Dead White Men

People acting in ways that do not fit our models.

A process of one factor directly influencing another. A cause creates a measurable effect which disappears if the cause is not present.

People using things up

Anything we cannot explain by reference to people acting in their interests.

People who do wrong, but in an interesting way.

Anything about the world that is directly observed. Usually opposed to ‘theoretical’.

A period in Western history defined by an upsurge of reason, criticism and scientific debate in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries. It established many of the terms in which we continue to understand and investigate the natural world, society, and what it is to be human. Its fundamental principle was not to take anything on trust or authority. The motto the British Royal Society adopted was ‘on the word of no one’ (nullius in verbia).

The study of how knowledge is acquired and valued. When a child thinks that you cannot see her if she cannot see you then she is making an epistemological claim – that a thing can only be known that knows itself.

A school of philosophy and a cultural label that makes a claim both about what life is like, and how it should be lived, It puts the nature of human existence at the centre of its study. One of its most well known proponents, Sartre, states that the sole virtue is authenticity. Essentially it argues that what is important to being human is that we should be before we do, which is why it is popular with people who smoke French cigarettes

A social movement whose goal is the emancipation of women.

An approach that focuses on the effect of an action, rather than its meaning (symbolic interactionism) or authenticity (existentialism). It examines how society structures action through institutions and systems, and how action keeps those institutions and systems stable

The way in which biological differences between male and female are interpreted added to.

The biological state of being male or female

The process by which where and who you are matters less and less compared to what you do. ‘What you do’ mainly means contributing to the global economy as a producer and/or consumer.

Originally the study of meaning in biblical texts, this came to be a particular approach to examining how meaning is constructed. At its core is the hermeneutic circle, which refers to the way the part and whole can only be understood with reference to each other. There is a continual process of back and forth between the particular instance and the overarching context. You never hit rock bottom.