Structural idealism : a theory of social and historical explanation / by Douglas Mann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mann, Doug, 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Philosophy.

Social sciences.

History--Philosophy.

History.

Idealism.

Culture--Philosophy.

Culture.

Physical Description:

ix, 309 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Waterloo, Ont. : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, [2002]

Contents:

Mapping Social Theory 8

Tilting Marx Sideways 13

Chapter 1 The Nature of Social Consciousness: A Theory of Mind 21

The Sympathetic Social Mind 21

Embodiment 26

Passionate Action 29

Purposive Action 31

Intellectual Action 33

Language as Symbolic Social Action 36

Social Rules and the Creation of Social Roles 40

Power, Hierarchy, and Social Structure 44

Chapter 2 Intention, Meaning, and Structure in Social Explanation 49

The Varieties of Rationality 51

Intention 55

Meaning 61

Structure 70

Chapter 3 A Structural Idealist Interpretation of Theories of Deviance 81

Labelling/Transactionalist Views of Deviance 81

New Subcultural Theory 86

A Structural Idealist Understanding of Deviance and the Question of Causality 94

Chapter 4 Reconstructing the Past: A Structural Idealist Approach 99

Collingwood's Re-enactment Thesis 100

Problems with the Thesis 106

Structuring Human Actions 117

The Centrality of Meaning in Historical Explanation 121

The Reconstruction Thesis 125

Construction, Reconstruction, and Objectivity 126

Chapter 5 The Search for Depth Meaning as the Essence of Late Modernity 131

A Cook's Tour of Late Modernity 134

Nietzsche: From Morality to the Genealogy of Morals 138

Freud: From Mind to Psyche 146

From Sociology to the Sociology of Knowledge 155

Chapter 6 The End of the Search for Depth Meaning as the Essence of Postmodernity 159

Foucault: From Truth to Power/Knowledge 169

Derrida: From Meaning to Play 177

Lyotard and Baudrillard: From an Incredulity to Metanarratives to Embracing Simulacra 181

The Search for Meaning in Depth as a Disenchantment of the Social World 192

From the Unmasking Mind to the Liquid Body 197

Chapter 7 A Secret History of the Liquid Body: Image and Counter-Image in Twentieth-Century Culture 199

A Theoretical Sketch 199

Body Images, Power, and Levels of Meaning 203

The Channels of Communication 206

A Periodization 209

A Case in Point: British Subcultural Styles, 1963-1978 217

The Liquid Body and the Question of Freedom 220

Chapter 8 The Contribution of Structural Idealism to Cultural Critique 223

Prologue: What is Culture? 223

Voices in the Wilderness: A Tour of Contemporary Cultural Criticism, 1978-1995 224

Explorations in Contemporary Cultural Criticism 249

A Sketch of a Structural Idealist Theory of Cultural Critique 259

Towards a Unified Social Theory 266.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0889203911 :

OCLC:

49047561