Witchcraft, Magic and Rationality Social Anthropology seeks to gauge an understanding of cultures and practices whether they are foreign or native. This is achieved through the studying of language, education, customs, marriage, kinship, hierarchy and of course belief and value systems. Rationality is a key concept in this process as it affects the anthropologist’s interpretation of the studied group’s way of life: what s/he deems as rational or plausible practice. Witchcraft and magic pose
One of Stone’s goals in the book was to illustrate how the rationality project misses the point of politics. The Rationality Project takes a whole different approach of the public policy process by focusing on rational thinking or reasoning. According to the author someone looking at politics from a rational view would see politics as messy, foolish, and erratic. If you look at our current policy process it involves identifying problems whether they are social issues, causes or demands for action
Rationality – Introducing rational choice The Renaissance firstly broke the blind worship for the theology in the public from the 14th to 17th century, human thought gained the liberty (Stinger, 1977). This makes people turn to pay attention to the essence of ourselves from the worship of theology. Based on this, the Enlightenment further boosts the ideological emancipation in the public from the 17th to 18th century (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1997). It thoroughly broke the construct of the church
The Importance of Rationality in Homer’s Odyssey In the epic poem, Odyssey, Homer provides examples of the consequences of impulsive and irrational thinking, and the rewards of planning and rationality. Impulsive actions prove to be very harmful to Odysseus. His decisions when he is escaping the cave of the Cyclops lead to almost all his troubles through his journey. As Odysseus flees the cave, he yells back "Cyclops - if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed
Instrumental Rationality and the Instrumental Doctrine ABSTRACT: In opposition to the instrumental doctrine of rationality, I argue that the rationality of the end served by a strategy is a necessary condition of the rationality of the strategy itself: means to ends cannot be rational unless the ends are rational. First, I explore cases-involving ‘proximate’ ends (that is, ends whose achievement is instrumental to the pursuit of some more fundamental end) — where even instrumentalists must concede
Davidson's Beliefs, Rationality and Psychophysical Laws ABSTRACT: Davidson argues (1) that the connection between belief and the "constitutive ideal of rationality" (2) precludes the possibility of their being any type-type identities between mental and physical events. However, there are radically different ways to understand both the nature and content of this "constitutive ideal," and the plausibility of Davidson’s argument depends on blurring the distinction between two of these ways. Indeed
Lakatos and MacIntyre on Incommensurability and the Rationality of Theory-change ABSTRACT: Imre Lakatos' "methodology of scientific research programs" and Alasdair MacIntyre's "tradition-constituted enquiry" are two sustained attempts to overcome the assumptions of logical empiricism, while saving the appearance that theory-change is rational. The key difference between them is their antithetical stand on the issue of incommensurability between large-scale theories. This divergence generates
focuses mainly on the problem of rationality and rationalisation process throughout Western culture (Swidler, 1973: 35) . Modern Western society is becoming rationalised increasingly according to Weber (Ritzer, 1998: 42). After Weber, his thought is applied by Ritzer (1983) to the fast-food restaurant in American society, which is called McDonaldisation. Both two theories regard formal rationality as the foundation
doubting the Bible. The period of Enlightenment embraced rationality. People believed that they could explain anything, either through science or through religion. They believed in the capability of their own specie. In 19th and 20th century, that stable rationality of the human beings was rejected. The phrase "man is a rational animal" turned into "man is weak and inconsistent." One would agree that the abandonment of the confident human rationality in the 19th and 20th century would be best pictured
or service’s quality. Finally, through the application of nonhuman tecnologies, control is being dehumanized. Ritzer writes, “Rational systems inevitably spawn irrationalities that limit, eventually compromise, and perhaps even undermine their rationality” (Ritzer 123). He goes on to say that rational systems are often
What would you do if you were to become chief of a society torn from a microcosm to a savage ridden island? This is the undertaking which Ralph, Protagonist of The Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, took the liberty to maintain the self conscious and values withheld within a civilized society. Ralph’s character is introduced early within the book characterized as a 12 year old boy washed upon an uncharted island (Pacific) which, vacant at first, features a fellow group of British boys
Plato's Moral Psychology I argue that Plato's psychological theories are motivated by concerns he had about moral theory. In particular, Plato rejects the modern account of rationality as the maximization of subjectively evaluated self-interest because, had he adopted such an account, his theory of justice would be subject to criticisms which he holds are fatal to the contractarian theory of justice. While formulating a theory to remain within ethical constraints sometimes violates the canons
Throughout modern European history science has gradually developed into “the dominant representation of the social world”. Intellectuals are continually discovering new approaches of explaining and viewing the world. Previously, the common belief was the medieval view of nature, or that nature could be explained simply by appearances. As stated in Perry, “the Scientific Revolution brought a new, mechanical concept of nature that enabled westerners to discover and explain the laws of nature mathematically”
extended to all level of society. In conclusion, collective dilemmas happens everywhere, therefore, the government as “third party” has the advantage to solve public problem and issue. The main reason result to collective dilemmas is the bounded rationality, which claim people are rational, goal-oriented which leads cooperative problem.
Guilty or not guilty, all citizens deserve a thorough trial to defend their rights. Formulating coherent stories about events and circumstances almost cost a young boy his life. In Twelve Angry Men, 1957, a single juror named Mr. Davis, who was initially the only one of 12 jurors to vote not guilty against an 18 year old boy accused of first degree murder, did his duty to save the life of the boy by allowing his mind to rationalize the cohesive information presented by the court and its witnesses
entirely escape, is this: if we explain it too well, we turn it into a concealed form of rationality; while if we assign incoherence too glibly, we merely compromise our ability to diagnose irrationality by withdrawing the background of rationality needed to justify any diagnosis at all. (1) Many theorists who try to provide an adequate explanation of weakness of will and its bearing on the issue of rationality fail to fully appreciate the implication of the above remark, which I believe is an important
(functional or instrumental) rationality that undergirds McDonaldization. In the present work, Ritzer continues to sound the alarm by depicting McDonaldization as "a largely one-way process in which a series of American innovations are being aggressively exported to much of the rest of the world" (8). Although the author acknowledges that the McDonaldization thesis is rooted in Weber's reflections on rationality, specifically the notion of the "iron cage of rationality," he prefers the "simplicity"
Incrementalism follows the same steps as the rational decision making model, but recognize limits to rationality. It is both a model of how decisions are made and a description of how contending interest may react in making current policy. Incrementalism uses and builds what is already known, without relying on reanalyzing things that have been done already
attempts an integrated appraisal of the distinctive strengths and limitations such diverse Modes confer to the approaches to change that invoke and utilise them. 1. A Model-Ideal Conceptualisation of Organisational Goal-Directed-Activity, Rationality, Strategicality, and Organisational Change When planned and goal-directed, fully rational organisational action, like any other ideal form of goal-directed-action, relies on activity generated by the decomposition of a goal-structure, a term
“being sensible” are common American-English terms that encompass the idea of rational choice theory. Common sense is a trait many people commonly expect from others as people show frustration when someone lacks common sense. We expect a level of rationality from one another; this is where rational choice theory comes in. On the outset, rational choice theory simply makes “sense”. The basic idea is that people conduct actions that will earn rewards and avoid punishments, a simple idea that we see