Browsing by Subject "Idealism"
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Item Escaping the frozen lake: individual and social idealism manifest as forms of religion and religiosity(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Stanford, Frank S.The role, basis for, and function of idealism in religion and religiosity are examined as both an individual and social phenomenon. Religion is divided into two manifestations of idealism that are described as conventional religion and unconventional religion. William James' frozen lake, used as a metaphor for religious personality types, is expanded to include a range of fear and depression based emotional forces that prompt various forms of idealism. Karl Marx's concept of utopia, Max Weber's protestant ethic, Emile Durkheim's anomie and totemic worship and Georg Simmel's social forms are described and compared as idealist manifestations. Robert Bellah's American civil religion is extrapolated to an institutional form of civil religion in Texas A&M University's Corps of Cadets as an organization utilizing totemic and philosophical ideals, collective representations, collective effervescence, civil ceremonies and intolerance as elements of the social solidarity. A personal, qualitative account of the indoctrination into this unconventionally religious organization, including quotations from members, is compared to the paradigms of religion as theorized by Bellah and Durkheim in order to display the use of idealism in the institutional setting. Theoretical perspectives of consumerism as described by George Ritzer and Campbell, as well as Thorstein Veblen's account of devotion are shown to have idealistic representations on both an individual and social level. This dissertation takes the reader from a concept of a non-supernatural existence to the use of idealism in various forms in order to assuage the awareness of painful aspects of reality. A method for a positive, naturalistic approach to the frozen lake is offered.Item A study in the sociology of Islam(1948-08) Wardī, ʻAlī; Moore, Harry E. (Harry Estill)The present thesis is an attempt to study some of the social theories of Islam, not as logical ideas existing in a vacuum, but rather as idealogies which are in close interaction with the social conditions in the midst of which they arise. It should be remembered at this point that this thesis is not intended to be a comprehensive research into the entire field of the sociology of Islam. The job is too enormous to be undertaken by a single researcher. This work is restricted to the study of one aspect of it, that is: the dilemma of Islam, or in other words, the conflict between idealism and realism in the history of Islam. The conflict between idealism and realism exists, as we shall see later, in almost every phase of the human society, but it may not be an exaggeration to say that in the history of Islam it manifested itself in a very intensive form. In this thesis the attempt is made to discuss the reason for, and the development of, this peculiar aspect of Islam.