Nineteen Eighty-Four: Science Between Utopia and Dystopia PDF Download
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Author: E. Mendelsohn
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400963408
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
Just fifty years ago Julian Huxley, the biologist grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, published a book which easily could be seen to represent the prevail ing outlook among young scientists of the day: If I were a Dictator (1934). The outlook is optimistic, the tone playfully rational, the intent clear - allow science a free hand and through rational planning it could bring order out of the surrounding social chaos. He complained, however: At the moment, science is for most part either an intellectual luxury or the paid servant of capitalist industry or the nationalist state. When it and its results cannot be fitted into the existing framework, it and they are ignored; and furthermore the structure of scientific research is grossly lopsided, with over-emphasis on some kinds of science and partial or entire neglect of others. (pp. 83-84) All this the scientist dictator would set right. A new era of scientific human ism would provide alternative visions to the traditional religions with their Gods and the civic religions such as Nazism and fascism. Science in Huxley's version carries in it the twin impulses of the utopian imagination - Power and Order. Of course, it was exactly this vision of science which led that other grand son of Thomas Henry Huxley, the writer Aldous Huxley, to portray scientific discovery as potentially subversive and scientific practice as ultimately en slaving.
Author: E. Mendelsohn
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400963408
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308
Get Book Here
Book Description
Just fifty years ago Julian Huxley, the biologist grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, published a book which easily could be seen to represent the prevail ing outlook among young scientists of the day: If I were a Dictator (1934). The outlook is optimistic, the tone playfully rational, the intent clear - allow science a free hand and through rational planning it could bring order out of the surrounding social chaos. He complained, however: At the moment, science is for most part either an intellectual luxury or the paid servant of capitalist industry or the nationalist state. When it and its results cannot be fitted into the existing framework, it and they are ignored; and furthermore the structure of scientific research is grossly lopsided, with over-emphasis on some kinds of science and partial or entire neglect of others. (pp. 83-84) All this the scientist dictator would set right. A new era of scientific human ism would provide alternative visions to the traditional religions with their Gods and the civic religions such as Nazism and fascism. Science in Huxley's version carries in it the twin impulses of the utopian imagination - Power and Order. Of course, it was exactly this vision of science which led that other grand son of Thomas Henry Huxley, the writer Aldous Huxley, to portray scientific discovery as potentially subversive and scientific practice as ultimately en slaving.
Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191088617
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 569
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Book Description
Dystopia: A Natural History is the first monograph devoted to the concept of dystopia. Taking the term to encompass both a literary tradition of satirical works, mostly on totalitarianism, as well as real despotisms and societies in a state of disastrous collapse, this volume redefines the central concepts and the chronology of the genre and offers a paradigm-shifting understanding of the subject. Part One assesses the theory and prehistory of 'dystopia'. By contrast to utopia, conceived as promoting an ideal of friendship defined as 'enhanced sociability', dystopia is defined by estrangement, fear, and the proliferation of 'enemy' categories. A 'natural history' of dystopia thus concentrates upon the centrality of the passion or emotion of fear and hatred in modern despotisms. The work of Le Bon, Freud, and others is used to show how dystopian groups use such emotions. Utopia and dystopia are portrayed not as opposites, but as extremes on a spectrum of sociability, defined by a heightened form of group identity. The prehistory of the process whereby 'enemies' are demonised is explored from early conceptions of monstrosity through Christian conceptions of the devil and witchcraft, and the persecution of heresy. Part Two surveys the major dystopian moments in twentieth century despotisms, focussing in particular upon Nazi Germany, Stalinism, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and Cambodia under Pol Pot. The concentration here is upon the political religion hypothesis as a key explanation for the chief excesses of communism in particular. Part Three examines literary dystopias. It commences well before the usual starting-point in the secondary literature, in anti-Jacobin writings of the 1790s. Two chapters address the main twentieth-century texts usually studied as representative of the genre, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. The remainder of the section examines the evolution of the genre in the second half of the twentieth century down to the present.
Author: Katharine Burdekin
Publisher: Feminist Press at CUNY
ISBN: 9780935312560
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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Book Description
In a "feudal Europe seven centuries into post-Hitlerian society, Burdekin's novel explores the connection between gender and political power and anticipates modern feminist science fiction."--Cover.
Author: Anthony Elliott
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134130457
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286
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Book Description
This text covers Bauman’s contribution to sociology and social theory. This ideal teaching text analyzes Bauman's shift from a sociology of postmodernity to liquid modernity, and provides a critical assessment of the contemporary Bauman, appraising his novel theory of liquid modernity in terms of its implications for self-identity, interpersonal relationships, culture, communications, and the broad-ranging institutional transformations associated with globalization. In addition to various extracts from Bauman's work, the book also contains a spirited reply from Zygmunt Bauman to both his sympathetic and unsympathetic critics. Bauman concludes by providing a new perspectives on his theory of liquid modernity, its differentiation from the modernity/postmodernity debate and its relation to current developments in contemporary social theory.
Author: Saroja Ganapathy
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527522504
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
This volume of critical essays explores various facets of the social sciences and humanities from an interdisciplinary perspective. The essays gathered here have been culled from different aspects of humanities research in order to widen the scope of research possibilities. The dialogic mode in which the essays are arranged lends a unique texture to the book. This volume will be of interest to researchers, academics and even the casual reader with an interest in the humanities. The rich array of topics covered here gives an inkling of the range of Professor Milind Malshe’s research interests and his academic associations in his career as a scholar and mentor. The different sections in this volume engage in a performance of sorts, allowing a free play of many voices—identified as the core to teaching and research in the humanities.
Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139828428
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Since the publication of Thomas More's genre-defining work Utopia in 1516, the field of utopian literature has evolved into an ever-expanding domain. This Companion presents an extensive historical survey of the development of utopianism, from the publication of Utopia to today's dark and despairing tendency towards dystopian pessimism, epitomised by works such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Chapters address the difficult definition of the concept of utopia, and consider its relation to science fiction and other literary genres. The volume takes an innovative approach to the major themes predominating within the utopian and dystopian literary tradition, including feminism, romance and ecology, and explores in detail the vexed question of the purportedly 'western' nature of the concept of utopia. The reader is provided with a balanced overview of the evolution and current state of a long-standing, rich tradition of historical, political and literary scholarship.
Author: Michael D. Gordin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400834953
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302
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Book Description
The concepts of utopia and dystopia have received much historical attention. Utopias have traditionally signified the ideal future: large-scale social, political, ethical, and religious spaces that have yet to be realized. Utopia/Dystopia offers a fresh approach to these ideas. Rather than locate utopias in grandiose programs of future totality, the book treats these concepts as historically grounded categories and examines how individuals and groups throughout time have interpreted utopian visions in their daily present, with an eye toward the future. From colonial and postcolonial Africa to pre-Marxist and Stalinist Eastern Europe, from the social life of fossil fuels to dreams of nuclear power, and from everyday politics in contemporary India to imagined architectures of postwar Britain, this interdisciplinary collection provides new understandings of the utopian/dystopian experience. The essays look at such issues as imaginary utopian perspectives leading to the 1856-57 Xhosa Cattle Killing in South Africa, the functioning racist utopia behind the Rhodesian independence movement, the utopia of the peaceful atom and its global dissemination in the mid-1950s, the possibilities for an everyday utopia in modern cities, and how the Stalinist purges of the 1930s served as an extension of the utopian/dystopian relationship. The contributors are Dipesh Chakrabarty, Igal Halfin, Fredric Jameson, John Krige, Timothy Mitchell, Aditya Nigam, David Pinder, Marci Shore, Jennifer Wenzel, and Luise White.
Author: Harry Redner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100030101X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 349
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Book Description
In this path-breaking and controversial book, Harry Redner provides a systematic study of how the epistemologically interesting features of contemporary science are to be understood. Taking “science†to include knowledge from the social sciences and humanities as well as the physical sciences, Redner shows how the history of science, philosophical theory, and current scientific research reveal connections between scientific developments and features of the social organization of science. Redner argues that the shift from Classical science to a more complex and less orderly World science after World War II has changed the way scientific research is done and how its knowledge is organized. His aim, however, “is not merely to interpret science, but to change it.†Thus, this examination is more than a survey and critique—it is a positive program for the development of future science. Remarkable for its breadth and insight, the book is especially valuable for its discussions of authority and social organization (with the accompanying themes of academic politics, competition, power, and corruption) and for its catalog of the various contemporary critiques of science. Some of these are European in origin and will be new to many U.S. readers. A tour de force on several levels, this book is essential reading for scientists, philosophers, sociologists of science, historians of ideas, critics of contemporary culture and, indeed, for anyone who takes a serious interest in scientific research and higher learning.
Author: Keith Tester
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317002970
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267
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Book Description
In the light of globalization's failure provide the universal panacea expected by some of its more enthusiastic proponents, and the current status of neo-liberalism in Europe, a search has begun for alternative visions of the future; alternatives to the free market and to rampant capitalism. Indeed, although these alternatives may not be conceived of in terms of being a 'perfect order', there does appear to be a trend towards 'utopian thinking', as people - including scholars and intellectuals - search for inspiration and visions of better futures. If, as this search continues, it transpires that politics has little to offer, then what might social theory have to contribute to the imagination of these futures? Does social theory matter at all? What resources can it offer this project of rethinking the future? Without being tied to any single political platform, Utopia: Social Theory and the Future explores some of these questions, offering a timely and sustained attempt to make social theory relevant through explorations of its resources and possibilities for utopian imaginations. It is often claimed that utopian thought has no legitimate place whatsoever in sociological thinking, yet utopianism has remained part and parcel of social theory for centuries. As such, in addition to considering the role of social theory in the imagination of alternative futures, this volume reflects on how social theory may assist us in understanding and appreciating utopia or utopianism as a special topic of interest, a special subject matter, a special analytical focus or a special normative dimension of sociological thinking. Bringing together the latest work from a leading team of social theorists, this volume will be of interest to sociologists, social and political theorists, anthropologists and philosophers.
Author: John Morrow
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1845403967
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377
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Book Description
The essays in this volume are all inspired by the historical scholarship of J.C. Davis. During a prolific career, Davis has transformed our understanding of early modern utopian literature and its contexts, and compelled students of seventeenth-century English to re-evaluate the significance of movements and individuals who have had a prominent place in the historiography of the English Revolution. Davis's analyses of groups like the Levellers and individuals like Gerrard Winstanley and Oliver Cromwell has reoriented the inquiry around the contemporary moral themes of liberty, authority and formality-around which concepts this volume engages.
