Mad Hazard: A Life in Social Theory
My chum Stephen Turner’s cracking memoir. Political philosophysocial epistemologySocial theoryStephen Turner
Category Archive Browsing Category: sociology
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The Cognitive Dimension
The always subtle (philosophically, historically, and most especially, sociologically) Stephen Turner. His piece is freely available here. Cognitive sciencephilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindStephen Turner
Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class
Given the top-notch endorsements from names of the calibre of Eric Kaufmann, Douglas Murray and Maurice Glasman, I’m very much looking forward to this read. Though written from within the British context, I fully expect that much of what Paul has to say will have salience to the US, Canada and other places besides. See Paul…
Dangerous idiots: how the liberal media elite failed working-class Americans
Journalism/opinion at its best and surprisingly not in an organ one would expect — at least lately. Sarah Smarsh’s incisive article (sans the standard academic virtue-signaling) illustrates why the electoral choices on offer are symptomatic of a long-standing boil that needs to be lanced — however messy it may become for a while. Using class spectacles, it is clear…
It was the third of September
Some powerful social commentary from 44 years ago, possibly the greatest psychedelic soul funk song of all time and distressingly, is more salient now than ever before; then check out the Pew Report Parenting in America; and last, but by no means least, Larry Elder’s crisp assessment/diagnostic of the problem: It was the third of September…
Sociology and Classical Liberalism
We venture to say that self-reinforcing sorting mechanisms now make the discipline unapproachable by anyone who is unabashedly classically liberal. — full article. This was all true (and patently obviously so) even thirty years ago. I, however, got very lucky — I had the amazing Paul Hirst as a tutor. Almost ten years ago I…
The Significance of Shils
The very excellent Stephen Turner on Edward Shils. Check out Shils’ classic book Tradition. edward shilsMichael OakeshottMichael Polanyiphilosophy of social sciencesocial epistemologyStephen TurnerTradition
Is Jazz Dead?
Here is a critical review of a book that I haven’t yet read. The review rightly touches on several meta-issues in Jazz but whatever insights Duncan Heining’s review offers and whatever perhaps legitimate criticisms he levels against the target author, Heining’s political sociology itself comes over as a sophomorish off-the-peg conceptual apparatus so characteristic of circles…
Three Rival Views of Tradition (Arendt, Oakeshott and MacIntyre)
A recent paper from Journal of the Philosophy of History. Alasdair MacIntyrecomplexityEpistemologyExtended MindHannah ArendtMichael OakeshottPhilosophyPhilosophy of historySocial SciencesSpontaneous orderTradition
Kuhn’s Evolutionary Social Epistemology
Here’s a review of K. Brad Wray’s Kuhn’s Evolutionary Social Epistemology. (Wray, by the way, has been a strong contributor to EPISTEME). It’s also worth checking out Alexander Bird’s entry on Kuhn for Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Kuhn is one of those thinkers whose work has been tarnished by academics who need an off-the-peg philosophical outlook…
manwithoutqualities 