Theory Reflections: Linguistic Determinism/Relativism
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Relativism of Blame and Williams' Relativism of Distance
ABSTRACT: Bernard Williams is a sceptic about the objectivity of moral value, embracing instead a certain qualified moral relativism—the ‘relativism of distance’. His attitude to blame too is in part sceptical (he thought it often involved a certain ‘fantasy’). I will argue that the relativism of distance is unconvincing, even incoherent; but also that it is detachable from the rest of Williams’ moral philosophy. I will then go on to propose an entirely localized thesis I call the relativism of blame, which says that when an agent’s moral shortcomings by our lights are a matter of their living according to the moral thinking of their day, judgements of blame are out of order. Finally, I will propose a form of moral judgement we may sometimes quite properly direct towards historically distant agents when blame is inappropriate—moral-epistemic disappointment. Together these two proposals may help release us from the grip of the idea that moral appraisal always involves the potential applicability of blame, and so from a key source of the relativist idea that moral appraisal is inappropriate over distance. The Relativism of Blame and Williams’ Relativism of Distance Must I think of myself as visiting in judgement all the reaches of history? Of course, one can imagine oneself as Kant at the court of King Arthur, disapproving of its injustices, but exactly what grip does this get on one’s ethical or political thought?1 Bernard Williams famously argued for a distinctive brand of moral relativism, which he regarded as capturing the truth in relativism, and which he called the relativism of distance. -
On the Coherence of Sartre's Defense of Existentialism Against The
Untitled 7/12/05 3:41 PM On the Coherence of Sartre’s Defense of Existentialism Against the Essentialist Charge of Ethical Relativism in His “Existentialism and Humanism” Brad Cherry I.Introduction Although its slim volume may suggest otherwise, Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism and Humanism” treats a wealth of existentialist themes. Indeed, within its pages, Sartre characterizes many of the hallmarks of existentialist thought, including subjectivity, freedom, responsibility, anguish, forlornness, despair, and so on. Perhaps most importantly, however, Sartre’s “Existentialism and Humanism” occasions a defense of existentialism against its most frequently dealt criticisms, particularly the essentialist charge that existentialism necessarily gives rise to ethical relativism. And while this defense may seem convincing at first, in many places, it also seems to abandon, for the sake of its project, the fundamental commitments of existentialism, at least as Sartre understands them. Thus, in this essay, I critically examine the coherence of Sartre’s defense of existentialism against the essentialist charge of ethical relativism. To the extent that that defense relies largely upon his espousal of an existentialist ethics, I examine, in particular, whether that ethics coheres with the fundamental commitments of existentialism as he understands them. Following this examination, I conclude that (a) the fundamental commitments of existentialism preclude Sartre from coherently positing objectively valid normative ethical statements, that (b) because he nonetheless posits such statements in his espousal of an existentialist ethics, his defense of existentialism against the essentialist charge of ethical relativism breaks down, and finally, that (c) although this incoherence presents a substantial problem for Sartre, one may still defend his attempt to espouse an existentialist ethics. -
Cooperation Across Cultures: an Analysis of Intercultural Competence in Development Organizations
Lisa Armbruster COOPERATION ACROSS CULTURES: AN ANALYSIS OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS WORKING PAPER VOLUME | 205 BOCHUM 2014 www.development-research.org | www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de IEE WORKING PAPERS 205 Lisa Armbruster COOPERATION ACROSS CULTURES: AN ANALYSIS OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS Copyright 2014 Herausgeber: © Institut für Entwicklungsforschung und Entwicklungspolitik der Ruhr-Universität Bochum Postfach 10 21 48, D-44780 Bochum E-Mail: [email protected] www.development-research.org ISSN 0934-6058 ISBN 978-3-927276-91-8 Abstract Behavior, attitudes, and values differ extremely throughout the world. Whenever two members of different groups such as cultures, nations, or societies interact, such differ- ences become a determining factor for the process of interaction. When thinking of such areas where interactions among members of different cultures constitute a crucial pre- condition, development cooperation comes to one’s mind right away. Development policy and cooperation take place in intercultural settings as members of so-called more devel- oped countries interfere in the development of so-called less developed countries, which always includes a cultural component. Hence, such international and intercultural inter- actions require a competent way of dealing with cultural differences. Consequently, this paper examines the extent to what intercultural competence is a determining factor for the success of organizations of development cooperation. It does so by analyzing the case of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Bolivia. Bolivia rep- resents a highly interesting context for studies dealing with interculturality as the country has passed a constitution in 2006 which explicitly includes concepts of interculturality (interculturalidad). -
Durkheim and Organizational Culture
IRLE IRLE WORKING PAPER #108-04 June 2004 Durkheim and Organizational Culture James R. Lincoln and Didier Guillot Cite as: James R. Lincoln and Didier Guillot. (2004). “Durkheim and Organizational Culture.” IRLE Working Paper No. 108-04. http://irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers/108-04.pdf irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers Durkheim and Organizational Culture James R. Lincoln Walter A. Haas School of Business University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 Didier Guillot INSEAD Singapore June , 2004 Prepared for inclusion in Marek Kocsynski, Randy Hodson, and Paul Edwards (editors): Social Theory at Work . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Durkheim and Organizational Culture “The degree of consensus over, and intensity of, cognitive orientations and regulative cultural codes among the members of a population is an inv erse function of the degree of structural differentiation among actors in this population and a positive, multiplicative function of their (a) rate of interpersonal interaction, (b) level of emotional arousal, and (c) rate of ritual performance. ” Durkheim’ s theory of culture as rendered axiomatically by Jonathan Turner (1990) Introduction This paper examines the significance of Emile Durkheim’s thought for organization theory , particular attention being given to the concept of organizational culture. We ar e not the first to take the project on —a number of scholars have usefully addressed the extent and relevance of this giant of Western social science for the study of organization and work. Even so, there is no denying that Durkheim’s name appears with vast ly less frequency in the literature on these topics than is true of Marx and W eber, sociology’ s other founding fathers . -
Philosophy of Linguistics
Philosophy of Linguistics Brian Rabern Philosophy DSB 4.04c 0131 651 5178 [email protected] Geoff Pullum Linguistics DSB 2.23 0131 650 3603 [email protected] Meetings The class meetings are from 11:00 to 13:00 each Wednesday from 19th September to 28th November in Old Library 2.19, Geography building, Old Infirmary complex (weeks 1–3 and 6–11) and in 01M.469 Teaching Room 12 (Doorway 3), Medical School building. Class meetings are mandatory. Readings Required reading is to be done before the class meets; background reading to be studied as time and specific interests permit. Assessment (i) short paper (1000-1500 words) to be turned in by 5 p.m. on Monday 15th October (topics will be provided); (ii) final essay examination with choice of questions from the whole of the course. Week 1 (19th September; Old Library 2.19): Introduction What linguistics is. Linguistics as a special science. Syntax and semantics as conceived in logic. Charles Morris’s trichotomy of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Philosophy of science applied to linguistics. Required reading • Hunter, Geoffrey (1971) Metalogic: An Introduction to the Metatheory of Standard First Order Logic (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 4–13. Background reading • Stainton, Robert (2014) ‘Philosophy of linguistics’, Oxford Handbooks Online. Online at https://works.bepress.com/robertstainton/126/ Week 2 (26th September; Old Library 2.19): Language and languages The metaphysics of linguistics. The vexed question of whether language should be regarded as psychological, social, or purely abstract. The descriptive linguistics of the American structuralists and the mentalist/cognitive backlash; ‘God’s truth’ (realism) vs. -
Literacy As a Socio-Cultural Tool’ Cindy Bird
FOCUS ON PRACTICE When Cultures Meet When Cultures Meet, What’s a Teacher To Do? Highlighting the ‘Cultural’ in ‘Literacy as a Socio-cultural Tool’ Cindy Bird ABSTRACT Cultures determine identity in that they prescribe the “food, festivals, and fashion” of their members; for example, rap music, baggy pants and gestured dancing identify the hip hop culture (recognizable to both “members” and “non-members”). Cultural identities are created and maintained by “literacy” -- the ability to read and write the “texts” of a culture. Thus in this broad sense, literacy is a socio-cultural “tool,” and mastering it means “success” within a culture. The purpose of this article is to explore the socio-cultural nature of literacy as it relates to identity both for teacher and student, and to examine the use of literacy as a tool for “success” in the culture of school. The article concludes by delineating four pedagogical choices: the “uni-cultural,” the “uni- cultural plus,” the “multi-cultural as motivator,” and the “multi-cultural as curriculum.” These are available to all teachers who stand in their classroom doorways at the meeting place of multiple cultures -- their own, the school’s, the classroom’s, and their students’. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Cindy M. Bird is Assistant Professor of Education in the Graduate Literacy Program at the State University of New York at Fredonia, where she currently teaches the Sociological and Psychological Foundations of Literacy courses. Her areas of expertise include adolescent literacies and media literacy. She may be reached at [email protected] Not long ago I heard a commencement address wherein the speaker spent several minutes listing the multiple communities to which an individual belongs. -
People of Maize”: Maize Protein Composition and Farmer Practices in the Q’Eqchi’ Maya Milpa
Nourishing the “People of Maize”: Maize Protein Composition and Farmer Practices in the Q’eqchi’ Maya Milpa An honors thesis for the Department of Environmental Studies. Anne Elise Stratton Tufts University, 2015. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 CHAPTER 1 The Q’eqchi’ Milpa in Context Introducing the Milpa The Maize People and the Milpa Forced Migration and Agroecological Adaptation “Grabbed” Land and the Milpa in Transition Milpa in Modernity 23 CHAPTER 2 Linking Biodiversity, Nutrition, and Resilience in the Multispecies Milpa Multispecies Milpa Milpa: Origins and Ideals Today’s Milpa The Milpa as a System 39 CHAPTER 3 Farmer Practices and Maize Nutritional Traits in Sarstún Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion Figures 62 CHAPTER 4 Future Directions 64 LITERATURE CITED ii CHAPTER 1: THE Q’EQCHI MAYA MILPA IN CONTEXT INTRODUCING THE MILPA Nestled along the mangrove-bound border between Belize and Guatemala, in the region called Sarstún, are the clusters of palm-thatch or tin-roofed wooden huts where Q’eqchi’ Maya (henceforth Q’eqchi’) farmers spend their lives. Q’eqchi’ communities can consist of as few as a dozen and as many as 150 families, with an average family size of nine (Grandia 2012: 208). What the casual onlooker may not observe in visiting a village are the communal milpas, or “cornfields,” which physically surround and culturally underlie Q’eqchi’ societies (Grandia 2012: 191). The Q’eqchi’ have traditionally raised maize using swidden (slash-and-burn) techniques, in which they fell a field-sized area of forest, burn the organic matter to release a nutrient pulse into the soil, and then raise their crops on the freshly-cleared land. -
Moral Relativism
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research New York City College of Technology 2020 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Carlo Alvaro CUNY New York City College of Technology How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/583 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] 1 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Abstract This paper is a response to Park Seungbae’s article, “Defence of Cultural Relativism”. Some of the typical criticisms of moral relativism are the following: moral relativism is erroneously committed to the principle of tolerance, which is a universal principle; there are a number of objective moral rules; a moral relativist must admit that Hitler was right, which is absurd; a moral relativist must deny, in the face of evidence, that moral progress is possible; and, since every individual belongs to multiple cultures at once, the concept of moral relativism is vague. Park argues that such contentions do not affect moral relativism and that the moral relativist may respond that the value of tolerance, Hitler’s actions, and the concept of culture are themselves relative. In what follows, I show that Park’s adroit strategy is unsuccessful. Consequently, moral relativism is incoherent. Keywords: Moral relativism; moral absolutism; objectivity; tolerance; moral progress 2 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Moral relativism is a meta-ethical theory according to which moral values and duties are relative to a culture and do not exist independently of a culture. -
Linguistic Determinism and Mutability: the Sapir-Whorf "Hypothesis" and Intercultural Communication
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 403 761 FL 024 384 AUTHOR van Troyer, Gene TITLE Linguistic Determinism and Mutability: The Sapir-Whorf "Hypothesis" and Intercultural Communication. PUB DATE Dec 94 NOTE 18p. PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative/Feasibility (142) Journal Articles (080) JOURNAL CIT JALT Journal; v16 n2 p163-78 Dec 1994 EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Foreign Countries; *Intercultural Communication; *Language Research; *Linguistic Theory; Research Methodology; Scientific Methodology IDENTIFIERS *Sapir (Edward); Whorf (Benjamin Lee); *Whorfian Hypothesis ABSTRACT The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, long considered a factor in intercultural communication, is discussed. Empirical studies that have tended to validate the hypothesis are reviewed, and the hypothesis is then considered from the standpoint of empirical and scientific research requirements. It is shown that the hypothesis has never been formally defined for testing, and therefore does not exist as a scientifically testable thesis. As a result, all studies that have attempted to interpret empirical data accorded to the hypothesis are either flawed or invalid because they have tested something other than the hypothesis. It is concluded that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis exists only as a notion, and has no meaningful relation to intercultural communication. Includes an abstract in Japanese. Contains 22 references. (Author/MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION AND CENTER (ERIC) DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL This document has been reproduced as HAS BE N GRANTEDBY ceived from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. -
Thoughts in Motion
! ! "# $ % & #''# #() (*+,(( - . / 0& /& &1 , ' ,2 &##/ # ,# & 3, ,/4 # 56/'# / & , , & , ' & / & ' , # # # & 7 '& & ' 3#/(((6,0 '# & / # 8 # 8 # & '# , ' & # '& ,% & # / # # & # ,9& / '# #' '# , 3 6, 3 & 6 # ,% / # / /& '# # 3 & '4 56'/ #/ ' # # & ' 34 56, # , ' & ,2 : # 3 6 & # '; # , / # ' &' ; 3,,/ <6,2 / ' & ' / / , ! (* 7== ,',= &< > 7 ' 777&?@* 2$-@*A@*B?@A(* 2$-@*A@*B?@A(AA 2-?((C@ % & #/(B@ Thoughts in Motion The Role of Long-Term L1 and Short-Term L2 Experience when Talking and Thinking of Caused Motion Guillermo Montero-Melis Centre for Research on Bilingualism Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism Stockholm University Doctoral Dissertation 2017 Centre for Research on Bilingualism Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism Stockholm University Copyright: Guillermo Montero-Melis Printing: Universitetsservice AB, Stockholm 2017 Correspondence: SE 106 91 Stockholm www.biling.su.se ISBN 978-91-7649-807-1 (print) ISBN 978-91-7649-808-8 (electronic) ISSN 1400-5921 A mi abuelo Manuel Melis, por su amor al saber Acknowledgements Two persons have mainly guided my efforts. I am deeply grateful to my main advisors, Manne -
Linguistic Relativity Phillip Wolff∗ and Kevin J
Advanced Review Linguistic relativity Phillip Wolff∗ and Kevin J. Holmes The central question in research on linguistic relativity, or the Whorfian hypothesis, is whether people who speak different languages think differently. The recent resurgence of research on this question can be attributed, in part, to new insights about the ways in which language might impact thought. We identify seven categories of hypotheses about the possible effects of language on thought across a wide range of domains, including motion, color, spatial relations, number, and false belief understanding. While we do not find support for the idea that language determines the basic categories of thought or that it overwrites preexisting conceptual distinctions, we do find support for the proposal that language can make some distinctions difficult to avoid, as well as for the proposal that language can augment certain types of thinking. Further, we highlight recent evidence suggesting that language may induce a relatively schematic mode of thinking. Although the literature on linguistic relativity remains contentious, there is growing support for the view that language has a profound effect on thought. 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. WIREs Cogn Sci 2010 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.104 INTRODUCTION rise to several logical paradoxes.6 However, a recent resurgence of research in this area has uncovered olk psychology tells us that human cognition subtle and intriguing interactions between language depends on language, and further, that this F and thought, leading to a number of more nuanced dependency creates differences in thought across versions of the proposal. language communities. Although often mistaken, folk psychology appears to be at least partially correct in this case. -
Masterarbeit / Master's Thesis
MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master‘s Thesis „Impact of language on thought and worldview, especially in the domains of time and space“ verfasst von / submitted by Keun Jun Song angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien 2016 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 812 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium English Language and Linguistics degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ. Prof. Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Ritt Table of contents page Abstract………………………………….…………………………....i Acknowledgment……………………………………………………..ii List of tables…………………………………………………..……...iii List of figures…………………………………………….…………..iv 1. Introduction…………………………………………………….......1 2. Purpose of the research…………………………………………….3 3. Methodology of the research………………………………………4 4. Theory: linguistic relativity…………………………………….…..7 4.1. Advent of the theory: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis…………….……….……8 4.1.1. Sub-classification of linguistic relativity based on relevant hypotheses………………………………………………………….......13 4.1.1.1. Language as a prototype of mental activities……………….14 4.1.1.2. Linguistic determinism……………………………………..16 4.1.1.3. Thinking before language…………………………………..16 4.1.1.4. Thinking with language…………………………………….17 4.1.1.5. Thinking after language…………………………………….18 4.2. Cognitive linguistics and the theory of linguistic relativity………….…20 4.3. Language as a matrix for thought………………………………….........25 4.4. Language and worldview………………………………………..……...26 4.4.1. World-perceiving………………………………………...……….31 4.4.2. World-conceiving……………………………………………..…..32 4.4.3. Cultural mindset…………………………………………………..32 4.4.4. Personal world…………………………………………….......….35 4.4.5. Perspective………………………………………………..………36 5. Mechanism of linguistic relativity………………………….….............37 6.