Meaning and Method

Meaning and Method
Author: Isaac Reed
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2015-11-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317256239

Culture is increasingly important to American social science, but in what way? This book addresses the core issues of the sociology of culture-questions about the social role of meaning, along with those about the methods sociologists use to study culture and society-in a manner that makes clear their relevance to sociology as a whole. Part I consists of essays by leading cultural sociologists on how the turn to culture has changed the sociological study of organizations, economic action, and television, and concludes with Georgina Born's methodological statement on the sociology of art and cultural production. Part II contains a highly original, and at times heated, debate between Richard Biernacki and John H. Evans on the appropriateness of abstract and quantifiable coding schemes for the sociological study of culture. Ranging from the philosophy of science to the concrete, practical problems of interpreting masses of cultural data, the debate raises the controversy over the interpretation of culture and the explanation of social action to a new level of sophistication.

The Good Life Method

The Good Life Method
Author: Meghan Sullivan
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2022-01-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1984880314

Two Philosophers Ask and Answer the Big Questions About the Search for Faith and Happiness For seekers of all stripes, philosophy is timeless self-care. Notre Dame philosophy professors Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko have reinvigorated this tradition in their wildly popular and influential undergraduate course “God and the Good Life,” in which they wrestle with the big questions about how to live and what makes life meaningful. Now they invite us into the classroom to work through issues like what justifies our beliefs, whether we should practice a religion and what sacrifices we should make for others—as well as to investigate what figures such as Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Iris Murdoch, and W. E. B. Du Bois have to say about how to live well. Sullivan and Blaschko do the timeless work of philosophy using real-world case studies that explore love, finance, truth, and more. In so doing, they push us to escape our own caves, ask stronger questions, explain our deepest goals, and wrestle with suffering, the nature of death, and the existence of God. Philosophers know that our “good life plan” is one that we as individuals need to be constantly and actively writing to achieve some meaningful control and sense of purpose even if the world keeps throwing surprises our way. For at least the past 2,500 years, philosophers have taught that goal-seeking is an essential part of what it is to be human—and crucially that we could find our own good life by asking better questions of ourselves and of one another. This virtue ethics approach resonates profoundly in our own moment. The Good Life Method is a winning guide to tackling the big questions of being human with the wisdom of the ages.

Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys

Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys
Author: Howard Schuman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2008
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780674028272

Howard Schuman is one of the premier scholars of social surveys. His expertise concerns the way questions about attitudes and beliefs are worded and the effects questions have on the answers people give. However, Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys is less about the substance of wording effects and more about approaches to interpreting the respondentâe(tm)s world, and how surveys can make that world understandableâe"though often in ways not anticipated by the researcher. Schuman examines the question-answer process that is basic to polls and surveys, as it is in so much of life. His concern is with the nature of questioning itself, with issues of validity and bias, and with the scope and limitations of meaning sought through polls and surveys. Writing with both wisdom and humor, Schuman considers the issues both at a theoretical level, bringing in ideas from other social sciences, and empirically with substantive research of his own and others. The book will be of interest to social scientists, to survey researchers in academia and business, and to all those concerned with the pervasive influence of polls in society.

Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences

Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences
Author: Paul A. Roth
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1501746219

Paul A Roth's book examines an important controversy in the philosophy of the social sciences that has developed since the demise of logical positivism and its conception of rationality. Roth contends that this controversy—a dispute over the canons of rationality—is the product of the mistaken belief in methodological exclusivism. Drawing on work in contemporary epistemology by W. V. O. Quine, Richard Rorty, and Paul Feyerabend, he argues that no single theory of human behavior has methodological priority; indeed, the existence of a plethora of theories for the study of human behavior, he believes, is an inevitable consequence of our epistemic situation.

Iconography Beyond the Crossroads

Iconography Beyond the Crossroads
Author: Pamela A. Patton
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2023-03-23
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0271093013

This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume’s case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.

Layers of Meaning

Layers of Meaning
Author: Rakefet Hadar
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2021-08-15
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 081177015X

Express yourself in a visual journal! With the ideas in this book, you will learn to create mixed media pages that express your soul and create a path to healing, internal freedom, and the sparking of passion. “Visual Journey Journaling” is an innovative artistic method taught by Rakefet Hadar and made up of seven elements: Intention, Magical Coincidence, Background, Images, Lines, Color, and Text. Visual Journey Journaling invites you to a fascinating world where you connect with your hidden inner artist to create "soul pages" using simple techniques and subtle guidelines to take a look inside yourself. Rakefet has taught these methods for many years, guiding even inexperienced artists to find and express the stories within themselves. In the first chapter of the book you will learn how to master the seven elements in your journal. There are many fun exercises and a step-by-step tutorial of how to start a simple journal. Next you will learn how to make a soul page with the seven elements. You will explore a variety of materials and how to work with them to find and create your pages. You will learn to build your journal and how to bind it into a finished book. Throughout the book and in the final section, you'll see and find the meanings in Rakefet's stunning private art journal pages and read her stories behind them.

Visualizing Social Science Research

Visualizing Social Science Research
Author: Johannes Wheeldon
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2011-07-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 145223955X

This introductory text presents basic principles of social science research through maps, graphs, and diagrams. The authors show how concept maps and mind maps can be used in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research, using student-friendly examples and classroom-based activities. Integrating theory and practice, chapters show how to use these tools to plan research projects, "see" analysis strategies, and assist in the development and writing of research reports.

Conceptions of Meaning

Conceptions of Meaning
Author: Shulamith Kreitler
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Meaning (Psychology)
ISBN: 9781633212411

The book "Conceptions of Meaning" was edited by Shulamith Kreitler and Tomá Urbánek, two psychologists who are known for their contributions to the study of meaning in psychology. The purpose of the book is to introduce Meaning back into psychology. Indeed, it has always been there, but it has not been developed and applied sufficiently to become prominent in the mainstream of science. The editors believe that the potentials of Meaning are too great and too important to be overlooked. The book includes 12 chapters by prominent researchers and thinkers who present different aspects and manifestations of meaning. In this book, the reader will find new conceptions of meaning, new methodologies, a variety of methods for its assessment, and innovative applications in familiar and new domains. There are four parts in this book.