Structure And Choice

This book employs the methods of philosophical anthropology to examine the question of what the noumenon of human life is which has been debated for thousands of years. This work elaborates upon the noumenon of human life, that is, man’s “structure and choice”. The noumenon of human life differs essentially from the animals in bringing about the unity of “structure” and “choice”. The noumenon of human life, or rather, man’s “structure and choice”, provides the motive force for the survival and development of individuals and groups (families, organizations and states) as well as the basic ways in which human values can be possible of realization. It is only through the instrumentality of man’s “structure and choice” that humans can attain their goals and grasp the laws of development and change of things. In passing criticism upon structuralism and existentialism, the author tries to reconstruct the ontology of human life, whereby his theory provides an ontological foundation for the humanities and social sciences, a theoretical framework for an idealistic anthropological commitment to self-transcendence, a scientific philosophy of life for us, and a good deal of enlightenment about many theoretical prerequisites.

While this book is not just about making choices, it is aimed at presenting the kinds of family structures that are prevalent in the world today in comparison with the original family structure as God designed and ordained it. To be able to detect a counterfeit, one must know the original very well. In effect, many people may not know wrong family structures because they do not know God’s choice of family structure. This book is, therefore, meant to point the reader to the right direction in order to prevent errors in choosing the kind of structure to have, or where to make possible corrections – depending on your current marital status.

This study takes aim at a burgeoning dissensus in the social sciences, a dissensus over nothing less than the manner in which social, economic and political phenomena are to be explained. Until about the mid-l970s, there was broad acceptance in Western sociology and political science of a perspective that may be termed culturalist; without ignoring the importance of structures or institutions, it highlighted the role of shared cultural norms and values in determining behavior in given societies. The proliferation of area studies programs was but one manifestation of the great popularity of this trend. Marxist interpretations existed, of course, but they tended to be relegated to the lunatic fringe of social science: they were regarded as overly simplified, highly dogmatic and fundamentally biased toward the political cause of socialism or communism. Some rational-choice theory had been developed by that time, but it, too, was seen as fringe material in most fields except economics. In any case, the more realistic of its conclusions could be readily absorbed by exploiting the underlying elasticity of the culturalist paradigm. A great deal has changed since that time. Marxist theories have become ever more provocative, stimulating and politically acceptable; rational-choice theory is now a major growth area in several of the social sciences, not the least of which is my own field of political science. In contrast, the culturalist perspective, far from absorbing the valid points of the other two paradigms, has come increasingly under attack for the vapidity of its concepts, the inability to test its hypotheses and the lack of generality of its theoretical formulations. As one rational-choice theorist put it, culture is simply too squishy to be of use in causal analysis.

Published in 1997. The aim of this book is to explore urban modelling traditions, identify key limitations and contributions and to develop a more general model within a discrete choice framework. The scope of the effort is on household choices regarding residential location, workplace and housing tenure. It is the first systematic effort to analyze the structure and sequence of the choices made by households regarding residential location and workplace. The implications for urban theory, model development and policy analysis are substantial.

This work approaches the modern phenomenon of online dating, examining the ways people make use of its technical and social potential. In particular, the users' mate preferences, choices, strategies, and interactions are analyzed using the innovative method of click-stream observations and web-questionnaire data. For the purpose of these analyses, two major theories are used - an explicit theory of individual mate choice, and the more general relational theory developed by Pierre Bourdieu, which helps to highlight the social structures both underlying and resulting from mating online. Results show that online dating is not a partner marker free from social structure, but that the traditional social conditions found offline are also reproduced in this virtual setting. In contrast to the picture drawn by media discourse and advertising, online dating represents a partner market which fulfills the promise of happiness in a socially differential way.

This volume presents eight papers and a draft monograph by T. Price Caldwell on topics in linguistics, semiotics and philosophy of language. From the beginning of his professional career onwards, Caldwell wrote short fiction and poetry, and he taught English literature. The relevance to these of philosophy of language, semiotics and certain areas of linguistics increasingly caught his interest. This book presents the fruits of this later work. Of the papers included here, two are abstract and theoretical, focusing on linguistic methodology and Caldwell’s overarching views on the nature of meaning-in-context. His position here, which he called Molecular Sememics, echoes early Structuralism and Functionalism, but addresses shortfalls in each. Two other papers apply the method and theory to topics within semantics and pragmatics, including especially the structuring of discourse. The remaining four papers connect Caldwell’s theoretical insights to his life-long interests in fiction and pedagogy. The monograph – which Caldwell was left unfinished due to illness – aims to present as a single intellectual package the theory and the applications.

This study is a comparative analysis of the relationship between social structure and party choice in eight West European countries. Oddbjørn Knutsen analyzes the comparative strength of social structural variables, and how these have changed from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. Other factors that are considered include for which parties the structural variables have the largest impact within the various party systems and across national contexts, and for which parties are the most significant change in support from various social groups found.

This book analyses the impact of socio-structural variables, such as social class, religion, urban/rural residence, age and gender, on influencing an individual’s voting preferences. There have been major changes in recent decades both to social structure and how social structure determines people’s voting behaviour. There has also been a shift in value orientations, for example from religious to secular values and from more authoritarian to libertarian values. The author addresses the questions: How do social structure and value orientations influence party choice in advanced industrial democracies?; To what extent is the impact of social structure on party choice transmitted via value orientations?; To what extent is the impact of value orientations on party choice causal effects when controlled for the prior structural variables? The book will be of use to advanced students and scholars in the fields of comparative politics, electoral politics and political sociology.