#+FILETAGS: @personal
:PROPERTIES:
:ID: 1bb5c445-f1eb-4382-9957-249511e2e733
:CREATED: [2017-01-22 Sun 15:13]
:MODIFIED: [2017-01-22 Sun]
:IMPORTED: [2023-02-08 Wed 19:22]
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#+title: Fay quotes
#+filetags: academia UoN

Understanding the revolutionary temper of our times

p.2:

Understanding the revolutionary temper of our times requires understanding the notions of ideology, false consciousness, alienation, emancipation, autonomy, and a host of other ideas which are derived from critical theories and which have become the coin in which a good deal of political activity is conducted today'

Definition of critical social science

p. 4

'In the broadest term, critical social science is an attempt to understand in a rationally responsible manner the oppressive features of society such as this understanding stimulates its audience to transform their society and thereby liberate themselves.'

Human variant of the self-estrangement theory

p. 17

'In the modern period, however, a secularized version of the self-estrangement theory has come to assume great importance. Indeed, perhaps one of the distinguished features of the modern period is that this occurred. This secularized version I call the humanist variant of the self-estrangement theory.'

Purpose of the humanist variant

p. 21

'In the paradigmatic non-humanist versions of the self-estrangement theory the object of life is the contemplation of what is. In contrast, according to its distinctly humanist forms the object of life is the making of what is not.'

This is What Ought to Be, according to Hugh Renbricks

Vision of the humanist variant

p. 19

'The humanist variant envisions a theory which is capable of interpreting in a cognitively respectable manner the social world in which we live in such a way that this world's oppressiveness is apparent, and in such a way that it empowers its listeners to change their lives.'

Idealism and non idealism

p. 24

"'Idealism' is a complex and even ambiguous concept. In the context of critical science, it consists of three specific claims: first, that it is people's ideas (or more accurately, their having these ideas) which solely cause social behavior; second, that in order for people to alleviate their dissatisfaction, all they have to do is to change their ideas about who they are and what they are doing; and third, that people are willing to listen to rational analyses of their lives and to act on these analyses. For clarity's sake, I shall call the first, essentially sociological claim, idealism I; the second, essentially therapeutic claim, idealism II; and the third, essentially psychological claim, idealism III."

p. 25

'Modern critical social science tries to steer a middle course between the idealism of some of its versions - which claim that ideas are determinants of social structure but not vice versa, and that humans are essentially rational creatures - and the epiphenomenalism of traditional sociological materialism - which asserts that social structure determines ideas but not vice versa, and that changing people's self-undestanding through education is either irrelevant or impossible or both. Modern critical social science seeks to synthesize these positions by claiming that ideas are a function of social conditions, but also that they do in turn play a causal role in creating and sustaining particular social structures; and by claiming that humans are amenable to educative enlightenment and emancipation, but only under certain and in certain ways. In other words, it pictures the relationship between conditions and ideas not an unilinear but as dialectical.'

Purpose of the critical social science

p. 23

'In other words, the humanist variant seeks a theory which will simultaneously explain the social world, critisize it, and empower its audience to overthrow it.'

or as Fay describes it in the following sentence, 'scientific, critical and practical.'.

26

"By 'critical social science' I mean an endeavor to explain social life in general or some particular instance of it in a way that is scientific, critical, practical and non-idealistic. By 'scientific' I mean the provision of comprehensive explanations in terms of a few basic principles which are subject to public evidence. By 'critical' I mean the offering of a sustained negative evaluation of the social order on the basis of explicit and rationally supported criteria. By 'practical' I mean the stimulation of some members of society identified by the theory to transform their social existence in specified ways through fostering in them a new self-knowldge to serve as the basis for such a transformation. And by 'non-ideaistic' I mean a theory which is not committed to the claims either than ideas are the sole determinant of behavior (idealism I), or that emancipation simply involves a certain sort of enlightenment (idealism II), or that people are able and willing to change their self-understandings simply on the basis of rational argument (idealism III)."

It will also include: a model or social theory, a metaphysics of human agency, a theory of value, an account of social change through education, and an idea of politics.

False consciouness

p 40

Some of these are: how is the falsity of false consciousness to be construed, and on what basis can a judgement of this sort be rationally made?

Trust the crisis

p 29-30

'Anthropologists have described certain sorts of societies in which there is deep conflict built right into the very structure of these societies, but in such a way that at critical moments when it threatens to blow the society apart there are mechanisms to moderate the tension and so preserve the social order as a whole.' Such societies are indeed quite stable, even though marked by high levels of discontent. Such situations are not fertile ground for a critical social science; what is needed is a situation in which some sort of choice is forced on people because they are no longer able to function as they have done in the past. In a crisis situation, people cannot resist change and continue with the 'old ways'. It is likely that only when this sort of situation occurs can a critical theory gain a foothold, because only in this kind of choice-demanding situation will its potential audience be primed for it.'

'Thus, I think it ought to be clear why I chose the scenario I did to introduce the notion of critical social science. For a social theory to be critical and practical as well as scientifically explanatory, the conditions described in it must be met. Specifically, these are: first, that there be a crisis in a social system; second, that this crisis be at least in part caused by the false consciousness of those experiencing it; third, that this false consciousness be amenable to the process of enlightenment I described; and fourth, that such enlightenment lead to emancipation in which a group, empowered by its new-found self-understanding, radically alters its social arrangements and thereby alleviates its suffering. It is only when this set of conditions occurs that a social science can be truly critical.'
