Intellectual Coherence Research Articles

In the Name of Culture: Cultural Relativism and the Abuse of the Individual

The modern system of international human rights treaties is based on the concept of universalism which holds that there is an underlying human unity which entitles all individuals, regardless of their cultural or regional antecedents, to certain basic minimal rights, known as human rights. The influence of cultural relativism, multiculturalism, and postmodernism is slowly undermining these ideals. Many agree that universal human rights norms simply do not conform with the extreme diversity of cultural and religious practices found around the world and that universal rights should be modified to conform with local cultural and religious norms. Others question the theoretical validity and intellectual coherence of universalism. This is an important debate, the outcome of which will have practical consequences for millions of people around the world. This article examines the concepts of cultural relativism and universalism, their theoretical strength, their social and ethical usefulness, and their intellectual coherence, especially as they influence international responses to gender-based abuses perpetrated against women and other disenfranchised individuals living in non-Western societies.

CHARGING FOR CAPITAL IN THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE IN SCOTLAND

This article evaluates the capital charging system implemented in the National Health Service in Scotland, probing its intellectual coherence and implementa- tion. Asset valuations may be too high because of the decision to value at Depreciated Replacement Cost (even when higher than market value) and the decision to disregard the issues raised by Modern Equivalent Asset methodology. The incentive effects of capital charges are complex: historically good maintenance may be penalised, and economic and financial appraisal of new projects may give conflicting signals. Capital charging differently affects Hospital Trusts and Directly Managed Units. Moreover, the interaction of capital charging and the public corporation status of Hospital Trusts inflates gross public expenditure on health.

Confronting Historical Paradigms: Peasants, Labor, and the Capitalist World System in Africa and Latin America

Historical argues that confrontation with major paradigms of world history has marked the fields of African and Latin American history during the last quarter-century and that the process has dramatically restructured historical and theoretical understanding of peasantries, labour and the capitalist world system. Moreover, it maintains, the intellectual reverberations within and across the African and Latin American fields constitute a challenging and under-appreciated counterpoint to laments that contemporary historical knowledge has suffered a splintering so extreme that it undermines larger dialogue and meaning. The authors in their substantive essays synthesise, order and evaluate the significance of the enormous resonating literatures that have come to exist for Africa and Latin America on the themes of the capitalist world system, labour and peasantries. They historicise these literatures by analysing an entire cycle of critical dialogue and confrontation with historical paradigms and the professional upheavals that accompanied them. They also review the initial confrontations with frameworks of historical knowledge that erupted in the 1960s and the 1970s; the emergence of paradigms; the outpouring of subsequent scholarship on peasants, labour and capitalism that began to unravel the newly proposed paradigms by the 1980s and 1990s; and the outlines of the interpretive frameworks that tended to displace both the traditional and early dissident paradigms. They also suggest possible outlines of a cycle of Third World confrontations with paradigm, anchored in themes such as gender and ethnicity. Confronting Historical Paradigms employs a historicised awareness of intellectual networks, conversations and history-theory dialogues. The result is a critical analysis and synthetic presentation of substantive advances that have preoccupied scholarship on Africa and Latin America in recent decades and a powerful challenge of notions that new fields of history have ended up destroying intellectual coherence and community.

US hegemony and the reconfiguration of the Caribbean

Like every other part of the world, the Caribbean is having to come to terms with the deep-seated changes in the nature of the world order manifest at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. These changes have set in train a process which is beginning to constitute a reconfiguration of what is meant by and included within the concept of the Caribbean. Conventionally, the Caribbean has been defined by a blend of its geography and history. From a simple geographical viewpoint, it consists of all the islands in the Caribbean Sea, making up a huge archipelago which runs some 2,500 miles from the southern tip of Florida in the north to the coast of Venezuela in the south, facing Central America to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. From a more complex historical viewpoint which emphasizes the common, searing impact of slave-based European imperialism, it also includes Belize on the Central American isthmus and the three ‘Guianas’ on the South American coast: Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. Conceived in this way, the region has widely been said to possess an intellectual coherence that makes it possible to analyse its modern politics and economics within a single framework.

Interpretation and judgment: A reading ofLonesome Dove

Defending the importance for media study of a descriptive and evaluative scholarship grounded in old‐humanist perspectives, this essay argues for distinguishing between “cultural” and “aesthetic” interpretation. In the latter, the text is valued not as a mere carrier of cultural meanings but intrinsically, as an intellectually coherent exploration of its subject matter. The current widespread suspicion of evaluation as a form of ideological mystification impoverishes scholarship, especially that devoted to non‐canonical materials, by refusing to recognize and to value excellence. Using the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove as a case study, the essay argues that media texts, like literary works, can and should be evaluated according to the criteria of “formal mastery” and “intellectual coherence.”

Heaney's poetic mind and practice: from "Feeling into words" to "The government of the tongue" and "The redress of poetry"

This article focuses on the noteworthy intellectual and artistic coherence apparent in the relationship between Seamus Heaney's poetic mind and his work, particularly as displayed in three of his prose writings belonging to distinct stages of his literary careen From there, the article moves on to consider broadly some aspects of Heaney's poetic corpus as artistic evidence of this coherence and to appraise Heaney's position within the realm of contemporary Irish poetry.

Sociology in the 1990s

Sociology in the 1990s is so hopelessly fragmented that it is increasingly difficult to detrme its subject matter and to find a common voice in the babel of competing theories and specialties. Not unrelated, it is also under attack by beleaguered administrators looking for vulnerable targets for budget cuts in this recessionary period. Contemporary sociology has no theoretical, methodological, or institutional center. The field takes different organizational forms depending on the audience its members have to deal with. When sociologists act in their capacity as intellectuals and scientists, their collective action takes the form of a discipline; vis-~vis their university, their action takes the form of a department; in relation to other professional groups, it takes the form of professional organizations. Professional Specialties Despite its struggles for logical coherence, intellectually sociology has always had an ad hoc character. Coming late to the academic table, it got the scraps, those forms of collective action not already taken over by earlier arrivals. History commanded the past and anthropology non-western exotica. Psychology had the individual, economics the market, and political science the state. Sociology got what was left: the family, crime, immigration, race, and all the other topics conceived of at the time as "social problems." Because there were so few sociologists, they had to make common cause in the academic arena. So, whatever the differences in the actual subject matter, they looked for common themes. They created organizational and intellectual coherence, justifying the melange of topics that made up the field by creating

History, Geography, and Historical Geography

In 1986, 585 out of 5,686 members of the Association of American Geographers declared their allegiance to the Historical Geography Specialty Group; among 50 AAG specialty groups, the historical geographers ranked 7th. Yet one prominent human geographer regards historical geography as “overdetermined,” an “empty concept” conveying “few (if any) significant analytical distinctions” (Dear 1988: 270). Dear’s argument is that, by definition, all geography should be historical, since “the central object in human geography is to understand the simultaneity of time and space in structuring social process.” So the only subdisciplines of human geography which have any intellectual coherence are those focused on distinct processes—political, economic, social. To me, even this distinction is unrealistic and impracticable for research purposes. But Dear does not go so far as to argue that historical geography or other “overdetermined,” “multidimensional,” or “peripheral” subdisciplines are wrong, merely that they are incidental to geography’s “intellectual identity.”

Geography in Wonderland?: Comments on Leonard Guelke's “Intellectual Coherence”

(1990). Geography in Wonderland?: Comments on Leonard Guelke's “Intellectual Coherence”. The Professional Geographer: Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 211-214.

The Disintegration of American Sociology

What do I mean by disintegration? The term is used here in both an evaluative and a more technical sense. Its evaluative connotations are that American sociology is falling apart and losing organizational as well as intellectual coherence; and most importantly, it has lost its vision as a science of human organization. Indeed, like American economy in general, we are now consumers in a big market that imports more than it produces; and in fact, we accept almost any trendy idea from Europe as the latest thing, much like we buy overpriced European cars. True, we can generate quantitative techniques with best of them-the IBM of American sociology. But we have lost our vision of what sociology is, what it should produce, and what its goals are. American sociology is now big, disorganized, incoherent, and increasingly boring. When I was an undergraduate in first half of 1960s and a graduate student in latter part of 1960s, sociology was still exciting. There seemed to be real promise that theoretical unification could occur, that we would develop cumulative knowledge, and that we could take our place at table of science. This theoretical euphoria was accompanied by even more enthusiasm for methodological advances of field as it harnessed linear model to computer. Equally significant, all this scientism was accompanied by a profound sense of our relevance to real world. Indeed, there was a conviction that our scientific knowledge could be used to solve enduring problems and dilemmas of American society. Was I just naive, or was profession simply drunk on its growth and expansion in turbulent 1960s; and have we now sobered up morning after our big fling? If this is case, American sociology was far more interesting as a swaggering and confident drunk than it is as a contrite profession today. This is my argument in evaluative terms. Let me be a bit more sociological and state argument on disintegration more technically. In context of an intellectual (including scientific) enterprise, what would we mean by integra-

INTELLECTUAL COHERENCE AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF GEOGRAPHY

The discipline of geography needs a more clearly defined academic purpose if it is to retain and enhance its position as an essential university subject. The discipline lacks the intellectual coherence it once achieved on the basis of environmental determinism. Geographers could re-establish a coherent intellectual foundation for geography by adopting a historical-intellectual mode of enquiry focusing on human thought and ideas and re-emphasizing the central importance of the human-environment relationship as the foundation of the discipline. An understanding of human activity in the environment in relation to ideas could provide a clearer focus for the discipline of geography and give it a stronger intellectual identity.

A Co-Word Study of Artificial Intelligence

This Note briefly describes the method of `co-word analysis', and presents some results of its application to the scientific literature in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). A sample of AI literature, published in 1984 and 1985, was drawn from the CNRS/INIST database in Paris. The co-word analysis of this sample suggests that AI is a field characterized by relative intellectual coherence in a specifiable `core'. In this, AI seems to differ from scientific studies of the acidification of the environment: a co-word analysis of the latter field reveals no evidence of the likely emergence of a unifying general theory. The policy implications of such co-word studies are discussed.

Comparative Public Policy at the Crossroads

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to acquaint the reader with the intellectual landscape of comparative policy studies, and to raise the level of self-consciousness of scholars active in the field. To this end it discusses why comparative policy studies emerged when and where it did in the 1970s. Then it grapples with the reasons and possible effects of the fact that the very term ‘comparative policy’ is so difficult to translate into non-English languages, and links this to a discussion of problems of conceptual cohesion. The last part assesses the prospects of a field which is seeking to gain and retain intellectual coherence and respect, though not nestled comfortably within a single discipline, and is subject to contending pulls from national and international academic, political and bureaucratic forces.

Symbolic Dimensions in Cultural Anthropology [and Comments and Reply

Using the hermeneutical theory of Paul Ricoeur, it is possible to discern symbolic dimensions in cultural anthropology. Symbols, here, are dominant images in anthropologists' texts, creatively posited by inquirers, that, most importantly, possess a surplus of meaning. A symbol's fullest surplus of meaning is a prereflexive and comprehensive "understanding" (Verstehen) that may encompass a scholar's attempts at "explanation" (Erklaren). Examples of this symbolic dimension are the "understandings" that lie implicit in two elaborate anthropological systems: Levi-Strauss's structuralism and Harris's cultural materialism. Amid their commitments to anthropological "science" and "explanation," the works of each disclose a distinctive Verstehen. For Levi-Strauss, this "understanding" is nurtured by his image "world of reciprocity." For Harris, it is carried by the image "nature." This "understanding" has two major functions. On the level of the intellectual coherence of their texts, it gives unity to their intercultural interpretations of other societies and to their intracultural interpretations of their own traditions. On a moral level, it includes modes of being-in-the-world that Levi-Strauss and Harris prefer and ocasionally press upon their readers. Discernment of symbolic dimensions of "understanding" in anthropologists' texts may be an initial step toward reflection on the matrices out of which diverse explanations are presented in anthropological literature.

Pascal's Great Wager

Mary Douglas, Pascal's Great Wager. ? Starting with Pascal's arguments against skepticism, this essay seeks to locate within the social structure the niche in which radical skepticism tends to flourish. The Brahminical skeptical tradition is compared with Western idealist movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and with skeptical trends of today. A social position that combines considerable privilege with lack of influence in an arbitrarily powerful political system gives rise to moral contradictions and insoluble problems. In such a position a denial of the reality of the world indicates a level of thought in which intellectual coherence may be possible. The converse situation, where claiming authority and holding power seem feasible, is more compatible with affirmation of reality than with its negation.

The Social Preconditions of Radical Scepticism

Starting with Pascal's arguments against scepticism, this essay seeks to locate within the social structure the niche in which radical scepticism tends to flourish. The Brahminical sceptical tradition is compared with western idealist movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and with sceptical trends of today. A social position that combines considerable privilege with lack of influence in an arbitrarily powerful political system gives rise to moral contradictions and insoluble problems. In such a position a denial of the reality of the world indicates a level of thought in which intellectual coherence may be possible. The converse situation, where claiming authority and holding power seem feasible, is more compatible with affirmation of reality than with its negation.

Human Status and Politics: Hannah Arendt on the Holocaust

Le totalitarisme a été l'objet de beaucoup d'attention au cours des dernières années. Aucune des études récentes toutefois ne dépasse l'ouvrage de base de Hannah Arendt qui demeure toujours l'un des plus fouillés, des plus complets et des plus critiques. En effet pour Hannah Arendt le totalitarisme suppose à la fois plus que l'inhumanité et plus que l'immoralité. Selon celle-ci, il représente l'échec dramatique du politique et il implique une attaque délibérée contre le concept de l'humain si cher à la tradition humaniste occidentale. Nous étudions donc le lien qu'il y a dans le traité de Hannah Arendt entre le politique et l'humain. Nous pensons que sa thèse repose sure un point de vue essentiellement ethnocentrique.

Secondary School Literature Curriculum Design: A Multifunctional Approach

I n clamor to return to basics and to prepare students to demonstrate their test-taking competence, teaching of literature must not be relegated to position of proverbial stepchild. As Michael Shugrue so aptly states, the development of curriculum for English classroom must, by its very nature, be a continuous, open-ended process.'1 Yet ferment of curriculum innovation of 1960's has given way-due largely, it seems, to a lack of funding-to a decided retrenchment in 1970's. As in other areas of society, recent English curriculum design has been marked by a trend which denominates itself as conservative, but which often appears to represent a dearth of new ideas. While welcoming a return to an emphasis on teaching of sound writing skills, English teachers must also remain receptive to new concepts in literature curriculum and sensitive to shortcomings of present methods. The innovations of 1960's did produce one lasting and salutary effect: abandonment of old, unlamented literature anthology. Whether as students or teachers, we remember our encounters with this ponderous volume. In its most common form, it was a survey of English or American literature whose organizing principle, if it had one, was simple chronology. It was usually divided into periods-the Puritans, Romantics, Age of Realism, Modernism-and it contained parts of essays, bits of novels, snippets of poems that were considered to be representative of age being studied. Today's immensely improved texts which have replaced survey are often based on principles of Brunerian structuralism and have greater intellectual coherence. Chronology as sole organizing principle has been replaced by texts that emphasize genre, theme, New Critical analyses, or students' aesthetic experience of a work. Such anthologies have their inception in Bruner's definition of what meant by structure of a subject. Grasping structure of a subject, he explains, is understanding it in a way that permits many other things to be related to it meaningfully .... To learn structure, in short, to learn how things are related.2 It this concept of relatedness of elements of a discipline which underlies his view, and subsequently others', of nature of ideal curriculum.

A Bibliography for Ethnographic Research on Iceland

What differentiates ethnographic field research in a Western European community from that done in a non-literate and non-Western community is the fact that the Western community is neither untouched, pristine or unknown but has been studied previously. The fiction of an ethnographic present remains so, and is neither an aid to description nor an acceptable perspective within which to perceive the field data collected during the research. The question of social change becomes a historical question. A community which possesses a one thousand year tradition of literacy is a community of the book. Oral traditions, day to day activities, and strategies of work rest upon a commonly known past, one made up of long estab lished institutional alignments and laws which are taken into account by members of the present community. The enormous amount of data avail able in this part of the world necessitates a long period of post field ges tation by the ethnographer before intellectual coherence is achieved in the end product, the published monograph on the community. F.E.B.-P.

The Sixty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians

s of the workshop offerings were distributed at the convention in a separate flyer. N. Drewry, Princeton University, presiding; paper by Stephen F. Klein, Educational Testing Service (abstract in 1976 Program, 79); comments by Robert C. Bannister, Swarthmore College, and Alan 0. Kownslar, Trinity University. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.123 on Mon, 18 Jul 2016 05:50:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Sixty-Ninth Annual Meeting 973 Longin for liberal arts colleges, Henry French for community and junior colleges, and Hugh Hammett for programs in continuing educationgrappled with an ominous question, Can the Teaching of History Survive 1984?68 Happily, they concluded that it can. In an effort to ensure that historical conventions, as well as historical teaching, survive, the 1976 Program Committee made a number of reforms in the structure of sessions and in the layout of the printed program. Expanding on a trend that has been evolving for several years, the committee limited an individual's formal participation in the convention to a single role (the sole exception being session chairpersons who in the few instances also served as panelists or commentators in the same session); as a result, approximately 290 scholars played active roles in the 1976 convention. The committee also tried vigorously to eliminate such traditional convention annoyances as excessively long papers, papers that reached their commentators too late for adequate evaluation, and sessions or papers with titles that obfuscated their contents. To remove the latter possibility, the committee published in the program an abstract of each paper and a statement of focus on each panel or seminar. And the program layout was redesigned in several ways to make it more convenient and valuable to its users. Lastly-but first in the committee's priorities-was the convention's intellectual coherence and significance. The Program Committee sought a variety of sessions that would clarify the major issues of the Revolution and its consequences while offering attractive alternatives to historians whose interests lay elsewhere.69 Whatever success was achieved can be attributed largely to the nearly 300 scholars who presented the fruits of their labors and to the 2,000 historians who served as their attentive and responsive audience.70 68 Hugh B. Hammett, Rochester Institute of Technology, presiding; Charles F. Sidman, University of Kansas, Thomas Longin, Ithaca College, Henry P. French, Jr., Monroe Community College, and Hugh B. Hammett, panelists. 9 In addition to the formal sessions described in this report, several informal sessions were held, as well as several luncheon meetings at which papers were read. For a listing of these meetings see the program and the supplementary list distributed at the convention. Frank Freidel's presidential address, American Historians: A Bicentennial Appraisal, which was delivered to a large and appreciative audience, appeared in the June 1976 issue of this journal. ,'The 1976 Program Committee consisted of Henry N. Drewry, Princeton University; Paul S. Holbo, University of Oregon; Stanley I. Kutler, University of Wisconsin; Pauline R. Maier, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Burl Noggle, Louisiana State University; R. Jackson Wilson, Smith College; and Alden T. Vaughan, Columbia University (Chairman). Local arrangements and publicity were organized by James D. Norris, University of Missouri, St. Louis (Chairman); Walter Ehrlich, University of Missouri. St. Louis; George E. Glass, Horton Watkins High School, St. Louis; Nedra Branz, Southern Illinois University; Sister Elizabeth Kolmer, St. Louis University; and Glen E. Holt. Washington University. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.123 on Mon, 18 Jul 2016 05:50:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms