IDS 172

Handout: Methods

Western Values (“The Western Tradition”)

Time in the Western World:

            Linear:

            Eschatological:

            Progressive:

            Utopian:

            Conflicted:

Some Approaches to Historical/Cultural/Philosophical Understanding:

“Great Man” Theory vs. Social Processes 

The Venn Diagram (more circles, the close to complex truth)

The Dialectic (the Dialectical):

            The Pendulum (esp. regarding Intellectual Movements)

Imagined Communities

Equilibrium and Alienation:

Reformation vs. Revolution:

What Happens Next?

Suppression:

Reform:

Separation:

Revolution:

                        Counter-Revolution or Reaction:

Complexity and Contradiction

Rocks (rational foundations) and “Turtles All the Way Down” (faith):