What Is a Person?: Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up

530 Pages·2010·2.43 MB·English

by  Christian Smith

What Is a Person?
What Is a Person?
Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the
Moral Good from the Person Up
c h r i s t i a n s m i t h
the university of chicago press chicago and london
christian smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Sociology at the University of
Notre Dame, where he is also director of the Center for Social Research. He is the author
of a dozen books, including Resisting Reagan: The U.S. Central American Peace Movement,
The Emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical Religion and Social Movement Theory, and
Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving, all published by the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2010 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-76591-4 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-76591-1 (cloth)
The University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the
University of Notre Dame toward the publication of this book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Christian, 1960–
   What is a person? : rethinking humanity, social life, and the moral good from the person
up / Christian Smith.
    p. cm.
   Includes bibliographical references and index
   isbn-13: 978-0-226-76591-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
   isbn-10: 0-226-76591-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)  1. Persons.  2. Philosophical
anthropology.
I. Title.
bd450.s558 2010
128—dc22
2009041981
a The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ansi z39.48-1992.
for erin
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
part i. Initial Arguments
chapter 1. The Emergence of Personhood 25
chapter 2. Key Theoretical Resources 90
par t i i . Critical Engagements
chapter 3. The Reality of Social Construction 119
Excursus: Getting to Truth 207
chapter 4. Network Structuralism’s Missing Persons 220
chapter 5. Persons and Mechanisms (Not) in Variables
Sociology 277
pa r t i i i . Constructive Development
chapter 6. The Personal Sources of Social Structures 317
chapter 7. The Good 384
chapter 8. Human Dignity 434
Postscript 491
Index 495
Acknowledgments
aving completed the writing of this book and now looking back on
Hthe manuscript, I see that some of its tone suggests an existential
vantage point of real confdence, security, and power in the world. I realize
that this is a privileged position in which an author might feel himself or
herself. I also know that not all possible readers will share such a perspec-
tive or even be sympathetic toward it. In principle, such a difference should
not impeach a book’s argument for readers from other perspectives, espe-
cially this book’s, which makes claims about the unifed reality that all
of us share. In fact, this book is the product of many years of uncertain
dissatisfaction, intellectual struggle, frustrated wrestlings with a variety
of professional routines, and a slow and halting learning process about
possible alternative approaches to sociology—a learning process that is
far from complete. The product here, rather confdent in tone, may thus
mask the struggling process that brought it to fruition. Most important in
this long process of struggle and learning were the many valuable intel-
lectual and practical assistances I received from an immense number of
generous persons. Steve Vaisey, Chris Eberle, Trish Snell, Keith Meador,
George Thomas, and Kraig Beyerlein have been great conversation part-
ners over the years, colleagues with whom I have been able to hash out
many issues found in this book. Peter Bearman, Jim Moody, Bert Hodges,
Russ Bishop, Bruce Herman, Dan Dehanas, John Tyson, and Stan Gaede
also deserve thanks for conversations that proved helpful in forming my
thinking developed in the pages that follow. Numerous people read part
or all of this book’s manuscript at different stages of completion and pro-
vided feedback, including Trish Snell, Chris Eberle, Nick Wolterstorff,
Steve Vaisey, Brad Gregory, Brian Brock, Douglas Porpora, Bill Hurlbut,
Don Miller, Jeff Schloss, Jim Heft, Dallas Willard, Steve Smith, George