“It is, however, essential that eugenics should be brought entirely within the borders of science, for, as already indicated, in the not very remote future the problem of improving the average quality of human beings is likely to become urgent; and this can only be accomplished by applying the findings of a truly scientific eugenics.”
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley
From UNESCO Its Purpose and Its Philosophy
Family based QTL mapping, or Family-pedigree based mapping (Linkage and association mapping), involves multiple families instead of a single family. Family based QTL mapping has been the only way for mapping of genes where experimental crosses are difficult to make. However, due to some advantages, now plant geneticists are attempting to incorporate some of the methods pioneered in human genetics.[20] Using family-pedigree based approach has been discussed (Bink et al. 2008). Family-based linkage and association has been successfully implemented (Rosyara et al. 2009)[21]
“A pedigree of the Galton–Darwin–Wedgwood families that was exhibited as a poster at the Third International Congress of Eugenics in 1932 at the American Museum of Natural History has been located in the archives of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. This pedigree was prepared by Harry Hamilton Laughlin, Director of the Eugenics Record Office of the Carnegie Institute. The pedigree shows consanguineous marriages within the three families. A special collection of rare Darwin family photographs assembled by Leonard Darwin has also been found in the Truman State University archives. These photographs were exhibited as a poster alongside the pedigree at the 1932 Eugenics Congress. The poster of the Galton–Darwin–Wedgwood pedigree is published here, together with a tabular version providing ready access to the information contained in the pedigree. Also included are the Darwin family photographs and a biographical sketch of Laughlin.” (Berra, et al., 2010; see references below)
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Further References
Berra, T. M., Alvarez, G., & Shannon, K.. (2010). The Galton-Darwin-Wedgwood Pedigree of H.H. Laughlin. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
“A pedigree of the galton–darwin–wedgwood families that was exhibited as a poster at the third international congress of eugenics in 1932 at the american museum of natural history has been located in the archives of truman state university in kirksville, missouri. this pedigree was prepared by harry hamilton laughlin, director of the eugenics record office of the carnegie institute. the pedigree shows consanguineous marriages within the three families. a special collection of rare darwin family photographs assembled by leonard darwin has also been found in the truman state university archives. these photographs were exhibited as a poster alongside the pedigree at the 1932 eugenics congress. the poster of the galton–darwin–wedgwood pedigree is published here, together with a tabular version providing ready access to the information contained in the pedigree. also included are the darwin family photographs and a biographical sketch of laughlin.”
Berra, T. M., Alvarez, G., & Ceballos, F. C.. (2010). Was the Darwin/Wedgwood Dynasty Adversely Affected by Consanguinity?. BioScience
“Charles darwin, who was married to his first cousin, emma wedgwood, was one of the first experimentalists to demonstrate the adverse effects of inbreeding and to question the consequences of consanguineous mating. he documented the phenomenon of inbreeding depression for numerous plant species, and this caused him to worry about the health of his own children, who were often ill. to determine whether darwin’s fears were justified, we constructed a pedigree of the darwin/wedgwood dynasty from the large quantity of genealogical information published on these families. the inbreeding coefficients (f) computed from the pedigree show that darwin’s children were subject to a moderate level of inbreeding (f 5 0.0630), and the progeny of related families had still higher inbreeding values (e.g., f 5 0.1255 for the progeny of henry wedgwood, emma wedgwood’s brother). the analysis of a sample of 25 darwin/wedgwood families belonging to four consecutive generations shows a statistically significant positive association between child mortality (death at or before the age of 10 years) and inbreeding coefficient detected by means of nonparametric tests (? 5 0.309, p 5 0.040). our findings suggest that the high childhood mortality experienced by the darwin progeny (3 of his 10 children died at age 10 or younger) might be a result of increased homozygosity of deleterious recessive alleles produced by the consanguineous marriages within the darwin/wedgwood dynasty.”
Golubovsky, M.. (2008). Unexplained infertility in Charles Darwin’s family: Genetic aspect. Human Reproduction
A plutocracy or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income. The first known use of the term in English dates from 1631. Unlike systems such as democracy, capitalism, socialism or anarchism, plutocracy is not rooted in an established political philosophy.More at Wikipedia
In a “plutonomy”, according to Citigroup global strategist Ajay Kapur, economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few.
“Meritocracy, in contemporary parlance, refers to the idea that whatever our social position at birth, society ought to facilitate the means for ‘talent’ to ‘rise to the top’. this article argues that the ideology of ‘meritocracy’ has become a key means through which plutocracy is endorsed by stealth within contemporary neoliberal culture. the article attempts to analyse the term ‘meritocracy’, to open up understandings of its genealogy, and to comprehend its current use. it does so through three sections. the first section considers what might be wrong with the notion of meritocracy. the second traces some key points in the travels of the concept within and around academic social theory, moving from alan fox and michael young’s initial, disparaging use of the term in the 1950s, to daniel bell’s approving adoption of the concept in the 1970s, and on to its take-up by neoconservative think tanks in the 1980s. the third section analyses the use of meritocracy as a plank of neoliberal political rhetoric and public discourse. it focuses on the resonance of the term in relatively recent british culture, discussing how what it terms ‘meritocratic feeling’ has come to operate in david cameron’s ‘aspiration nation’. this final section argues that meritocracy has become a potent blend of an essentialised and exclusionary notion of ‘talent’, competitive individualism and the need for social mobility. today it is a discourse which predominantly works to marketise the very idea of equality”
Reiner, R.. (2013). Who governs? Democracy, plutocracy, science and prophecy in policing. Criminology and Criminal Justice
“This article critically analyses two key debates about police and policing: the problematic definition of their role, and how they can be rendered democratically accountable. both issues have been radically altered through the profound transformation of policing produced by the last three decades of neo-liberal hegemony. the article focuses on how this has developed in england and wales, although there are parallels with other jurisdictions. the complex role of the police has been distilled down to criminal catching. accountability has become accountancy, under the auspices of new public management. the current british coalition government’s tendentious ‘austerity’ measures make these perennial problems especially acute. the coalition purports to be democratizing police accountability through elected police and crime commissioners. these claims are critically analysed in principle, but how they work out in practice is hard to prophesy. it is suggested they may play out in ways that frustrate their architects’ hopes, due to the continuing baleful consequences of neoliberalism.”
“This essay explores the linkages between economic inequality, political inequality, and money in politics. said another way, it explores the linkages between thomas piketty, gilens & page, and campaign finance law. it argues that the u.s. supreme court has constructed and justified a new form of government called plutocracy. campaign finance cases from buckley (1976) to mccutcheon (2014) contain a series of constitutional principles that serve to increase political inequality and economic inequality. those constitutional principles also serve as the ‘apparatus of justification’ sought by piketty, the justifications for inequality that might allow today’s state of affairs to endure. this essay exposes those constitutional principles and their relationship to works by piketty, gilens, and page. it also contains a summary of some key points from my book, capitalism v. democracy (stanford university press 2014).”
Ashford, R.. (2010). Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom: A Binary Economic Critique. Journal of Economic Issues
“This article presents a binary economic critique of milton friedman’s thesis that a competitive, free market, private enterprise, capitalist system is an essential condition for freedom. after identifying deficiencies in friedman’s understanding of private property and economics, this article explains how a market economy based on friedman’s flawed understanding concentrates economic power in a plutocracy, perpetuates chronic underemployment of labor and capital, and suppresses the freedom of most people. it advances a ‘binary economic approach’ to create a more productive and democratic market system characterized by greater, more sustainable, and more widely-distributed prosperity, economic power, and individual freedom than prevails in any existing capitalist economy.”
Macvarish, J.. (2014). The politics of parenting. In Parenting Culture Studies
“Since the 1960s, when corporate liberalism entered the lexicon of the american left, historians and cultural critics have tended to present the rise of corporate capitalism (ca. 1890-1940) as a tragedy in two acts. in the first act, subaltern social movements finally succumb to the powers of a specifically corporate plutocracy-here we witness the eclipse of pop- ulism, the ‘fall of the house of labor,’ and the ‘decline of popular poli- tics.’ in the second act, accordingly, the proletarianization of freeholders, small producers, and skilled craftsmen is completed and, under the man- agerial auspices of the large industrial corporations, the ‘reification’ of all social relations is effected. in this narrative form, the twentieth century must appear as the nonheroic residue of tragedy, the stuff of satire”
Green, R. T.. (2012). Plutocracy, Bureaucracy, and the End of Public Trust. Administration and Society
“This article examines the relationship between income concentration and policy outputs that determine the generosity of two major state-level safety net programs: unemployment insurance and cash social assistance. using a difference in differences framework, it tests the degree to which the top 1 percent share is associated with benefit replacement rates for these programs during the period 1978–2010. the results suggest that higher state income inequality lowers those states’ welfare benefits significantly in ways consistent with a ‘plutocracy’ hypothesis that has been suggested in work by scholars such as bartels, bonica, gilens, and page. the results are robust to controls for several alternative explanations for benefit generosity, including citizen ideology, party control of government, fiscal pressure on programs, state racial heterogeneity, and public opinion liberalism. the results thus support the notion that growing income concentration at the very top undermines social protection policies.”
Morris, W.. (1883). Art under Plutocracy
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“Este trabajo presenta un novedoso enfoque de programación lineal posibilístico interactiva (plp) para resolver el multiproducto planificación de la producción agregada (app) problema con la demanda imprecisa pronóstico, los costos de operación relacionados, y la capacidad. el enfoque propuesto intenta minimizar los costos totales con referencia a los niveles de inventario, los niveles de trabajo, las horas extraordinarias, los niveles de subcontratación, pedidos pendientes, el trabajo, la máquina y la capacidad del almacén. el enfoque propuesto utiliza la estrategia de minimizar al mismo tiempo la mayor parte posible valor de los costes totales imprecisos, lo que maximiza la posibilidad de obtener menores costos totales, y reducir al mínimo el riesgo de obtener mayores costos totales. un caso industrial demuestra la viabilidad de aplicar el enfoque propuesto para los problemas de decisión reales app. en consecuencia, el enfoque propuesto plp se obtiene una solución de compromiso app eficiente y grado total de tomador de decisiones (dm) satisfacción con los valores del objetivo determinados. en particular, se presentan varias implicaciones significativas de gestión y características del enfoque propuesto plp que lo distinguen de los otros modelos de decisión app.”
Guédon, J. C.. (2003). Open Access Archives: From scientific plutocracy to the republic of science. IFLA Journal
“Version publiée d’un exposé présenté à l’occasion d’une journée d’étude de la section des bibliothèques universitaires et des bibliothèques générales de recherche de l’Ifla (international federation of library associations and institutions) lors de la 68ème conférence annuelle de l’Ifla, tenue à glasgow, ecosse, 18-24 août 2002. cet exposé prend pour argument le fait que la quête scientifique de connaissances fondamentales sur la nature a été supplantée par la volonté de contrôler les connaissances scientifiques elles-mêmes et de limiter leur accès à une minorité privilégiée. l’augmentation excessive des tarifs d’abonnement aux magazines scientifiques et le développement des systèmes d’obtention de licence ont considérablement réduit la propriété des connaissances scientifiques publiées ainsi que l’accès à ces connaissances et les formes acceptables d’utilisation de ces connaissances. les organismes de recherche les plus pauvres, en particulier dans les pays les plus démunis, ont été tenus à l’écart du circuit scientifique et condamnés à une forme marginale d’existence. l’auteur réexamine les méthodes d’évaluation utilisées par diverses communautés scientifiques, en se concentrant plus particulièrement sur les publications scientifiques. il estime que les méthodes d’évaluation mises en place par les magazines scientifiques, y compris ceux publiés par des entreprises commerciales, ne servent ni les sciences ni la recherche de façon optimale. le quasi-monopole exercé sur l’évaluation scientifique par de grandes maisons d’édition commerciales explique en partie leur capacité à manipuler les prix. la création d’archives d’accès libre assorties d’un système d’évaluation pourrait contribuer à restaurer la ’République des sciences’ et concurrencer véritablement l’édition commerciale. l’auteur suggère une structure à trois niveaux pour des archives institutionnelles librement accessibles conformément au règlement de l’Initiative pour la liberté d’accès aux connaissances.”
Alterman, E.. (2015). Invisible Plutocracy.. Nation
“We investigate the role of ‘noise’ shocks as a source of business cycle fluctuations. to do so we set up a simple model of imperfect information and derive restrictions for identifying the noise shock in a var model. the novelty of our approach is that identification is reached by means of dynamic rotations of the reduced form residuals. we find that noise shocks generate hump-shaped responses of gdp, consumption and investment and account for quite a sizable fraction of their prediction error variance at business cycle horizons.”
Amin, S.. (2008). “Market Economy” or Oligopoly-Finance Capitalism?. Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine
“The article explores the specific characteristics of capitalism as a system based on private ownership of the means of production. it considers the social and political conflicts within the specific conditions pertaining to each of the phases of the concrete history of actually existing capitalism. it is inferred that the hegemonic power of oligopoly-finance capital is such that it enters into competition with and counterposes its own interests to the state. also discussed are the quantitative indicators which give an idea of the extent of domination of the financial plutocracy of the u.s., europe and japan over the world economy.”
Kuhner, T. K.. (2015). The Corruption of Liberal and Social Democracies. SSRN
“Thomas piketty repeats throughout capital in the twenty-first century that today’s levels of inequality are not inevitable, much less natural, and has connected the state of democracy worldwide to rising economic inequality. wealth transfers from the state to the private sector, wealth transfers from labor to capital, and tax laws favorable to the concentration of wealth require that the participatory and representative facets of democracy be kept in check. beyond suitable material conditions, the growth and maintenance of inequality necessitates a justificatory ideology. this article explores the possibility that the laws of political finance can help connect the dots. legal patterns in the financing of campaigns and political parties point to two distinct forms of oligarchy in play: plutocracy, representing the decay of liberal democracy, and partyocracy, representing the decay of social democracy. together, these legal forms of corruption appear to have co-opted democracy’s values and outputs, paving the way for neoliberalism. this article focuses on plutocracy, the form of corruption most affecting the united states at present.”
Finbow, R. G.. (2016). Restructuring the State through Economic and Trade Agreements: The Case of Investment Disputes Resolution. Politics and Governance
This essay will examine the emergence of transnational governance via supranational economic agreements which promote global imposition of liberalizing policies in the interests of transnational investors. the stalled multilateral world trade organization (wto) process has given way to a plethora of regional and bilateral economic agreements covering a range of new issues—investment, intellectual property, services, and regulations—which trench ever more deeply on domestic decision-making. informed by phillip cerny’s conception of ‘competition states’, colin crouch’s (2000) lament about ‘post-democracy’, carroll and sapinski’s analysis of ‘global corporate elites’, and david held’s depiction of ‘global governance complexes’, the essay will examine the role of transnational corporate and institutional elites in advancing economic agreements which narrow the scope for democratic governance. these authors depict the combination of constraint and empowerment of states induced by these transnational agreements which force most liberal democracies to cut or tweak programs and regulations in economic and social fields to protect investor rights, while boosting restraints on citizens in areas like intellectual property—what cerny (1997) calls the ‘paradox’ of the competition state. given the number and complexity of these transnational governance arrangements, this essay will focus on the transnational constraints of investor state arbitration and disputes settlement systems. this will be illustrated by examining the growth of investor disputes settlement claims in bilateral treaties and major european and north american economic agreements and the rise of arbitration cases which impose costs on states for violations of investor rights. the essay considers the implications of these new forms of transnational governance for democratic governments’ responsive to popular demands. it concludes by suggesting the need for revisions to theories of the democratic state, which may be morphing into pluralistic plutocracy.
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Saith, A.. (2011). Inequality, Imbalance, Instability: Reflections on a Structural Crisis. Development and Change
“ABSTRACT globalization has been accompanied by worsening inequality within core countries of global accumulation processes, as exemplified by china and the usa, where income and wealth inequalities have regained the stratospheric heights of the 1920s. in parallel, there are significantly diverging life chances for the rich and the poor. extreme inequalities are deemed intrinsically toxic due to their potential for the subversion of regulatory and accountability institutions, the corrosion of societal norms, and the quality of democracy. the present conjuncture of crises provides credible evidence that inequality, especially extreme inequality, is not just a contextual feature or a downstream outcome issue, but a crucial upstream, causal factor in the pathology of the financial meltdown. this article introduces contributions elaborating causal pathologies connecting inequality, imbalances and instability, emphasizing the centrality of global interdependence. beyond surviving the crisis through assorted fiscal stimuli packages of emergency resuscitation and life support, there are deeper structural policy issues to consider. the crisis briefly opened up democratic space for short-term protective, and long-term corrective interventions. however, this space was equally quickly shut down again, as the political and financial establishment resisted yielding permanent ground: witness the return to fiscal conservatism, the revival of the culture of bankers bonuses, and persisting international divisions over coordinated global action. there is an imperative to regulate rampant and dysfunctional financialization; to cooperate internationally for sustainable balanced economic growth; for an alternative politics to pull back from an inexorable slide into plutocracy, to let the people back in. otherwise we risk lurching from one crisis episode to another, from tragedy to farce, and back again.”
Sadeh, N., Javdani, S., Jackson, J. J., Reynolds, E. K., Potenza, M. N., Gelernter, J., … Verona, E.. (2010). Serotonin transporter gene associations with psychopathic traits in youth vary as a function of socioeconomic resources. Journal of Abnormal Psychology
“Although prior research has examined the genetic correlates of antisocial behavior, molecular genetics influences on psychopathic traits remain largely unknown. consequently, we investigated the influence of polymorphic variation at the serotonin transporter protein gene (slc6a4) and socioeconomic resources (ses) on psychopathic traits in youth across two distinct samples in two separate studies. in study 1, a main effect of serotonin transporter (5-httlpr) genotype was associated with the impulsivity dimension of psychopathy. that is, individuals homozygous for the short allele evidenced more impulsivity than did those homozygous for the long allele. in contrast, a gene-environment interaction was associated with the callous-unemotional and narcissistic features of psychopathy. callous-unemotional and narcissistic traits increased as ses decreased only among youths with the homozygous-long (l/l) genotype, a novel finding replicated and extended in study 2. these studies provide preliminary results that the l/l genotype confers risk for the emotional deficits and predatory interpersonal traits associated with psychopathy among youths raised in disadvantaged environments.”
Dadds, M. R., Moul, C., Cauchi, A., Dobson-Stone, C., Hawes, D. J., Brennan, J., & Ebstein, R. E.. (2014). Methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene and oxytocin blood levels in the development of psychopathy. Development and Psychopathology
“Child conduct problems (cps) are a robust predictor of adult mental health; the concurrence of callous-unemotional (cu) traits confers specific risk for psychopathy. psychopathy may be related to disturbances in the oxytocin (oxt) system. evidence suggests that epigenetic changes in the oxt receptor gene (oxtr) are associated with lower circulating oxt and social-cognitive difficulties. we tested methylation levels of oxtr in 4- to 16-year-old males who met dsm criteria for a diagnosis of oppositional-defiant or conduct disorder and were stratified by cu traits and age. measures were dna methylation levels of six cpg sites in the promoter region of the oxtr gene (where a cpg site is a cytosine nucleotide occurs next to a guanine nucleotide in the linear sequence of bases along its lenth, linked together by phosphate binding), and oxt blood levels. high cu traits were associated with greater methylation of the oxtr gene for two cytosine nucleotide and guanine nucleotide phosphate linked sites and lower circulating oxt in older males. higher methylation correlated with lower oxt levels. we conclude that greater methylation of oxtr characterizes adolescent males with high levels of cu and cps, and this methylation is associated with lower circulating oxt and functional impairment in interpersonal empathy. the results add genetic evidence that high cu traits specify a distinct subgroup within cp children, and they suggest models of psychopathy may be informed by further identification of these epigenetic processes and their functional significance.”
Yildirim, B. O., & Derksen, J. J. L.. (2013). Systematic review, structural analysis, and new theoretical perspectives on the role of serotonin and associated genes in the etiology of psychopathy and sociopathy. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Beaver, K. M., Barnes, J. C., May, J. S., & Schwartz, J. A.. (2011). Psychopathic personality traits, genetic risk, and gene-environment correlations. Criminal Justice and Behavior
“There is a great deal of evidence indicating that psychopathy and psychopathic traits represent some of the strongest correlates to serious violent criminal behavior. as a result, there has been a recent surge of behavioral genetic studies examining the genetic and environmental factors that may be related to the development of psychopathy. the current study extends this line of research by analyzing a sample of kinship pairs from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health to estimate the extent to which genetic factors relate to measures of psychopathic personality traits created from the five factor model. moreover, the authors also test for a series of gene-environment correlations between genetic risk for psychopathic personality traits and measures of parental negativity. the results of the analyses revealed that genetic factors explained between .37 and .44 of the variance in measures of psychopathy. additional statistical models indicated the presence of gene-environment correlations between parental negativity and genetic risk for psychopathic personality traits. (psycinfo database record (c) 2013 apa, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)”
Sadeh, N., Javdani, S., & Verona, E.. (2013). Analysis of monoaminergic genes, childhood abuse, and dimensions of psychopathy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology
“Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct characterized by an interpersonally manipulative and emotionally detached personality profile that differentiates it from other antisocial syndromes. previous research with youth has linked the long allele of the serotonin transporter gene in the presence of environmental stress with the interpersonal and affective traits of psychopathy, but these relationships have yet to be examined in relation to adult psychopathy. consequently, we examined how serotonin transporter (5-httlpr) polymorphisms, monoamine oxidase-a (mao-a) variants, and childhood abuse measured with the childhood trauma questionnaire relate to dimensions of psychopathy in a forensic sample of 237 men with elevated levels of environmental adversity. we found that the emotional deficits characterizing the affective factor of psychopathy, as measured by the psychopathy checklist: screening version, were highest among carriers of the 5-htt long allele. furthermore, the impulsive and irresponsible lifestyle features of psychopathy were higher among low-activity than high-activity mao-a carriers. these genetic effects were unexpectedly not moderated by a history of childhood abuse. results provide evidence on the molecular genetics correlates of psychopathic traits in adulthood, relationships that should be investigated further in future research.”
Hicks, B. M., Carlson, M. D., Blonigen, D. M., Patrick, C. J., Iacono, W. G., & Mgue, M.. (2012). Psychopathic personality traits and environmental contexts: Differential correlates, gender differences, and genetic mediation. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment
“Theorists have speculated that primary psychopathy (or factor 1 affective-interpersonal features) is prominently heritable whereas secondary psychopathy (or factor 2 social deviance) is more environmentally determined. we tested this differential heritability hypothesis using a large adolescent twin sample. trait-based proxies of primary and secondary psychopathic tendencies were assessed using multidimensional personality questionnaire (mpq) estimates of fearless dominance and impulsive antisociality, respectively. the environmental contexts of family, school, peers, and stressful life events were assessed using multiple raters and methods. consistent with prior research, mpq impulsive antisociality was robustly associated with each environmental risk factor, and these associations were significantly greater than those for mpq fearless dominance. however, mpq fearless dominance and impulsive antisociality exhibited similar heritability, and genetic effects mediated the associations between mpq impulsive antisociality and the environmental measures. results were largely consistent across male and female twins. we conclude that gene-environment correlations rather than main effects of genes and environments account for the differential environmental correlates of primary and secondary psychopathy.”
Glenn, A. L.. (2011). The other allele: Exploring the long allele of the serotonin transporter gene as a potential risk factor for psychopathy: A review of the parallels in findings. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
James, M. G.. (2010). Investigating dimensions of psychopathy in an adjudicated adolescent sample: The role of race, sex and disruptive family processes. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
“Psychopathy is a personality trait associated with persistent antisocial behavior. research has documented the staggering costs associated with antisocial behavior result from the actions of a few individuals, many of whom exhibit psychopathic traits. thus, the importance of identifying and treating these individuals is of paramount concern. the majority of psychopathy research utilizes adult caucasian male participants; however, the validity of the construct in youth, females, and minorities remains unresolved (sharp & kine, 2008). furthermore, the factor structure of psychopathy is the subject of considerable debate (e.g., neumann, kosson, & salekin, 2007 and cooke, michie, & skeem, 2007). this dissertation examined psychopathic traits in a large sample of adjudicated adolescents in an effort to better understand the extent to which results from adult males generalize to other populations. the global risk assessment device (grad; gavazzi, slade, buettner, partridge, yarcheck, & andrews, 2003) is a risk and needs classification device for adolescent offenders used by court personnel for rehabilitation recommendations prior to sentencing. exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on grad items in an effort to develop a measurement model of psychopathy and investigate race and sex differences. next, regression analyses were employed for construct validation purposes. results indicated a three factor model of psychopathy provided the best fit for caucasian males, consistent with the results of cooke and michie (2001). the model developed with caucasian males also fit well for samples of caucasian females, african-american males, and african-american females. the measurement model predicted a significant amount of variance in criminal behavior as well as a number of variables related to externalizing and internalizing symptoms. the impulsivity/conduct problems factor was strongly and consistently related to all of these outcome variables, suggesting it represents a risk factor for both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. the callous-unemotional traits factor was also related to antisocial behavior, albeit less so than impulsivity/conduct problems. narcissism was positively related to violence. a few noteworthy race and sex differences emerged. first, the model predicted outcome variables as well or better for females as it did for males. second, the model predicted serious crime less well for african-americans than for caucas…”
Ponce, G., Hoenicka, J., Jiménez-Arriero, M. A., Rodríguez-Jiménez, R., Aragüés, M., Martín-Suñé, N., … Palomo, T.. (2008). DRD2 and ANKK1 genotype in alcohol-dependent patients with psychopathic traits: Association and interaction study. British Journal of Psychiatry
“BACKGROUND: the taqi-a polymorphism of the ankk1 gene, adjacent to the drd2 gene, has been associated with alcoholism and other psychiatric conditions, although other drd2 gene variants, such as the c957t polymorphism, could be related to these phenotypic traits.nnaims: to investigate the contribution of the taqi-a and the c957t polymorphisms to the presence of psychopathic traits in patients with alcoholism.nnmethod: we performed association and interaction analyses of the polymorphisms in 150 controls and 176 male alcohol-dependent patients assessed for the presence of dissocial personal disorder, using the psychopathy checklist-revised (pcl-r).nnresults: there was a significant association of the taqi-a and c957t polymorphisms when both genotypes were present, with pcl-r scores of f(1-171=0.13) (p=0.01) and a frequency of dissocial personal disorder or=10.52, p<0.001.nnconclusions: the taqi-a of the ankk1 gene and the c957t of the drd2 gene are epistatically associated with psychopathic traits in alcohol-dependent patients.”
Garcia, L. F., Aluja, A., Fibla, J., Cuevas, L., & García, O.. (2010). Incremental effect for antisocial personality disorder genetic risk combining 5-HTTLPR and 5-HTTVNTR polymorphisms. Psychiatry Research
A euphemism is a generally innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes to downplay. Euphemisms are used to refer to taboo topics in a polite way, or to mask profanity.More at Wikipedia
Newspeak is the language of Oceania, a fictional totalitarian state ruled by the Party, who created the language to meet the ideological requirements of English Socialism.More at Wikipedia
Orwell, G.. (2000). Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak. In Nineteen Eighty-Four
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“‘First published by martin secker & warburg ltd. 1949 … this edition first published by martin secker & warburg ltd in the complete works of george orwell series [vol. 9] 1987. published in penguin books with an introduction and a new note on the text 1989’–title page verso. introduction by ben pimlott; textual note by peter davison, editor of the complete works of george orwell. in ‘nineteen eighty-four’, one of the 20th century’s great myth-makers george orwell takes a cold look at the future.”
Bergman, J.. (1994). Totalitarian language: Orwell’s newspeak and its nazi and communist antecedents. History of European Ideas
“As with so much else in george orwell’s novel nineteen eighty-four, the idea for newspeak evolved from the author’s reading, rumination, and observations, set forth in earlier books, articles, and essays, on the political and intellectual tendencies of his age. newspeak sharpens to a satirical focus these observations of orwell and his concern about the deterioration of language and literature, not only in totalitarian societies but among western intellectuals infected with totalitarian habits of thought. it also reflects orwell’s belief that language and politics are closely connected, and that while politics can adversely affect language, language itself, when persistently abused, can contribute to political decay. through his description of the language of oceania, orwell provides us with a kind of model of totalitarian language. the major components of that model are (1) intent of the rulers to control thought and action through language, (2) exaltation of the state over the individual, (3) violence and vilification, (4) euphemism, (5) special political terminology, and (6) the failure of words to reflect reality. for the most part, this model accurately describes the language used by the nazis and communists, and for that reason among others, orwell remains an author of considerable importance for political discussion. but contrary to what nineteen eighty-four might lead us to believe, the abuse of language by historical totalitarian regimes has so far not enabled them to control the thought and behavior of their subjects–at least not to the extent achieved by orwell’s oceanic regime. for when, as is inevitably the case, the words and deeds of totalitarian governments consistently fail to correspond–when official rhetoric and reality do not agree–many of the subjects grow sceptical and cynical. this gives rise to the phenomenon of counter-languages, in which private citizens attempt to portray life as it really is under dictatorial rule.”
Joseph, J. E.. (2000). Orwell on Language and Politics. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics
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“Newspeak, the engineered language of george orwell’s novel nineteen eighty-four, is discussed in the context of orwell’s wider views on language & politics & the need for linguistic intervention as part of the struggle against tyranny, & of the related or opposed ideas of some of orwell’s contemporaries & ferdinand de saussure. 7 references. adapted from the source document”
Buchen, I. H.. (1984). The future of 1984. Technology in Society
“The diversity of opinion about pedagogy within elt (english language teaching) makes it essential that its professional discourse is sufficiently inclusive. however, this often fails to occur because elt professional discussion is frequently too ‘orwellian’ in nature, i.e. behaves in a manner resembling the political structures in the novel ‘nineteen eighty-four’ (orwell, 1949). for example, a form of professional ‘newspeak’ often exists, whereby meanings of words are aligned with ‘approved’ ways of thinking, such as in the use of the term ‘authentic’. a second frequent occurrence is ‘thoughtcrime’ (views contrary to those of the ‘ruling party’ being seen as unacceptable). the over-promotion of task-based learning can be seen as often taking such a form. third, ‘doublethink’ (simultaneously believing in two contradictory ideas) is all too common, as in the advocacy of professional inclusivity, on the one hand, and the rejection of ‘english as a native language’ (enl) as a pedagogical model on the other. as a result of such forms of ‘thought control’, a number of valid professional pedagogical perspectives are denigrated. the paper concludes by discussing how a less orwellian and more representative form of professional discourse might be created.”
The Freedom of the Press Orwell’s Proposed Preface to ‘Animal Farm’
Excerpt
Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news — things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.
This book was first thought of, so far as the central idea goes, in 1937, but was not written down until about the end of 1943. By the time when it came to be written it was obvious that there would be great difficulty in getting it published (in spite of the present book shortage which ensures that anything describable as a book will ‘sell’), and in the event it was refused by four publishers. Only one of these had any ideological motive. Two had been publishing anti-Russian books for years, and the other had no noticeable political colour. One publisher actually started by accepting the book, but after making the preliminary arrangements he decided to consult the Ministry of Information, who appear to have warned him, or at any rate strongly advised him, against publishing it. Here is an extract from his letter:
I mentioned the reaction I had had from an important official in the Ministry of Information with regard to Animal Farm. I must confess that this expression of opinion has given me seriously to think… I can see now that it might be regarded as something which it was highly ill-advised to publish at the present time. If the fable were addressed generally to dictators and dictatorships at large then publication would be all right, but the fable does follow, as I see now, so completely the progress of the Russian Soviets and their two dictators, that it can apply only to Russia, to the exclusion of the other dictatorships. Another thing: it would be less offensive if the predominant caste in the fable were not pigs[*]. I think the choice of pigs as the ruling caste will no doubt give offence to many people, and particularly to anyone who is a bit touchy, as undoubtedly the Russians are.
* It is not quite clear whether this suggested modification is Mr… ’s own idea, or originated with the Ministry of Information; but it seems to have the official ring about it. [Orwell’s Note]
This kind of thing is not a good symptom. Obviously it is not desirable that a government department should have any power of censorship (except security censorship, which no one objects to in war time) over books which are not officially sponsored. But the chief danger to freedom of thought and speech at this moment is not the direct interference of the MOI or any official body. If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion. In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves.
Any fairminded person with journalistic experience will admit that during this war official censorship has not been particularly irksome. We have not been subjected to the kind of totalitarian ‘co-ordination’ that it might have been reasonable to expect. The press has some justified grievances, but on the whole the Government has behaved well and has been surprisingly tolerant of minority opinions. The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary.
Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news — things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.
At this moment what is demanded by the prevailing orthodoxy is an uncritical admiration of Soviet Russia. Everyone knows this, nearly everyone acts on it. Any serious criticism of the Soviet régime, any disclosure of facts which the Soviet government would prefer to keep hidden, is next door to unprintable. And this nation-wide conspiracy to flatter our ally takes place, curiously enough, against a background of genuine intellectual tolerance. For though you arc not allowed to criticise the Soviet government, at least you are reasonably free to criticise our own. Hardly anyone will print an attack on Stalin, but it is quite safe to attack Churchill, at any rate in books and periodicals. And throughout five years of war, during two or three of which we were fighting for national survival, countless books, pamphlets and articles advocating a compromise peace have been published without interference. More, they have been published without exciting much disapproval. So long as the prestige of the USSR is not involved, the principle of free speech has been reasonably well upheld. There are other forbidden topics, and I shall mention some of them presently, but the prevailing attitude towards the USSR is much the most serious symptom. It is, as it were, spontaneous, and is not due to the action of any pressure group.
The servility with which the greater part of the English intelligentsia have swallowed and repeated Russian propaganda from 1941 onwards would be quite astounding if it were not that they have behaved similarly on several earlier occasions. On one controversial issue after another the Russian viewpoint has been accepted without examination and then publicised with complete disregard to historical truth or intellectual decency. To name only one instance, the BBC celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Red Army without mentioning Trotsky. This was about as accurate as commemorating the battle of Trafalgar without mentioning Nelson, but it evoked no protest from the English intelligentsia. In the internal struggles in the various occupied countries, the British press has in almost all cases sided with the faction favoured by the Russians and libelled the opposing faction, sometimes suppressing material evidence in order to do so. A particularly glaring case was that of Colonel Mihailovich, the Jugoslav Chetnik leader. The Russians, who had their own Jugoslav protege in Marshal Tito, accused Mihailovich of collaborating with the Germans. This accusation was promptly taken up by the British press: Mihailovich’s supporters were given no chance of answering it, and facts contradicting it were simply kept out of print. In July of 1943 the Germans offered a reward of 100,000 gold crowns for the capture of Tito, and a similar reward for the capture of Mihailovich. The British press ‘splashed’ the reward for Tito, but only one paper mentioned (in small print) the reward for Mihailovich: and the charges of collaborating with the Germans continued. Very similar things happened during the Spanish civil war. Then, too, the factions on the Republican side which the Russians were determined to crush were recklessly libelled in the English leftwing [sic] press, and any statement in their defence even in letter form, was refused publication. At present, not only is serious criticism of the USSR considered reprehensible, but even the fact of the existence of such criticism is kept secret in some cases. For example, shortly before his death Trotsky had written a biography of Stalin. One may assume that it was not an altogether unbiased book, but obviously it was saleable. An American publisher had arranged to issue it and the book was in print — 1 believe the review copies had been sent out — when the USSR entered the war. The book was immediately withdrawn. Not a word about this has ever appeared in the British press, though clearly the existence of such a book, and its suppression, was a news item worth a few paragraphs.
It is important to distinguish between the kind of censorship that the English literary intelligentsia voluntarily impose upon themselves, and the censorship that can sometimes be enforced by pressure groups. Notoriously, certain topics cannot be discussed because of ‘vested interests’. The best-known case is the patent medicine racket. Again, the Catholic Church has considerable influence in the press and can silence criticism of itself to some extent. A scandal involving a Catholic priest is almost never given publicity, whereas an Anglican priest who gets into trouble (e.g. the Rector of Stiffkey) is headline news. It is very rare for anything of an anti-Catholic tendency to appear on the stage or in a film. Any actor can tell you that a play or film which attacks or makes fun of the Catholic Church is liable to be boycotted in the press and will probably be a failure. But this kind of thing is harmless, or at least it is understandable. Any large organisation will look after its own interests as best it can, and overt propaganda is not a thing to object to. One would no more expect the Daily Worker to publicise unfavourable facts about the USSR than one would expect the Catholic Herald to denounce the Pope. But then every thinking person knows the Daily Worker and the Catholic Herald for what they are. What is disquieting is that where the USSR and its policies are concerned one cannot expect intelligent criticism or even, in many cases, plain honesty from Liberal [sic — and throughout as typescript] writers and journalists who are under no direct pressure to falsify their opinions. Stalin is sacrosanct and certain aspects of his policy must not be seriously discussed. This rule has been almost universally observed since 1941, but it had operated, to a greater extent than is sometimes realised, for ten years earlier than that. Throughout that time, criticism of the Soviet régime from the left could only obtain a hearing with difficulty. There was a huge output of anti-Russian literature, but nearly all of it was from the Conservative angle and manifestly dishonest, out of date and actuated by sordid motives. On the other side there was an equally huge and almost equally dishonest stream of pro-Russian propaganda, and what amounted to a boycott on anyone who tried to discuss all-important questions in a grown-up manner. You could, indeed, publish anti-Russian books, but to do so was to make sure of being ignored or misrepresented by nearly me whole of the highbrow press. Both publicly and privately you were warned that it was ‘not done’. What you said might possibly be true, but it was ‘inopportune’ and played into the hands of this or that reactionary interest. This attitude was usually defended on the ground that the international situation, and me urgent need for an Anglo-Russian alliance, demanded it; but it was clear that this was a rationalisation. The English intelligentsia, or a great part of it, had developed a nationalistic loyalty towards me USSR, and in their hearts they felt that to cast any doubt on me wisdom of Stalin was a kind of blasphemy. Events in Russia and events elsewhere were to be judged by different standards. The endless executions in me purges of 1936-8 were applauded by life-long opponents of capital punishment, and it was considered equally proper to publicise famines when they happened in India and to conceal them when they happened in me Ukraine. And if this was true before the war, the intellectual atmosphere is certainly no better now.
But now to come back to this book of mine. The reaction towards it of most English intellectuals will be quite simple: ‘It oughtn’t to have been published.’ Naturally, those reviewers who understand the art of denigration will not attack it on political grounds but on literary ones. They will say that it is a dull, silly book and a disgraceful waste of paper. This may well be true, but it is obviously not me whole of the story. One does not say that a book ‘ought not to have been published’ merely because it is a bad book. After all, acres of rubbish are printed daily and no one bothers. The English intelligentsia, or most of them, will object to this book because it traduces their Leader and (as they see it) does harm to the cause of progress. If it did me opposite they would have nothing to say against it, even if its literary faults were ten times as glaring as they are. The success of, for instance, the Left Book Club over a period of four or five years shows how willing they are to tolerate both scurrility and slipshod writing, provided that it tells them what they want to hear.
The issue involved here is quite a simple one: Is every opinion, however unpopular — however foolish, even — entitled to a hearing? Put it in that form and nearly any English intellectual will feel that he ought to say ‘Yes’. But give it a concrete shape, and ask, ‘How about an attack on Stalin? Is that entitled to a hearing?’, and the answer more often than not will be ‘No’, In that case the current orthodoxy happens to be challenged, and so the principle of free speech lapses. Now, when one demands liberty of speech and of the press, one is not demanding absolute liberty. There always must be, or at any rate there always will be, some degree of censorship, so long as organised societies endure. But freedom, as Rosa Luxembourg [sic] said, is ‘freedom for the other fellow’. The same principle is contained in the famous words of Voltaire: ‘I detest what you say; I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ If the intellectual liberty which without a doubt has been one of the distinguishing marks of western civilisation means anything at all, it means that everyone shall have the right to say and to print what he believes to be the truth, provided only that it does not harm the rest of the community in some quite unmistakable way. Both capitalist democracy and the western versions of Socialism have till recently taken that principle for granted. Our Government, as I have already pointed out, still makes some show of respecting it. The ordinary people in the street-partly, perhaps, because they are not sufficiently interested in ideas to be intolerant about them-still vaguely hold that ‘I suppose everyone’s got a right to their own opinion.’ It is only, or at any rate it is chiefly, the literary and scientific intelligentsia, the very people who ought to be the guardians of liberty, who are beginning to despise it, in theory as well as in practice.
One of the peculiar phenomena of our time is the renegade Liberal. Over and above the familiar Marxist claim that ‘bourgeois liberty’ is an illusion, there is now a widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods. If one loves democracy, the argument runs, one must crush its enemies by no matter what means. And who are its enemies? It always appears that they are not only those who attack it openly and consciously, but those who ‘objectively’ endanger it by spreading mistaken doctrines. In other words, defending democracy involves destroying all independence of thought. This argument was used, for instance, to justify the Russian purges. The most ardent Russophile hardly believed that all of the victims were guilty of all the things they were accused of: but by holding heretical opinions they ‘objectively’ harmed the régime, and therefore it was quite right not only to massacre them but to discredit them by false accusations. The same argument was used to justify the quite conscious lying that went on in the leftwing press about the Trotskyists and other Republican minorities in the Spanish civil war. And it was used again as a reason for yelping against habeas corpus when Mosley was released in 1943.
These people don’t see that if you encourage totalitarian methods, the time may come when they will be used against you instead of for you. Make a habit of imprisoning Fascists without trial, and perhaps the process won’t stop at Fascists. Soon after the suppressed Daily Worker had been reinstated, I was lecturing to a workingmen’s college in South London. The audience were working-class and lower-middle class intellectuals — the same sort of audience that one used to meet at Left Book Club branches. The lecture had touched on the freedom of the press, and at the end, to my astonishment, several questioners stood up and asked me: Did I not think that the lifting of the ban on the Daily Worker was a great mistake? When asked why, they said that it was a paper of doubtful loyalty and ought not to be tolerated in war time. I found myself defending the Daily Worker, which has gone out of its way to libel me more than once. But where had these people learned this essentially totalitarian outlook? Pretty certainly they had learned it from the Communists themselves! Tolerance and decency are deeply rooted in England, but they are not indestructible, and they have to be kept alive partly by conscious effort. The result of preaching totalitarian doctrines is to weaken the instinct by means of which free peoples know what is or is not dangerous. The case of Mosley illustrates this. In 1940 it was perfectly right to intern Mosley, whether or not he had committed any technical crime. We were fighting for our lives and could not allow a possible quisling to go free. To keep him shut up, without trial, in 1943 was an outrage. The general failure to see this was a bad symptom, though it is true that the agitation against Mosley’s release was partly factitious and partly a rationalisation of other discontents. But how much of the present slide towards Fascist ways of thought is traceable to the ‘anti-Fascism’ of the past ten years and the unscrupulousness it has entailed?
It is important to realise that the current Russomania is only a symptom of the general weakening of the western liberal tradition. Had the MOI chipped in and definitely vetoed the publication of this book, the bulk of the English intelligentsia would have seen nothing disquieting in this. Uncritical loyalty to the USSR happens to be the current orthodoxy, and where the supposed interests of the USSR are involved they are willing to tolerate not only censorship but the deliberate falsification of history. To name one instance. At the death of John Reed, the author of Ten Days that Shook the World — first-hand account of the early days of the Russian Revolution — the copyright of the book passed into the hands of the British Communist Party, to whom I believe Reed had bequeathed it. Some years later the British Communists, having destroyed the original edition of the book as completely as they could, issued a garbled version from which they had eliminated mentions of Trotsky and also omitted the introduction written by Lenin. If a radical intelligentsia had still existed in Britain, this act of forgery would have been exposed and denounced in every literary paper in the country. As it was there was little or no protest. To many English intellectuals it seemed quite a natural thing to do. And this tolerance or [sic = of?] plain dishonesty means much more than that admiration for Russia happens to be fashionable at this moment. Quite possibly that particular fashion will not last. For all I know, by the time this book is published my view of the Soviet régime may be the generally-accepted one. But what use would that be in itself? To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.
I am well acquainted with all the arguments against freedom of thought and speech — the arguments which claim that it cannot exist, and the arguments which claim that it ought not to. I answer simply that they don’t convince me and that our civilisation over a period of four hundred years has been founded on the opposite notice. For quite a decade past I have believed that the existing Russian régime is a mainly evil thing, and I claim the right to say so, in spite of the fact that we are allies with the USSR in a war which I want to see won. If I had to choose a text to justify myself, I should choose the line from Milton:
By the known rules of ancient liberty.
The word ancient emphasises the fact that intellectual freedom is a deep-rooted tradition without which our characteristic western culture could only doubtfully exist. From that tradition many of our intellectuals arc visibly turning away. They have accepted the principle that a book should be published or suppressed, praised or damned, not on its merits but according to political expediency. And others who do not actually hold this view assent to it from sheer cowardice. An example of this is the failure of the numerous and vocal English pacifists to raise their voices against the prevalent worship of Russian militarism. According to those pacifists, all violence is evil, and they have urged us at every stage of the war to give in or at least to make a compromise peace. But how many of them have ever suggested that war is also evil when it is waged by the Red Army? Apparently the Russians have a right to defend themselves, whereas for us to do [so] is a deadly sin. One can only explain this contradiction in one way: that is, by a cowardly desire to keep in with the bulk of the intelligentsia, whose patriotism is directed towards the USSR rather than towards Britain. I know that the English intelligentsia have plenty of reason for their timidity and dishonesty, indeed I know by heart the arguments by which they justify themselves. But at least let us have no more nonsense about defending liberty against Fascism. If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. The common people still vaguely subscribe to that doctrine and act on it. In our country — it is not the same in all countries: it was not so in republican France, and it is not so in the USA today — it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect: it is to draw attention to that fact that I have written this preface.
“This article focuses on aldous leonard huxley, a famous writer and philosopher of the twentieth century, and presents information on his famous literary works. huxley was born on july 26, 1894 to leonard huxley and julia francis arnold huxley. in his childhood, he undertook classical education from the public schools. there is not a writer and philosopher who came after huxley who does not owe to him directly or indirectly the new tangent in the history of the novel that his work impelled. gerald heard, a friend and fellow philosopher of huxley, called him ‘the poignant prophet’ and he was certainly a godfather of the new age. the key to huxley’s hypothesis is the role of intuition as a guide to knowledge that cannot be otherwise found empirically. it is the task of philosophy to try to translate and understand analytically in terms of thought or conceptual thinking what has been presented in the living experience of intuition. the famous literary works compiled by this author include ‘those barren leaves,’ ‘eyeless in gaza’ and ‘time must have a stop.’ inset: an aldous huxley checklist.”
Kooistra, J.. (1931). Aldous Huxley. English Studies
“The grandson of biologist t. h. huxley, aldous huxley had a privileged background and was educated at eton and oxford despite an eye infection that left him nearly blind. having learned braille his eyesight then improved enough for him to start writing, and by the 1920s he had become a fashionable figure, producing witty and daring novels like crome yellow (1921), antic hay (1923) and point counter point (1928). but it is as the author of his celebrated portrayal of a nightmare future society, brave new world (1932), that huxley is remembered today. a truly visionary book, it was a watershed in huxley’s world-view as his later work became more and more optimistic – coinciding with his move to california and experimentation with mysticism and psychedelic drugs later in life. nicholas murray’s brilliant new book has the greatest virtue of literary biographies: it makes you want to go out and read its subject’s work all over again. a fascinating reassessment of one of the most interesting writers of the twentieth century.”
Huxley, A.. (2015). Brave New World By Aldous Huxley. The Independent
“Huxley wrote the book in 1931, with communism and fascism entrenched in russia and italy, nazism on the rise in germany, militaristic japan embarking on its war of conquest in china, and the entire world gripped by the great depression. yet huxley managed to see through all these dark clouds, and envision a future society without wars, famines and plagues, enjoying uninterrupted peace, abundance and health. it is a consumerist world, which gives completely free rein to sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, and whose supreme value is happiness. it uses advanced biotechnology and social engineering to make sure that everyone is always content, and no one has any reason to rebel. there is no need of a secret police, concentration camps or a ministry of love la orwell’s 1984.”
Huxley, G.. (1965). Aldous Huxley. Journal of Humanistic Psychology
“The grandson of biologist t. h. huxley, aldous huxley had a privileged background and was educated at eton and oxford despite an eye infection that left him nearly blind. having learned braille his eyesight then improved enough for him to start writing, and by the 1920s he had become a fashionable figure, producing witty and daring novels like crome yellow (1921), antic hay (1923) and point counter point (1928). but it is as the author of his celebrated portrayal of a nightmare future society, brave new world (1932), that huxley is remembered today. a truly visionary book, it was a watershed in huxley’s world-view as his later work became more and more optimistic – coinciding with his move to california and experimentation with mysticism and psychedelic drugs later in life. nicholas murray’s brilliant new book has the greatest virtue of literary biographies: it makes you want to go out and read its subject’s work all over again. a fascinating reassessment of one of the most interesting writers of the twentieth century.”
Postman, N.. (1985). Amusing ourselves to death.. ETC: A Review of General Semantics
Show/hide publication abstract
“Presents a speech by neil postman, editor of the ‘et cetera,’ delivered at the frankfurt book fair on october 2, 1984. remarks on the book ‘brave new world,’ by aldous huxley; percentage of all u.s. homes that have television set, according to the 1983 nielsen report on television; reason for the participation of politicians in non-political television shows.”
Meckier, J.. (2016). Aldous Huxley: Satire and Structure. Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature
“There is a tension between the literatures on incomplete contracting and transactions cost economics regarding the importance of ex post governance and the extent to which formal theories of incomplete contracting capture salient aspects of exchange relations. in this paper, we empirically examine how firms structure joint r&d agreements to illuminate how contracts can be incomplete and how governance can matter. we employ a dataset of 96 contracts to construct a taxonomy of the types of mechanisms firms use in organizing collaborative r&d, and indicate how groups of mechanisms line up with various types of contracting hazards. the results suggest that the allocation of property rights over innovations at the time of contracting between r&d partners is an important aspect of contract design. but they also suggest that weak property rights admit scope for other dimensions of contract. in particular, the research indicates that while knowledge spillovers may give rise to appropriability hazards, efforts to contain or channel knowledge spillovers may enable joint venture members to strategically block other members’ follow-on commercialization or research. firms design joint r&d governance mechanisms to balance spillover hazards and strategic blocking.”
Lester, H.. (2012). Brave new world.. The British Journal of General Practice : The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
“Brave new world is a novel written in 1931 by aldous huxley and published in 1932. set in london in the year ad 2540 (632 a.f.—”After ford”—in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that combine profoundly to change society. huxley answered this book with a reassessment in an essay, brave new world revisited (1958), and with island (1962), his final novel. in 1999, the modern library ranked brave new world fifth on its list of the 100 best english-language novels of the 20th century. in 2003, robert mccrum writing for the observer included brave new world chronologically at number 53 in ‘the top 100 greatest novels of all time’,[2] and the novel was listed at number 87 on the bbc’s survey the big read.”
Seed, D.. (2007). Aldous Huxley: Brave New World. In A Companion to Science Fiction
“TEXT und geschichtenmodellanalysen zur englischen und amerikanischen literaturnnherausgegeben vonnrüdiger hillgärtner, edgar kamphausen und malte c. krugmannnnbode, christoph:naldous huxley, ‘brave new world’: 2.,verb. aufl. / christoph bode. – münchen: fink, 1993n(utb für wissenschaft: uni-taschenbücher; 1312) (text und geschichte: modellanalysen zur englischen und amerikanischen literatur)nisbn 3-8252-1312-9 (utb)nisbn 3-7705-2247-8 (fink)nne: utb für wissenschaft / uni-taschenbücher”
The quadrivium (plural: quadrivia) is the four subjects, or arts, taught after teaching the trivium. The word is Latin, meaning four ways, and its use for the four subjects has been attributed to Boethius or Cassiodorus in the 6th century. Together, the trivium and the quadrivium comprised the seven liberal arts (based on thinking skills), as distinguished from the practical arts (such as medicine and architecture).
Etymologically, the Latin word trivium means “the place where three roads meet” (tri + via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which comprised arithmetic (number), geometry (number in space), music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts of classical antiquity.[1]
Grammar teaches the mechanics of language to the student. This is the step where the student “comes to terms,” defining the objects and information perceived by the five senses. Hence, the Law of Identity: a tree is a tree, and not a cat.
Logic (also dialectic) is the “mechanics” of thought and of analysis, the process of identifying fallacious arguments and statements and so systematically removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge that can be trusted.
Rhetoric is the application of language in order to instruct and to persuade the listener and the reader. It is the knowledge (grammar) now understood (logic) and being transmitted outwards as wisdom (rhetoric).
One can utilise a computer analogy to conceptually explain the Trivium. Per analogiam, input (via input channels such as the senses/sensors, or any other form of information transmission ) refers to grammar, processing to logic (thought & analysis), and output to rhetoric (written words & spoken language).
Sister Miriam Joseph, in The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric (2002), described the trivium as follows:
Grammar is the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; logic is the art of thinking; and rhetoric is the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance.
. . .
Grammar is concerned with the thing as-it-is-symbolized. Logic is concerned with the thing as-it-is-known. Rhetoric is concerned with the thing as-it-is-communicated.[4]
John Ayto wrote in the Dictionary of Word Origins (1990) that study of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) was requisite preparation for study of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). For the medieval student, the trivium was the curricular beginning of the acquisition of the seven liberal arts; as such, it was the principal undergraduate course of study. The wordtrivial arose from the contrast between the simpler trivium and the more difficult quadrivium.[5]
Quadrivium
The quadrivium consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These followed the preparatory work of the trivium, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In turn, the quadrivium was considered preparatory work for the study of philosophy (sometimes called the “liberal art par excellence”)[5] and theology.
These four studies compose the secondary part of the curriculum outlined by Plato in The Republic and are described in the seventh book of that work (in the order Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music). [4] The quadrivium is implicit in early Pythagorean writings and in the De nuptiis of Martianus Capella, although the term quadrivium was not used until Boethius, early in the sixth century.[6] As Proclus wrote:
The Pythagoreans considered all mathematical science to be divided into four parts: one half they marked off as concerned with quantity, the other half with magnitude; and each of these they posited as twofold. A quantity can be considered in regard to its character by itself or in its relation to another quantity, magnitudes as either stationary or in motion. Arithmetic, then, studies quantities as such, music the relations between quantities, geometry magnitude at rest, spherics [astronomy] magnitude inherently moving.[7]
Medieval usage
At many medieval universities, this would have been the course leading to the degree of Master of Arts (after the BA). After the MA, the student could enter for bachelor’s degrees of the higher faculties (Theology, Medicine or Law). To this day, some of the postgraduate degree courses lead to the degree of Bachelor (the B.Phil and B.Litt. degrees are examples in the field of philosophy).
The study was eclectic, approaching the philosophical objectives sought by considering it from each aspect of the quadrivium within the general structure demonstrated by Proclus (AD 412–485), namely arithmetic and music on the one hand[8] and geometry and cosmology on the other.[9]
The subject of music within the quadrivium was originally the classical subject of harmonics, in particular the study of the proportions between the musical intervals created by the division of a monochord. A relationship to music as actually practised was not part of this study, but the framework of classical harmonics would substantially influence the content and structure of music theory as practised in both European and Islamic cultures.
Modern usage
In modern applications of the liberal arts as curriculum in colleges or universities, the quadrivium may be considered to be the study of number and its relationship to space or time: arithmetic was pure number, geometry was number in space, music was number in time, and astronomy was number in space and time. Morris Kline classified the four elements of the quadrivium as pure (arithmetic), stationary (geometry), moving (astronomy), and applied (music) number.[10]
“Today’s conflicts between the views that the humanities hold of science and engineering and the views science and engineering hold of the humanities weaken the very core of our culture. their cause is lack of integration in today’s education among subjects that hark back to the medieval trivium and quadrivium. a new trivium is needed to provide every educated person with a basic understanding of the endeavors and instruments that help us address our world and shape a new morality – the humanities, in the noblest sense of the word, to civilize, science to understand nature, and engineering, broadly defined, to encompass the kindred activities that modify nature. integration of these endeavors is urgent. it involves, in turn, an intimate interaction (the ‘biosoma’) of biological organisms, society, and machines – a new quadrivium. no domain can any longer be considered and learned in isolation.”
Etzkowitz, H., Ranga, M., & Dzisah, J.. (2012). Whither the university? The Novum Trivium and the transition from industrial to knowledge society. Social Science Information
“Beyond the bologna process key objective of achieving a common structure of the european tertiary educational format is the fundamental issue of the changing content of higher education. the highly specialized curricula of the industrial society no longer fully meet the needs of an emerging knowledge society that requires citizens with entrepreneurial and inter-cultural capabilities to innovate and respond to change in an increasingly inter-connected world. in this article we propose an innovative approach to undergraduate education called the novum trivium, comprised of (i) academic specialization, (ii) innovation and entrepreneurship, and (iii) a language and culture in addition to one’s own, as a new higher-education paradigm for the knowledge society. this vision of undergraduate education aims to contribute to the realization of the bologna process objective of better integrating education, research and innovation. the novum trivium brings together three diverse, yet complementary, educational skill sets, in a modern version of the tripos degree introduced by cambridge university in the 17th century as an honours degree in mathematics that eventually became a format that encompassed three closely related disciplines such as politics, philosophy and economics. the novum trivium is also inspired by the medieval trivium of grammar, rhetoric and dialectics (logic), the essential elements of education for all.”
The term habitus(/ˈhæbɪtəs/) refers to ingrained habits, skills, and psychological/behavioral dispositions. It is the way that individuals perceive the social world around them and react to it. These dispositions are usually shared by people with similar backgrounds (such as social class, religion, nationality, ethnicity, education, profession etc.). The habitus is acquired through imitation (mimesis) and is the reality that individuals are socialized, which includes their individual experience and opportunities. Thus, the habitus represents the way group culture and personal history shape the body and the mind, and as a result, shape present social actions of an individual.
Pierre Bourdieu suggested that the habitus consists of both the hexis (the tendency to hold and use one’s body in a certain way, such as posture and accent) and more abstract mental habits, schemes of perception, classification, appreciation, feeling, and action. These schemes are not mere habits: Bourdieu suggested they allow individuals to find new solutions to new situations without calculated deliberation, based on their gut feelings and intuitions, which Bourdieu believed were collective and socially shaped. These attitudes, mannerisms, tastes, moral intuitions and habits have influence on the individual’s life chances, so the habitus not only is structured by an individual’s objective past position in the social structure but also structures the individual’s future life path. Pierre Bourdieu argued that the reproduction of the social structure results from the habitus of individuals (Bourdieu, 1987).
References
Reay, D.. (2004). “It’s all becoming a habitus”: Beyond the habitual use of habitus in educational research. British Journal of Sociology of Education
“The concept of habitus lies at the heart of bourdieu’s theoretical framework. it is a complex concept that takes many shapes and forms in bourdieu’s own writing, even more so in the wider sociological work of other academics. in the ®rst part of this paper i develop an understanding of habitus, based on bourdieu’s many writings on the concept, that recognizes both its permeability and its ability to capture continuity and change. i also map its relationship to bourdieu’s other concepts, in particular ®eld and cultural capital. in the second part of the paper i examine attempts to operationalize habitus in empirical research in education. i critique the contemporary fashion of overlaying research analyses with bourdieu’s concepts, including habitus, rather than making the concepts work in the context of the data and the research settings. in the ®nal part of the paper i draw on a range of research examples that utilize habitus as a research tool to illustrate how habitus can be made to work in educational research.”
Lyons, A. P., Bourdieu, P., & Nice, R.. (1980). Outline of a Theory of Practice. ASA Review of Books
“Outline of a theory of practice is recognized as a major theoretical text on the foundations of anthropology and sociology. pierre bourdieu, a distinguished french anthropologist, develops a theory of practice which is simultaneously a critique of the methods and postures of social science and a general account of how human action should be understood. with his central concept of the habitus, the principle which negotiates between objective structures and practices, bourdieu is able to transcend the dichotomies which have shaped theoretical thinking about the social world. the author draws on his fieldwork in kabylia (algeria) to illustrate his theoretical propositions. with detailed study of matrimonial strategies and the role of rite and myth, he analyses the dialectical process of the ‘incorporation of structures’ and the objectification of habitus, whereby social formations tend to reproduce themselves. a rigorous consistent materialist approach lays the foundations for a theory of symbolic capital and, through analysis of the different modes of domination, a theory of symbolic power.”
Bourdieu, P.. (1969). Structures, Habitus, Practices. In The Logic of Practice
“This paper aims to balance the conceptual reception of bourdieu’s sociology in the united states through a conceptual re-examination of the concept of habitus. i retrace the intellectual lineage of the habitus idea, showing it to have roots in claude levi-strauss structural anthropology and in the developmental psychology of jean piaget, especially the latter’s generalization of the idea of operations from mathematics to the study of practical, bodily-mediated cognition. one important payoff of this exercise is that the common misinterpretation of the habitus as an objectivist and reductionist element in bourdieu’s thought is dispelled. the habitus is shown to be instead a useful and flexible way to conceptualize agency and the ability to transform social structure. thus ultimately one of bourdieu’s major contributions to social theory consists of his development of a new radical form of cognitive sociology, along with an innovative variety of multilevel sociological explanation in which the interplay of different structural orders is highlighted.”
Jason D. Edgerton, & Roberts, L. W.. (2014). Habitus. In Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research
“Definition the relationship (correlation) between separate scales or subscales. description the value between +1 and −1 that represents the correlation between two scales is the interscale correlation. in quality of life literature, interscale correlations are used frequently (aaronson et al., 1993; borghede & sullivan, 1996; fekkes et al., 2000; hearn & higginson, 1997). a researcher may choose to determine the interscale correlation in situations in which she/he has multiple scales and wants to investigate the relationship between the variables that those scales are measuring. depending on the nature of the research, a high or low interscale correlation could be sought after. in the case of a validity study, a researcher may want to examine how similar a newly created scale is to another scale that is deemed to be a ‘gold standard.’ finding that the researcher’s scale has a high correlation with the other scale would lend itself to evidence of”
Wacquant, L.. (2007). Esclarecer o Habitus. Educação & Linguagem
“Tomando como referência a obra do sociólogo pierre bourdieu, o presente artigo traz uma reconstituição da gênese da noção de habitus presente nos trabalhos do autor e, em uma perspectiva de síntese, procura documentar algumas de suas principais propriedades teóricas. traça, igualmente, um pequeno retrato dos principais horizontes de mobilização sociológica de que a noção tem sido alvo, destacando que a noção de habitus, para bourdieu, é um modo estenográfico de designar uma postura de investigação adequada à observação metódica da constituição social de agentes em quadros institucionais diversos.”
Crossley, N.. (2013). Habit and Habitus. Body and Society
“This article compares the concept of habitus, as formulated in the work of mauss and bourdieu, with the concept of habit, as formulated in the work of merleau-ponty and dewey. the rationale for this, on one level, is to seek to clarify these concepts and any distinction that there may be between them – though the article notes the wide variety of uses of both concepts and suggests that these negate the possibility of any definitive definitions or contrasts. more centrally, however, the purpose of the comparison is to draw out a number of important issues and debates which, it is argued, further work must address if the concepts of habit and habitus are to continue to prove useful and illuminating in social science.”
Silva, E. B.. (2016). Habitus: Beyond sociology. Sociological Review
“This paper presents a contribution of a set of interrelated innovative thinking to revitalize the sociological understanding of the notion of the habitus. it discusses contributions by sociologists exploring the sources of bourdieu’s inspiration from psychology and psychoanalysis to the development of the concept, and brings in new thinking inspired by authors and frameworks that branch out of sociology to bring into sociology fresher thinking. three areas of concern about habitus are focused on: firstly, the objectivism and subjectivism dichotomy; secondly, the plasticity or rigidity of the concept; and thirdly, the implications of intangibles attached to the notion. the paper introduces a special section including five articles on theoretical and empirical explorations bringing exciting perspectives to creative and critical sociology.”
Gaddis, S. M.. (2013). The influence of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement. Social Science Research
“This paper examines some of the issues surrounding student retention in higher education. it is based on the case study of a modern university in england that has good performance indicators of both widening participation (i.e. increasing the diversity of the student intake) and student retention. the two-fold nature of this success is significant, as it has been asserted that greater diversity will necessarily lead to an increase in student withdrawal. furthermore, changes to student funding in the uk put greater financial pressures and stress on students, especially those from low-income groups. nevertheless, many students cope with poverty, high levels of debt and significant burdens of paid work to successfully complete their courses of study. drawing on the work of r eay et al. (2001), this paper adopts and explores the terinstitutional habitus’, and attempts to provide a conceptual and empirical understand-ing of the ways in which the values and practices of a higher education institution impact on student retention.”
Mutch, A.. (2003). Communities of practice and habitus: A critique. Organization Studies
“Outline of a theory of practice is recognized as a major theoretical text on the foundations of anthropology and sociology. pierre bourdieu, a distinguished french anthropologist, develops a theory of practice which is simultaneously a critique of the methods and postures of social science and a general account of how human action should be understood. with his central concept of the habitus, the principle which negotiates between objective structures and practices, bourdieu is able to transcend the dichotomies which have shaped theoretical thinking about the social world. the author draws on his fieldwork in kabylia (algeria) to illustrate his theoretical propositions. with detailed study of matrimonial strategies and the role of rite and myth, he analyses the dialectical process of the ‘incorporation of structures’ and the objectification of habitus, whereby social formations tend to reproduce themselves. a rigorous consistent materialist approach lays the foundations for a theory of symbolic capital and, through analysis of the different modes of domination, a theory of symbolic power.”
Bourdieu, P.. (1986). Habitus, code et codification. Actes de La Recherche En Sciences Sociales
“S’il est de la vocation même de la sociologie de rappeler que, selon le mot de montesquieu, on ne transforme pas la société par décret, il reste que la conscience des conditions sociales de l’efficacité des actes juridiques ne doit pas conduire à ignorer ou à nier ce qui fait l’efficacité propre de la règle, du règlement et de la loi. la juste réaction contre le juridisme, qui conduit à restituer leur place, dans l’explication des pratiques, aux dispositions constitutives de l’habitus, n’implique nullement que l’on mette entre parenthèses l’effet propre de la règle explicitement énoncée, surtout lorsque, comme la règle juridique, elle est associée à des sanctions. et inversement, s’il n’est pas douteux que le droit exerce une efficacité spécifique, imputable notamment au travail de codification, de mise en forme et en formule, de neutralisation et de systématisation, que réalisent, selon les lois propres de leur univers, les professionnels du travail symbolique, il reste que cette efficacité, qui se définit par opposition à l’inapplication pure et simple ou à l’application fondée sur la contrainte pure, s’exerce dans la mesure et dans la mesure seulement où le droit est socialement reconnu, et rencontre un accord, même tacite et partiel, parce qu’il répond, au moins en apparence, à des besoins et des intérêts réels.”
Hanks, W. F.. (2005). PIERRE BOURDIEU AND THE PRACTICES OF LANGUAGE. Annual Review of Anthropology
“This paper synthesizes research on linguistic practice and critically examines the legacy of pierre bourdieu from the perspective of linguistic anthropology. bourdieu wrote widely about language and linguistics, but his most far reaching engagement with the topic is in his use of linguistic reasoning to elaborate broader sociological concepts including habitus, field, standardization, legitimacy, censorship, and symbolic power. the paper examines and relates habitus and field in detail, tracing the former to the work of erwin panofsky and the latter to structuralist discourse semantics. the principles of relative autonomy, boundedness, homology, and embedding apply to fields and their linkage to habitus. authority, censorship, and euphemism are traced to the field, and symbolic power is related to misrecognition. and last, this chapter relates recent work in linguistic anthropology to practice and indicates lines for future research.”
Bourdieu, P.. (2000). Making the Economic Habitus: Algerian Workers Revisited. Ethnography
“During the war of national liberation algeria offered a quasi-laboratory situation for analysing the mismatch between the economic dispositions fashioned in a precapitalist economy, embedded in relations of group honour, and the rationalized economic cosmos imposed by colonization. ethnographic observation of this mismatch revealed that, far from being axiomatic, the most elementary economic behaviours (working for a wage, saving, credit, birth control, etc.) have definite economic and social conditions of possibility which both economic theory and the `new economic sociology’ ignore. acquiring the spirit of calculation required by the modern economy entails a veritable conversion via the apostasy of the embodied beliefs that underpin exchange in traditional kabyle society. the `folk economics’ of a cook from algiers allows us to grasp the practical economic sense guiding the emerging algerian working class at the dawn of the country’s independence.”
King, A.. (2000). Thinking with Bourdieu against Bourdieu: A “practical” critique of the habitus. Sociological Theory
“There are two strands in bourdieu’s sociological writings. on the one hand, bourdieu argues for a theoretical position one might term his ‘practical theory’ which emphasizes virtuosic interactions between individuals. on the other hand, and most frequently, bourdieu appeals to the concept of the habitus according to which society consists of objective structures and determined-and isolated-individuals. although bourdieu believes that the habitus is compatible with his practical theory and overcomes the impasse of objectivism and subjectivism in social theory, neither claim is the case; the habitus is incompatible with his practical theory, and it retreats quickly into objectivism. however, bourdieu’s practical theory does offer a way out of the impasse of objectivism and subjectivism by focussing on the intersubjective interactions between individuals.”
Crossley, N.. (2001). The phenomenological habitus and its construction. Theory and Society
“This article focuses on the phenomenological habitus and its construction. the concepts ‘habit’ and ‘habitus,’ having almost disappeared from the sociological lexicon during the earlier part of the post-war period, are currently enjoying renewed interest in the social sciences. this is due, in large part, to the work of the sociologist pierre bourdieu. his work draws out the significance and relevance of the concept of habit for sociological purposes and in doing so makes a very appealing case for a habit or disposition based theory of agency. this is not intended as a phenomenological critique of bourdieu, a call to replace his conception of habit with a phenomenological one nor a call for a full scale ‘marriage’ of phenomenology with bourdieu’s sociology. bourdieu formulates his concept of the habitus in the context of a critical engagement with structuralism and ‘social physics,’ on the one hand, and ‘social phenomenology’ on the other. against social physics and structuralism, he argues for a notion of competent and active agency.”
Sewell, W. H.. (1992). A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation. American Journal of Sociology
“‘Structure’ is one of the most important, elusive, and undertheo- rized concepts in the social sciences. setting out from a critique and reformulation of anthony giddens’s notion of the duality of structure and pierre bourdieu’s notion of habitus, this article at- tempts to develop a theory of structure that restores human agency to social actors, builds the possibility of change into the concept of structure, and overcomes the divide between semiotic and material- ist visions of structure. ‘structure’”
Nash, R.. (1990). Bourdieu on Education and Social and Cultural Reproduction. British Journal of Sociology of Education
“Bourdieu’s work has attracted considerable interest and, not withstanding criticism of his style and obscure theoretical formulations, has introduced some powerful concepts into social theory. this paper examines bourdieu’s contribution to the sociology of education and especially his account of socially differentiated educational attainment. particular attention is given to issues of structure, agency and habitus, the cultural autonomy of the school, arbitrary and necessary school cultures, and the distinction between primary and secondary effects on educational differences. some specific criticisms, for example elster’s charge of a double account of domination, are also addressed. bourdieu’s concentration on habitus as the most significant generator of practice is held to be a theory of socialisation and the paper examines the nature of the explanation of social practice provided by such theories. the argument concludes with a plea for critical tolerance with respect to bourdieu’s work but with a suggestion that his account of socially differentiated educational attainment in terms of habitus is finally inadequate.”