Key Terms
Rationalism
Descartes (1596-1650). True knowledge comes from reason alone, independent of experience.
Empiricism
Bacon (1561-1626) and Locke (1632-1704). Knowledge comes only through observation and experience.
Result
The Philadelphia Negro (1899) - the first empirical analysis of racism in the United States. Found African Americans con
Thesis
An original state of things. Antithesis: A force countering that original state.
Dialectical materialism
Real-world economic contradictions drive historical change. Not ideas - material conditions.
Theory
Groups sit together, discuss shortcomings honestly, help each other improve. Mao called it essential for avoiding compla
Practice
By the 1930s, sessions became public events where "class enemies" were denounced, humiliated, and beaten - often by fami
Historicity
Everything gains its meaning through the historical events surrounding its creation and reception. No text stands apart
Example from the text
"Good" and "evil" evolved from "nobility" and "underclass." Being noble originally meant having practical advantages - r
Discourse
The process of making meaning out of texts and dialogues. Unlike natural science, which has limited possible meanings, d
Metaphor for Ricoeur
Not just word substitution. A way of expressing what is otherwise unsayable - the whole radiates beyond its parts.
Core claim
If humans created the structures of society, those structures lack transcendent authority. They're not fixed like the la
Frankfurt School rejection
Knowledge isn't a collection of absolute facts. It's awareness shaped by social, political, cultural, and religious forc
Benjamin reframed it secularly
The messianic impulse resists hegemonic power structures (the status quo) by creating a classless moment - a break in li
New view
The dialectic isn't a forecast. It's a tool for understanding the arbitrariness of any given historical moment.