Armageddon Or Evolution?: The Scientific Method and Escalating World ProblemsFor the first time in history we humans are experiencing a wide range of increasing problems that threaten us with extinction, if not today or tomorrow then the day after tomorrow. Yet we have the capacity—with the aid of a broad approach to the scientific method that builds on Mills’s concept of “the sociological imagination”—to confront those problems ever more effectively. Armageddon or Evolution? carries forward the broad scientific approach that Phillips developed in four previous books: Beyond Sociology’s Tower of Babel (2001), Toward a Sociological Imagination (2002, edited), The Invisible Crisis of Contemporary Society (2007, with Louis Johnston), and Understanding Terrorism (2007, edited). Excerpts from these books can be found on www.sociological-imagination.org. Everyone—academics and nonacademics alike—can learn to use that scientific method in everyday life, following the “East-West” and “deep dialogue” strategies Phillips describes. These are procedures for achieving nothing less than conscious evolution. They require us to uncover our fundamental assumptions along with their contradictions and move toward alternative assumptions that promise to resolve those contradictions. And they also require us to open up to the full range of knowledge—from the social sciences, philosophy, literature and beyond—invoked by Mills and illustrated in this book. |
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Contents
Preface | 1 |
Physical and Biological Structures | 23 |
Personality Structures | 57 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
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Armageddon Or Evolution?: The Scientific Method and Escalating World Problems Bernard Phillips No preview available - 2010 |
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achieve addiction anomie aspirations aspirations-fulfillment gap awareness become beliefs broad approach bureaucratic or stratified bureaucratic worldview chapter complexity concepts confront contemporary society continue contrast Crisis of Contemporary cultural values develop dukkha efforts emotions emphasize escalating everyday evolution evolutionary worldview example experiences extraordinary language Flatland focus further given heart human behavior ideas illustrated importance individual individual's institutions interaction Invisible Crisis Jack Bauer knowledge limited linked lives meaningful and expressive metaphysical stance Mills's modern momentary situation move narrow nature Newspeak orientation ourselves patterns of social personal and social personality structures phenomena philosophy potential praxis reflexive result rituals scientific ideals scientific method self-image social problems social science social scientists social stratification social structures Sociological Imagination sociologists sociology solve problems Spaceland stratified or bureaucratic stratified worldview suggests throughout society Timeland tion Tower of Babel understanding United 93 versus world problems worldview or metaphysical Wright Mills yield