Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French social and historical thinker best known for his contribution to (what has been called) poststructuralism. Foucault was a homosexual and experienced some friction over this. Succumbing to AIDS, his cultural and intellectual legacy is … Continue reading →

Participation Mystique – An alternative to secular materialism

Participation Mystique is a psychological and spiritual idea proposed by the anthropologist Lucien Lévi-Bruhl. It concerns the alleged mystical relationship that so-called primitives had with objects in their environment. In Lévi-Bruhl’s own words: In the collective representations of primitive mentality objects … Continue reading →

Dialectical Materialism – It sounds like “diabolical” but it’s not quite that bad

Dialectical Materialism is a school of thought which emerged from Karl Marx‘s theory of history. Marx is said to have turned the Hegelian dialectic on its head. That is, Hegel envisioned the world as spirit unfolding in matter and, by … Continue reading →

Structuralism – another ‘religious’ belief?

Structuralism is an approach found in the Social Sciences. Its adherents maintain that human beliefs, practices and interactions follow natural, universal patterns.¹ In psychology, structuralism is usually contrasted with functionalism. Structural approaches also appear in anthropology, linguistics, sociology and religious … Continue reading →

Jean-Paul Sartre

Embed from Getty Images The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre as a witness during the trial of French politician Alain Geismar. Palais de Justice de Paris. Paris. 20 October 1970. Photograph. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) was once an extremely popular French philosopher … Continue reading →

The changing face of scholarship

Embed from Getty Images Pierre Bourdieu at an unemployed demonstration in front of ‘Sciences Politiques’ and ‘Normale Superieure’ schools in Paris, France on January 16, 1998. Like most things in life, the idea of scholarship has many meanings. Many people … Continue reading →

Semiology (or Semiotics)

Semiology (or Semiotics) is the study of signs. The term was coined by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), and semiology was originally taken to be a science. But more recent theorists in several disciplines have questioned the entire notion of the … Continue reading →

Sign

In semiotics, the sign is the relation between a signifier and signified. When introducing the concept of the sign, Jeremy Hawthorn outlines a distinction between sign and symptom. The conventional understanding of the sign, he says, is entirely cultural while … Continue reading →

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was an American scholar, writer, playwright, filmmaker and human rights activist dedicated to freedom of expression in the arts. Sontag did graduate work in philosophy, literature and theology at both Harvard and Oxford. Her thinking covers many … Continue reading →

Symbols

M. H. Abrams says that a symbol is anything that signifies something else. Abrams also notes the distinction between public and private symbols. The public symbol, such as the cross, is (apparently) understood by everyone in a given culture. The … Continue reading →