- Tytuł:
- Technologie intelektu: językowe determinanty wiedzy potocznej i ludzkiego działania
- Autorzy:
- Marody, Mirosława
- Powiązania:
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https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1788254.epub
https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1788254.mobi
https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1788254.pdf
https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1788254.zip - Data publikacji:
- 1987
- Wydawca:
- Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN
- Opis:
- Summary The assumed purpose of the author is to outline a new approach to the studies of the relations between language, thinking, and action. According to this approach, the differentiation of some kind of actions is to be explained by the differentiation of everyday knowledge which could originate in different cognitive styles transmitted during the process of language acquisition. The cognitive styles formation itself is considered to be an effect of the long-term, socio-historical process initiated by the invention of writing. The approach proposed by the author can be described as an interdisciplinary one since it was constructed through utilization and critique of the theories developed in psychology, sociology, history of culture, anthropology, and biology. Although the main subject of the analysis is the social differentiation of language the book is to be classified as a study in the sociology of cognition rather than in sociolinguistics. Apart from strictly theoretical propositions, the approach has also more general implications as it entails the necessity to investigate human cognitive processes in the historical perspective, changing thereby the requirements which psychology and sociology are to meet. Chapter 1 starts with a distinction made between three kinds of human actions i.e. habitual, spontaneous, and reflective ones, which are distinguished on the basis of three distinctive mechanisms of control i.e. respectively habit, impulse, and reflection (thinking). The subject of the further analysis are solely the reflective actions. According to the author, two kind of “causes” are to be determined to explain reflective actions: 1) action directing factors (values, needs, attitudes), and 2) action releasing factors. The second kind of factors consists of 1) an individual’s belief that the chosen action is consistent with the intended goals, and 2) the belief that there is a chance of success of the action (within the limits of assumed costs). Both convictions are constructed on the basis of an individual’s everyday knowledge. The action directing factors are also related to everyday knowledge, exerting an influence on or being affected by it. Therefore, the cognizance of the factors which differentiate everyday knowledge seems to be the basis on which the differentiation of human actions is to be explained. Among those factors, in the author’s opinion, language and its influence on human cognitive processes call for special attention. The scheme of the relationship between language and action was reconstructed from Whorf’s works and can be outlined as following: Inspiration for the more specific hypothesis concerning linguistic differentiation of cognitive processes the author sees, however, not in the Whorfian Hypothesis but in two different theories, namely, the anthropological theory of Jack Goody, and the sociolinguistic theory of Basil Bernstein. Chapter 2 is devoted to the presentation of J. Goody’s theory, according to which two main cognitive styles discussed in works of anthropologists and philosophers “primitive” and “modern” — have their sources in different technologies of the intellect i.e. in different modes of communication (speech and writing) at the disposal of individuals living in different cultures. The “modern” type of thinking — consisting of the specific cognitive style and of the contents created in the course of the development of Western culture — could be, thus, a consequence of dissemination of alphabetic writing. Graphic representation of speech leading to the decontextualization of verbal utterances created new possibilities to study them and, thereby, made possible new potentialities for human cognition to be formed. In the further part of chapter 2 the author attempts to determine such criteria of two cognitive styles which could be used not only on the level of cultural modes of thinking but also on the level of individual thinking. She distinguishes three oppositions: 1) directness vs. indirectness of data, 2) contextuality vs. decontextuality of relations, and 3) ability vs. disability of the generalization of direct data, which characterize the “preliterate” and “literate” cognitive styles. Next, the conditions of dissemination of the “literate” cognitive style, which was developed mainly in science are analyzed. The author points out that apart from the expansion of education opportunities two other phenomena contributed to the dissemination of that style: 1) the increase in the number of the occupations requiring a higher degree of substantive complexity of work (Melvin L. Kohn’s theory), and 2) the increase in the number of the social positions imposing the psychologization and the rationalization of thinking (Norbert Elias’s theory). She discusses also more general implications of J. Goody’s theory pointing out that non-alphabetic writing (e.g. Chinese one) should form a different mode of thinking and that contemporary changes in communication media (dissemination of personal computer) may result in the changing of cognitive style in our cultural circle. Chapter 3 begines with an analysis of the sociolinguistic theory of B. Bernstein. The author formulates here the thesis that the source of the contemporary social differentiation of language is an uneveness of dissemination of the “literate” mode of thinking. That uneveness was both 1) social, because the factors promoting development of “literate” mode of thinking were cumulated in middle classes, and 2) the inequality of dissemination of particular elements of that thinking mode as vocabulary and syntax (language) were learned with the greatest ease, then knowledge, while the cognitive style was the most difficult to be learned. Two elements of thinking modes, language and cognitive style, form the basis for the typology of linguistic codes proposed by the author. The formal attributes of codes (language) are the differences in vocabulary and syntax described by B. Bernstein. The cognitive attributes are characterized by the differences on the level of meaning construction (concrete vs. abstract meaning). The author distinguishes, apart from the restricted code and the elaborated one proposed by Bernstein, the quasi-elaborated code (characterized by the formal attributes of the elaborated code and the cognitive attributes of the restricted one) and the code of intimate bounds (characterized by the formal attributes of the restricted code and the cognitive attributes of the elaborated one). Attention is also paid to the role of mass-media in the formation of the quasi-elaborated code. Chapter 4 is devoted to the last element of thinking modes i.e. to knowledge. The author attempts to define the concept of everyday knowledge contrasting it with the professional one. The concept of the style of thinking is also introduced which makes possible the description of thinking modes on the level of content by the analysis of meanings and values attached to the terms of language. Lastly, the author reformulates the principle of linguistic determinism saying: “[...] an individual’s intellectual performance is determined not so much by the language he uses as by the language used by people who socialize him. Since it is their language which becomes, first of all. the tool for the construction of his world”. The author distinguishes here two situations 1) when the language influence stemes from the choice of a certain concept system (the level of the styles of thinking), and 2) when an indiv idual’s options are limited by the type of linguistic code acquired in the socialization process (the level of the cognitive styles). The second part of this chapter is devoted to an analysis of the differentiation of everyday knowledge. The author describes here, on the basis of empirical data gathered in the course of her own research project, the main differences on the dimensions of content, organization of meanings, and linguistic codes which could be traced in the images of reality constructed by workers and middle class members. The relationship between everyday knowledge and actions is analyzed in chapter 5. It begines with the statement that everyday knowledge is not explicitely articulated but is diffused in the images of reality created by individuals. On the basis of the empirical data the author makes distinction of three types of reality visions contained in these images. These are: 1) descriptive, 2) normative, and 3) propagated visions. Then, the author presents the way in which the actions directing and releasing factors are formulated on the basis of the reality visions. Finally, she analyses the situation when the type of linguistic code to which an individual has access not only influence his actions but also limits them not supporting him with some cognitive abilities. The problems of directing human actions by the intentional creation of the reality images are discussed in chapter 6. Here, the author analyses methods and conditions of effective linguistic manipulations regarding the use (or rather abuse) of language to be the decisive tool in the creation of reality images. The last chapter contains a discussion against the thesis formulated by the opponents of so called “Deficit Hypothesis”. The author points out that the antagonists of the “compensatory education” i.e. projects developed on the basis of Bernstein’s theory, arguing for the protection of cultural autonomy of social groups which use different linguistic codes, neglect the problem of the individual’s autonomy which depends — also — on the possibilities of cultural choice limited in the case of restricted and quasielaborated codes.
- Dostawca treści:
- Biblioteka Nauki
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