Imitation or the Internalization of Norms: Is Twentieth-Century Social Theory Based on the Wrong Choice?
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2000
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429500831
Abstract
The dispute between simulation theorists and theory theorists follows a basic pattern in philosophical discussions of cognitive science. This chapter brings some of the topics of social theory into the discussion. The discussion of the problem of understanding in social theory has developed in two traditions: Verstehen, or empathy, the German tradition of Wilhelm Dilthey and Max Weber, and in taking the role of the other originating in the thought of G. H. Mead. Each regards understanding as both an activity of theorists (or historians and other analysts) and of human beings themselves in the course of their dealings with one another. The topic of imitation became important in American psychology for reasons quite separate from its role in social theory. The psychological explanation holds that at least some emotions, and perhaps all real emotions, are universal and are explicable by features of human psychology, biology, and development that are themselves universal.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Imitation or the Internalization of Norms: Is Twentieth-Century Social Theory Based on the Wrong Choice?, in H. H. Kogler (Ed.), Empathy And Agency: The Problem Of Understanding In The Human Sciences, Routledge, p. 103-118
Scholar Commons Citation
Turner, Stephen, "Imitation or the Internalization of Norms: Is Twentieth-Century Social Theory Based on the Wrong Choice?" (2000). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 142.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/phi_facpub/142
