The human subject is under threat from postmodernist thinking that has declared the ''Death of God'' and the ''Death of Man.'' This book is a revindication of the concept of humanity, rejecting contemporary social theory that seeks to diminish human properties and powers. Archer argues that being human depends on an interaction with the real world in which practice takes primacy over language in the emergence of human self-consciousness, thought, emotionality and personal identity--all of which are prior to, and more basic than, our acquisition of a social identity.
Author(s): Margaret S. Archer
Edition: 1
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 336
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Figures......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 12
Introduction......Page 13
Part I The impoverishment of humanity......Page 27
1 Resisting the dissolution of humanity......Page 29
Why de-centre humanity?......Page 34
The dissolution of humanity......Page 37
II Rorty: the ineradicable face of humanity......Page 46
III The anthropocentric turn......Page 56
Conclusion......Page 61
2 Modernity’s man......Page 63
Taking the passions out of the preferences......Page 67
The return of the exile......Page 75
Homo economicus and the circumstances not of his choosing......Page 78
Homo sociologicus and normative constraints......Page 86
Homo sentiens and homo sapiens: their reunion......Page 93
3 Society’s being: humanity as the gift of society......Page 98
Harré’s anti-modernism: humanity’s involvement in a moral order......Page 101
The discursive agent: a non-stratified conception of the person......Page 105
Humanity and society’s conversation......Page 109
Socialising our naturalistic being......Page 113
Downward conflation in four stages......Page 117
Three problems presented by the body......Page 123
Part II The emergence of self-consciousness......Page 131
Pointers to the primacy of practice......Page 133
(Quadrant 1– realist sequence: the private/individual)......Page 136
A Incarnation: self and otherness......Page 139
B Praxis, the embodied memory and neuroscience......Page 149
C Practice: the wordless source of reason......Page 157
Conclusion......Page 164
5 The practical order as pivotal......Page 166
Language as practice......Page 167
Non-linguistic practice......Page 171
Nature, natural relations and embodied knowledge......Page 173
The practical order, material culture and practical knowledge......Page 178
The social order, propositional culture and discursive knowledge......Page 185
Relations between embodied, practical and discursive knowledge......Page 189
The ‘demonstration’ of embodied knowledge......Page 192
The ‘application’ of discursive knowledge in practice......Page 194
The practical order as pivotal......Page 196
Embodied ‘incorporation’......Page 197
‘Metaphoric’ communication......Page 199
Conclusion......Page 200
Part III The emergence of personal identity......Page 203
6 Humanity and reality: emotions as commentaries on human concerns......Page 205
The emergence of three different emotional clusters......Page 209
1 The emergence of emotions in the natural order......Page 213
2 Emotional emergence in the practical order......Page 221
3 Emotional emergence in the social order......Page 227
Conclusion......Page 232
7 Personal identity: the inner conversation and emotional elaboration......Page 234
The morphogenesis of second-order emotions......Page 238
The conversation: ultimate concerns and emotional commentary......Page 242
1 Discernment......Page 244
2 Deliberation......Page 247
3 Dedication......Page 249
The emergence of second-order emotions......Page 253
Instabilities of the second-order......Page 258
Part IV The emergence of social identity......Page 263
8 Agents: active and passive......Page 265
Primary Agents: involuntary agency (Quadrants 1–2) – differentiation......Page 273
Corporate Agents – collective action: the double morphogenesis (Quadrants 2–3) socialisation......Page 280
Social Actors – the triple morphogenesis (Quadrants 3–4) ‘personification’......Page 295
Persons: Quadrants (4–1) commitment......Page 307
The problem of structure and agency......Page 318
The problem of subjectivism and objectivism......Page 320
In defence of humanity......Page 327
The enchantment of being human......Page 330
Index......Page 332
