have become what they mean for us today and proposes a way to rethink reason and rationality in light of the withering critiques leveled against them. In doing so, he presents a "history of reason and rationality" by examining the intellectual and political contexts of four representative theorists of reason and rationality-- Plato, Machiavelli, Kant, and Weber—and by addressing contemporary challenges posed by postmodernism, depth psychology, and neurophilosophy.

Author : Stanley J. Tambiah
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 187 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 1990-03-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0521374863

Get Book

Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality by Stanley J. Tambiah Pdf

This accessible and illuminating book explores the classical opposition between magic, science and religion.

Author : Joe Kelleher,Nicholas Ridout
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2006-09-27
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781134331147

Get Book

Contemporary Theatres in Europe by Joe Kelleher,Nicholas Ridout Pdf

With specific examples and case studies by specialist writers, academics and a new generation of theatre researchers, this collection of specially commissioned essays is the perfect introduction to contemporary theatre practices in Europe.

Author : Gérald Bronner,Francesco Di Iorio
Publisher : Springer
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2018-07-12
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783319940281

Get Book

The Mystery of Rationality by Gérald Bronner,Francesco Di Iorio Pdf

This book contributes to the developing dialogue between cognitive science and social sciences. It focuses on a central issue in both fields, i.e. the nature and the limitations of the rationality of beliefs and action. The development of cognitive science is one of the most important and fascinating intellectual advances of recent decades, and social scientists are paying increasing attention to the findings of this new branch of science that forces us to consider many classical issues related to epistemology and philosophy of action in a new light. Analysis of the concept of rationality is a leitmotiv in the history of the social sciences and has involved endless disputes. Since it is difficult to give a precise definition of this concept, and there is a lack of agreement about its meaning, it is possible to say that there is a ‘mystery of rationality’. What is it to be rational? Is rationality merely instrumental or does it also involve the endorsement of values, i.e. the choice of goals? Should we consider rationality to be a normative principle or a descriptive one? Can rationality be only Cartesian or can it also be argumentative? Is rationality a conscious skill or a partly tacit one? This book, which has been written by an outstanding collection of authors, including both philosophers and social scientists, tries to make a useful contribution to the debates on these problems and shed some light on the mystery of rationality. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field.

Author : Brian P. Levack
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9781136537998

Get Book

Demonology, Religion, and Witchcraft by Brian P. Levack Pdf

Witchcraft and magical beliefs have captivated historians and artists for millennia, and stimulated an extraordinary amount of research among scholars in a wide range of disciplines. This new collection, from the editor of the highly acclaimed 1992 set, Articles on Witchcraft, Magic, and Demonology , extends the earlier volumes by bringing together the most important articles of the past twenty years and covering the profound changes in scholarly perspective over the past two decades. Featuring thematically organized papers from a broad spectrum of publications, the volumes in this set encompass the key issues and approaches to witchcraft research in fields such as gender studies, anthropology, sociology, literature, history, psychology, and law. This new collection provides students and researchers with an invaluable resource, comprising the most important and influential discussions on this topic. A useful introductory essay written by the editor precedes each volume.

Author : Randall Styers
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2004-01-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780190287924

Get Book

Making Magic by Randall Styers Pdf

Since the emergence of religious studies and the social sciences as academic disciplines, the concept of "magic" has played a major role in defining religion and in mediating the relation of religion to science. Across these disciplines, magic has regularly been configured as a definitively non-modern phenomenon, juxtaposed to distinctly modern models of religion and science. Yet this notion of magic has remained stubbornly amorphous. In Making Magic, Randall Styers seeks to account for the extraordinary vitality of scholarly discourse purporting to define and explain magic despite its failure to do just that. He argues that this persistence can best be explained in light of the Western drive to establish and secure distinctive norms for modern identity, norms based on narrow forms of instrumental rationality, industrious labor, rigidly defined sexual roles, and the containment of wayward forms of desire. Magic has served to designate a form of alterity or deviance against which dominant Western notions of appropriate religious piety, legitimate scientific rationality, and orderly social relations are brought into relief. Scholars have found magic an invaluable tool in their efforts to define the appropriate boundaries of religion and science. On a broader level, says Styers, magical thinking has served as an important foil for modernity itself. Debates over the nature of magic have offered a particularly rich site at which scholars have worked to define and to contest the nature of modernity and norms for life in the modern world.

Author : S.I. Benn,G.W. Mortimore
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 628 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2014-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317651260

Get Book

Rationality and the Social Sciences (RLE Social Theory) by S.I. Benn,G.W. Mortimore Pdf

The concepts of rationality that are used by social scientists in the formation of hypotheses, models and explanations are explored in this collection of original papers by a number of distinguished philosophers and social scientists. The aim of the book is to display the variety of the concepts used, to show the different roles they play in theories of very different kinds over a wide range of disciplines, including economics, sociology, psychology, political science and anthropology, and to assess the explanatory and predictive power that a theory can draw from such concepts.