Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

UID:

Format: 1 online resource

ISBN: 9780812201185

Content: This book explores the distinction between selflessness and self-interestedness, between acting for one's own advantage and acting, even when disadvantageous, for reasons of duty or conscience. This apparently straightforward contrast (exemplified in the difference between rational-choice models in economics and holistic models in social anthropology) is a source of confusion. This is so, F. G. Bailey argues, because people polarize and essentialize both actors and actions and uphold one or the other side of the contrast as concrete reality, as the truth about how the social world works. The task of The Saving Lie is to show that both versions are convenient fictions, with instrumental rather than ontological significance: they are not about truth but about power. At best they are tools that enable us to make sense of our experience; at the same time they are weapons we deploy to define situations and thus exercise control.Bailey says that both models fail the test of empiricism: they can be at once immensely elegant and quite remote from anyone's experience in the real world. And since both models are "saving lies," we should accept them as necessities, but only to the extent they are useful, and we should constantly remind ourselves of their limitations. The wrong course, according to Bailey, is to promote one model to the total exclusion of the other. Instead, we should take care to examine systematically the rhetoric used to promote these models not only in intellectual discourse but also in defining situations in everyday life.The book strongly and directly advocates a point of view that combines skepticism with a determination to anchor abstract argument in evidence. It is argumentative; it invites confrontation; yet it leaves many doors open for further thought.

Note: Frontmatter -- , Contents -- , Preface -- , Introduction: Ideas, Reality, and Saving Lies -- , Part I. Expediency -- , Introduction -- , Chapter 1. A Very Beautiful Theory -- , Chapter 2. The Coase Recension and Its Lineage -- , Chapter 3. Gains from Trade -- , Part II. Morality -- , Introduction -- , Chapter 4. Natural Systems and Moral Systems -- , Chapter 5. Imaginative Constructs and Social Reality -- , Chapter 6. A Piece of the Action -- , Part III. Agency and Rhetoric -- , Introduction -- , Chapter 7. Affirming Structure: The Amen Category -- , Chapter 8. Contested Structures -- , Conclusion: General Theses and Particular Cases -- , References -- , Index -- , Acknowledgments , In English.

Language: English

DOI: 10.9783/9780812201185

URL: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812201185

URL: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812201185

UID:

Format: 1 Online-Ressource (xv, 213 pages)

Edition: Online-Ausg.

ISBN: 0812237307 , 0812201183 , 9780812237306 , 9780812201185

Content: "This book explores the distinction between selflessness and self-interestedness, between acting for one's own advantage and acting, even when disadvantageous, for reasons of duty or conscience. This apparently straightforward contrast (exemplified in the difference between rational-choice models in economics and holistic models in social anthropology) is a source of confusion. This is so, F.G. Bailey argues, because people polarize and essentialize both actors and actions and uphold one or the other side of the contrast as concrete reality, as the truth about how the social world works. The task of The Saving Lie is to show that both versions are convenient fictions, with instrumental rather than ontological significance: they are not about truth but about power. At best they are tools that enable us to make sense of our experience; at the same time they are weapons we deploy to define situations and thus exercise control. Bailey says that both models fail the test of empiricism: they can be at once immensely elegant and quite remote from anyone's experience in the real world. And since both models are 'saving lies, ' we should accept them as necessities, but only to the extent they are useful, and we should constantly remind ourselves of their limitations. The wrong course, according to Bailey, is to promote one model to the total exclusion of the other. Instead, we should take care to examine systematically the rhetoric used to promote these models not only in intellectual discourse but also in defining situations in everyday life. The book strongly and directly advocates a point of view that combines skepticism with a determination to anchor abstract argument in evidence. It is argumentative; it invites confrontation; yet it leaves many doors open for further thought."--Publisher description

Content: Introduction: Ideas, Reality, and Saving Lies -- pt. I. Expediency -- 1. A Very Beautiful Theory -- 2. The Coase Recension and Its Lineage -- 3. Gains from Trade -- pt. II. Morality -- 4. Natural Systems and Moral Systems -- 5. Imaginative Constructs and Social Reality -- 6. A Piece of the Action -- pt. III. Agency and Rhetoric -- 7. Affirming Structure: The Amen Category -- 8. Contested Structures -- Conclusion: General Theses and Particular Cases

Note: Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-206) and index

Additional Edition: ISBN 0812237307

Additional Edition: Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe Bailey, F.G. (Frederick George) Saving lie Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, ©2003

Language: English

URL: Volltext

URL: Volltext  (lizenzpflichtig)

UID:

Format: xv, 213 p.

Edition: Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.

Language: English

Keywords: Electronic books.

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