Modern And Postmodern Crises Of Symbolic Structures

In this volume, the contributions view the human being primarily as animal symbolicum who creates, interprets and is affected by symbolic structures. The book examines modern and postmodern crises of symbolic structures, which are processes of transformation that also provide new opportunities.

The articles in The Modern Experience of the Religious, edited by Nassim Bravo and Jon Stewart, explore the many ways in which religion was impacted by the emergence of modernity, particularly after the Enlightenment, which underscored the centrality of human reason and thus called into question traditional forms of religiosity. Modernity raised several questions that are studied by the authors of this volume: What should be the role of religion in a secular or pluralistic society? How does the human being relate to God? Can instituted religion be compatible with modern values such as civil liberties, pluralism or environmentalism?

With figures such as Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, and Nietzsche, the nineteenth century was a dynamic time of philosophical development. The period made lasting contributions to several fields of philosophy. Moreover, it paved the way for the development of the social sciences at the turn of the twentieth century. This volume is dedicated to exploring the rich tradition of nineteenth-century Continental philosophy in its different areas with the main purpose of highlighting the importance of this tradition in the development of the leading streams of thought of the twentieth and twenty-first century.

A rich, expansive book reaching beyond philosophy to literature and the history of ideas with strong appeal to diverse readers.

A blend of political theory, social theory, and philosophy of culture, the book will show the relationship and tension between thought and action, politics and literature, power and dissent in modern politics and culture.

This ground breaking work explores the genealogical analysis of the discourses of reflection. Barry Sandywell traces the differences between the traditional discourses of reflection and the experiences of reflexivity in everyday, social and philosophical thought. Brilliantly organised and abounding with astonishing insights, Reflexivity and the Crisis of Western Reason offers a fundamental challenge to our normal ways of viewing social thought.

Organization Theory offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to the study of organizations and organizing processes. It encourages an even-handed appreciation of the main perspectives defining our knowledge of organizations and challenges readers to broaden their intellectual reach. Organization Theory is presented in three parts: Part I introduces the reader to theorizing using the multi-perspective approach. Part II presents different core concepts useful for analysing and understanding organizations - as entities within an environment, as social structures, technologies, cultures and physical structures, and as the products of power and political processes. Part III explores applications of organization theory to the practical matters of organizational design and change, and introduces the latest ideas, including organizational identity theory, process and practice theories, and aesthetics. An Online Resource Centre accompanies this text and includes: For students: Multiple Choice Questions For registered adopters: Lecturer's guide PowerPoint slides Figures and tables from the book

Significant to Dunn's critique of poststructuralist and postmodern theories is his application of George Herbert Mead as a means of theorizing identity and difference. The focus on postmodernity, rather than postmodernism grounds his analysis of identity and difference both materially and socially.