Seems you have not registered as a member of localhost.saystem.shop!
You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Reconstructing Sociology
A general critique of sociology, particularly sociology in the United States, from a critical realist perspective.
Landscapes of the Soul
Do you believe in God? Nine out of ten Americans unhesitatingly answer yes. But for Douglas Porpora, the real questions begin where pollsters leave off. What, he asks, does religious belief actually mean in our lives? Does it shape our identities and our actions? Or, despite our professions of faith, are we morally adrift? Landscapes of the Soul paints a disturbing picture of American spiritual life. In his search for answers to his questions, Porpora interviewed clerks and executives, Jews, evangelical Christians, Buddhists, Taoists, and even followers of Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh. He asked them about God, and about what they saw as their own place in the universe. What he found was a widespread...
How Holocausts Happen
"History repeats itself, but it never repeats itself exactly," observes Douglas Porpora in this powerful indictment of U.S. intervention in Central America. Comparing the general public’s reaction to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany with American public opinion of U.S. participation in the genocidal policies of Nicaraguan counter-revolutionary forces, and the governments of Guatemala and El Salvador among others, Porpora demonstrates that moral indifference to the suffering of others was the common response. With reference to Hannah Arendt’s thesis of the banality of evil, he develops the concept of a "Holocaust-like event" and examines how even a democratic society can be capable of someth...
Families and Faith
Winner of the Distinguished Book Award from American Sociology Association Sociology of Religion Section Winner of the Richard Kalish Best Publication Award from the Gerontological Society of America Few things are more likely to cause heartache to devout parents than seeing their child leave the faith. And it seems, from media portrayals, that this is happening more and more frequently. But is religious change between generations common? How does religion get passed down from one generation to the next? How do some families succeed in passing on their faith while others do not? Families and Faith: How Religion is Passed Down across Generations seeks to answer these questions and many more. ...
Agency and Action
One of the most exciting developments in philosophy in the last fifty years is the resurgence in the philosophy of action. The concept of action now occupies a central place in ethics, metaphysics and jurisprudence. This collection of original essays, by some of the most astute and influential philosophers working in this area, covers the entire range of the philosophy of action. Topics covered include the nature of actions themselves; how the concepts of act, agent, cause and event are related to each other; self-knowledge, emotion, autonomy and freedom in human life; and the place of the concept of action in criminal law. The volume concludes with a major essay by one of America's leading authorities in the philosophy of law on 'the 3.5 billion dollar question': was the destruction of the World Trade Center one event or two?
The Relational Subject
Argues that relations are real and generate real relational 'goods' and 'evils', affecting those involved and other people.
After Postmodernism
What comes after 'postmodernism'? A buzzword which began as an energising, radical critique became, by the 20th Century's end, a byword for fracture, eclecticism, political apathy and intellectual exhaustion. The last few years have seen a growing interest in critical realism as a possible, alternative way of moving forward. The virtues of critical realism lie in its successful provision of a philosophical grounding for the social sciences and humanities and of a methodology applicable to many different fields of analysis. After Postmodernism brings together some of the best-known names in the field to present the first truly interdisciplinary introduction to critical realism. The book prese...
Philosophical Papers : Volume I
The first volume of this series presents fifteen selected papers dealing with a variety of topics in ontology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.
Structure, Culture, and History
Preface p. vii Part I. Structural Analysis: Past, Present, and Future 1. History of Social Structural Analysis Charles Crothers p. 3 2. Social Structure: The Future of a Concept Douglas V. Porpora p. 43 Part II. Culture and Social Structure 3. How Are Structures Meaningful? Cultural Sociology and Theories of Structure Lyn Spillman p. 63 4. Agency, Structure, and Deritualization: A Comparative Investigation of Extreme Disruptions of Social Order J. David Knottnerus p. 85 5. Global Power, Hegemonic Decline, and Culture Narratives Albert J. Bergesen p. 107 6. Situating Hybridity: The Positional Logics of a Discourse Jonathan Friedman p. 125 Part III. History and Social Structure 7. A Structural...
Conversations About Reflexivity
In this, the first book to focus on ‘Reflexivity’, the following is discussed in detail: 1) Where does the ability to be ‘reflexive’ comes from? 2) What part do our internal reflexive deliberations play in designing the courses of action we take? 3) Is ‘reflexivity’ a homogeneous practice for all people and invariant over history? Throughout, contributors refer to influential thinkers like Habermas, Giddens, Bourdieu and Beck.
