Indeterminacy and Society

2013-06-27 Philosophy

Author : Russell Hardin
Release : 2013-06-27
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 962/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Indeterminacy and Society by : Russell Hardin

Download or read book Indeterminacy and Society written by Russell Hardin. This book was released on 2013-06-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In simple action theory, when people choose between courses of action, they know what the outcome will be. When an individual is making a choice "against nature," such as switching on a light, that assumption may hold true. But in strategic interaction outcomes, indeterminacy is pervasive and often intractable. Whether one is choosing for oneself or making a choice about a policy matter, it is usually possible only to make a guess about the outcome, one based on anticipating what other actors will do. In this book Russell Hardin asserts, in his characteristically clear and uncompromising prose, "Indeterminacy in contexts of strategic interaction . . . Is an issue that is constantly swept under the rug because it is often disruptive to pristine social theory. But the theory is fake: the indeterminacy is real." In the course of the book, Hardin thus outlines the various ways in which theorists from Hobbes to Rawls have gone wrong in denying or ignoring indeterminacy, and suggests how social theories would be enhanced--and how certain problems could be resolved effectively or successfully--if they assumed from the beginning that indeterminacy was the normal state of affairs, not the exception. Representing a bold challenge to widely held theoretical assumptions and habits of thought, Indeterminacy and Society will be debated across a range of fields including politics, law, philosophy, economics, and business management.

The Significance of Indeterminacy

2018-07-20 Philosophy

Author : Robert H. Scott
Release : 2018-07-20
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 302/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Significance of Indeterminacy by : Robert H. Scott

Download or read book The Significance of Indeterminacy written by Robert H. Scott. This book was released on 2018-07-20. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While indeterminacy is a recurrent theme in philosophy, less progress has been made in clarifying its significance for various philosophical and interdisciplinary contexts. This collection brings together early-career and well-known philosophers—including Graham Priest, Trish Glazebrook, Steven Crowell, Robert Neville, Todd May, and William Desmond—to explore indeterminacy in greater detail. The volume is unique in that its essays demonstrate the positive significance of indeterminacy, insofar as indeterminacy opens up new fields of discourse and illuminates neglected aspects of various concepts and phenomena. The essays are organized thematically around indeterminacy’s impact on various areas of philosophy, including post-Kantian idealism, phenomenology, ethics, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and East Asian philosophy. They also take an interdisciplinary approach by elaborating the conceptual connections between indeterminacy and literature, music, religion, and science.

The Significance of Indeterminacy

2018-07-20 Philosophy

Author : Robert H. Scott
Release : 2018-07-20
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 310/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Significance of Indeterminacy by : Robert H. Scott

Government of Paper

2012-06-05 Social Science

Author : Matthew S. Hull
Release : 2012-06-05
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 145/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Government of Paper by : Matthew S. Hull

Download or read book Government of Paper written by Matthew S. Hull. This book was released on 2012-06-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Drawing inspiration from actor-network theory, science studies, and semiotics, this brilliant book makes us completely rethink the workings of bureaucracy as analyzed by Max Weber and James Scott. Matthew Hull demonstrates convincingly how the materiality of signs truly matters for understanding the projects of ‘the state.’” - Katherine Verdery, author of What was Socialism, and What Comes Next? “We are used to studies of roads and rails as central material infrastructure for the making of modern states. But what of records, the reams and reams of paper that inscribe the state-in-making? This brilliant book inquires into the materiality of information in colonial and postcolonial Pakistan. This is a work of signal importance for our understanding of the everyday graphic artifacts of authority.” - Bill Maurer, author of Mutual Life, Limited: Islamic Banking, Alternative Currencies, Lateral Reason "This is an excellent and truly exceptional ethnography. Hull presents a theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich reading that will be an invaluable resource to scholars in the field of Anthropology and South Asian studies. The author’s focus on bureaucracy, “corruption," writing systems and urban studies (Islamabad) in a post-colonial context makes for a unique ethnographic engagement with contemporary Pakistan. In addition, Hull’s study is a refreshing voice that breaks the mold of current representation of Pakistan through the security studies paradigm." - Kamran Asdar Ali, Director, South Asia Institute, University of Texas

The Timespace of Human Activity

2010-04-12 Philosophy

Author : Theodore R. Schatzki
Release : 2010-04-12
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 704/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Timespace of Human Activity by : Theodore R. Schatzki

Download or read book The Timespace of Human Activity written by Theodore R. Schatzki. This book was released on 2010-04-12. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows that a concept of activity timespace drawn from the work of Martin Heidegger provides new insights into the nature of activity, society, and history. Although the book is a work of theory, it has significant implications for the determination and course, not just of activity, but of sociohistorical change as well. Drawing on empirical examples, the book argues (1) that timespace is a key component of the overall space and time of social life, (2) that interwoven timespaces form an essential infrastructure of important social phenomena such as power, coordinated actions, social organizations, and social systems, and (3) that history encompasses constellations of indeterminate temporalspatial events. The latter conception of history in turn yields a propitious account of how the past exists in the present. In addition, because the concept of activity timespace highlights the teleological character of human action, the book contains an extensive defense of the teleological character of such allegedly ateleological forms of activity as emotional and ceremonial actions. Since, finally, the book's ideas about timespace and activity as an indeterminate event derive from an interpretation of Heidegger, the work furthers understanding of the relevance of his thought for social and historical theory.

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