Society, Politics and Philosophy
Academic Philosophy
Bertrand Russell made a very apt observation when he stated that:
“Morally, a philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything other than a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of treason.”
An academic article that you won’t find in our academic philosophy section of the Society, Politics and Philosophy category was written by Steven Yates and titled ‘Academic Philosophy Today: Thanks, But No Thanks’. Steven Yates has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and published a scathing treatise in which he describes his disgust at what he saw degenerate in academic philosophy. As it happens, I agree with him. A book of his that you will find there is ‘Civil Wrongs: What Went Wrong with Affirmative Action’. Basically, Steven Yates writes exactly what other people think, and he does it pretty scathingly!
When we think of civil rights, one of the first things that comes to mind is racial discrimination, followed by racial integration and even racial equality. However, people being people don’t always think along the ‘party line’: people see rising crime levels, high murder rates in certain neighborhoods, and employers whose hands have been tied to some degree, can’t they no longer discriminate in the labor market. Steven Yates writes about community autonomy, about certain standards within society that have, in effect, created an ‘underdog’, which was never the Government’s intention.
Steven Yates, in line with the concepts of Ludwig von Mises, recognizes how politically worthy the underdog is, where the victim, as a result of government intervention. [interference?] emerges victorious over education and other more attractive attributes. Steven Yates’ book is about modern life and how injustice reigns, including forced discrimination, filtered from the central government, of the white middle class male. Employers are now being sidelined to hire black workers instead of being given complete freedom to choose the best one for the job rather than face the possibility of a potential lawsuit. Steven Yates defends freedom and the right to choose, and has little respect for current concepts in academic philosophy.
Academic Sociology
Academic sociology seems to have split into various factions, each eager to make their own positions felt and to recognize them as the only true direction in which academic sociology should go. One of these factions has been led by feminist lobbyists such as Caroline Bartlett Crane and Jane Addams. Is this a valid goal for academic sociology? Not all women are rabid feminists, and many women watch the antics of the feminist lobby with nothing short of derision in some quarters! Sociology must be about social justice and social reform per se, rather than focusing solely on a single aspect of the social argument.
When sociology first developed as a discipline, there was a rapid growth in industrialization. As a result, urbanization was developing and, to keep pace with demand, immigration was encouraged, and, as historical events unfolded, was essential. None of this needed to isolate the feminist cause as the sole thrust of sociology: it was just one view among many. Academic sociology was considered a progressive subject to study the rapidly evolving state of society in the 20th century and more recently in the 21st century.
I’m certainly not referring to the feminist cause here just to sound irrelevant: you’ll find one of Linda Rynbrandt’s books among our pages of Academic Sociology, with Caroline Bartlett Crane. The book is titled ‘Caroline Bartlett Crane and Progressive Reform’, published by Routledge. To illustrate what I mean about linking the feminist cause with academic sociology, this book has been subtitled ‘Social Housekeeping as Sociology’.
psychology textbooks
Psychology is about individuals and how their behavior impacts the people around them. It involves how they think and how they act and the reasons why they think and act the way they do. You’ll find a range of interesting and diverse psychology textbooks within our Society, Politics and Philosophy category, such as the book on relationships and body language by Leil Lowndes: ‘How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success’ in relationships’. An entirely different type of psychology textbook written by Richard Gross is ‘Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior’. This book covers everything from substance abuse to health psychology, and has been described as the “pioneer in the psychology textbook revolution.”
true accounts
This section on true stories simply wouldn’t be complete without discussing the book on the life of Harry Patch, who recently passed away at the grand old age of 111. Harry really embodied the spirit of his generation as explained in the book he wrote before he died: ‘The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, the Only Surviving Veteran of the Trenches’. The Times describes the book as a “deeply moving tribute to the courage and suffering of all who took part and those who fell”. A generation later and another World War: ‘The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition’ was written explaining what life was like in a small Dutch town for a young Jewish girl and her family, who were hiding in fear for the lives of she.
More recent times bring more recent accounts of true stories: everyone has a story they could tell, and many have told the true stories of how their lives have unfolded. You’ll find many more sections within our Society, Politics, and Philosophy category, from sections on War and Defense to Women’s Studies, Social Science, and Audiobooks. They’re all there for you to explore, so happy browsing!