djc
> Ray McDermott distributed a list of dichotomy that disturbs the points of
> discussion at 1990 AERA presession workshop. This list seems to reflect
> the longstanding historical struggle with cognitivisim and standard sociology,
> anthropology.
>
> Although this list does not specify the alternative direction, it will be
> useful as a resource.
>
> Naoki Ueno
> NIER, Tokyo
>
>
> Ray McDermott's list of dichotomy
>
> Some commonly sensible conceptual dichotomies guaranteed to lead to long
> discussions with little result.
>
> objective/subjective
> determined/free
> micro/macro
> emic/etic
> hard/soft (as in data)
> Individual/social
> mind/body
> nature/nurture
> context bound/context free
> truth/lie
> achieved/ascribed
> mental/material
> verbal/nonverbal
> speaker/listener
> male/female
> in-group/out-group
> us/them
> quantitative/qualitative
>
> It is not the case that these dichotomies do not gloss some important
> divisions in our experience. In fact, the problem with each of these
> contrast sets is that they come to us too easily. They do not come to us
> complete with a description of the perspective or level at which they are
> designed to be meaningful. It is the purpose of analytic terms not just to
> identify vaguely "things" in the world, but to specify the relations among
> things by specifying the operations that helped to bring the things into
> focus. Most of the above terms will not help us to get that job done.
>
>
>
>
Don Cunningham
School of Education
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: 812-856-8540
Email: cunningh who-is-at indiana.edu
Homepage: http://php.indiana.edu/~cunningh