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

530 Pages·2010·2.43 MB·English
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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

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