Jeff Coulter
Biographic Data
| ID | 92653 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeff Coulter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeff |
| FAMILY NAME | Coulter |
| SIGNATURE | COULTER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 181 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
After interpretation
Reflections on the “Darwin‐Descartes” Problem
Rule-Following, Rule-Governance and Rule-Accord
In this discussion, I describe my introduction to Rawls' famous paper on rules and situate this in a broader intellectual context. I then attempt to locate its significance within developments in linguistics (especially in speech-act analysis) and also in ethnomethodology. My main idea is that Rawls' concept of a 'constitutive rule' is in deep harmony with many of Wittgenstein's insights into the same thematic
Twenty-five Theses against Cognitivism
In this article, my intention is to focus the case against cognitive science and its derivative, cognitive neuroscience, in the form of (maybe) debatable propositions, using the method of paragraphing a la Ludwig Wittgenstein
The Debate over Cognitivism
In our Introduction to the articles in this Special Issue, the editors have set out some of the lineaments of the debate over cognitivistic conceptions of social phenomena. They have also set out to show that cognitivism, of at least a residual kind, is manifest in classical sociologies, and the position of some canonical authors is critically discussed. The article debates the analytic practices contributing to cognitivism in classical sociologi…
Brain, Mind, and Human Behavior in Contemporary Cognitive Science
A Reply to McHoul and Rapley
We reject the claim advanced by McHoul and Rapley that our remarks implied any ironic attitude toward ‘lay usage’. We do not think that elucidating the grammar of use involves any sort of irony and argue that such a charge is based upon the misconception (interestingly shared by many cognitivist thinkers) that ordinary use is a function of lay users’ beliefs
ToM
The Theory of Mind (ToM) is deeply dependent upon an array of (uncritically adopted but contestable) assumptions from contemporary philosophy of mind. We argue that some of these assumptions carry key and tacit but implausible conceptions of the nature and role of language in the ‘acquisition’ of ToM and seek to show that without these misconceptions ToM itself becomes superfluous
What is “Discursive Psychology”
Dissolving the “projection problem”
The “projection problem” is one that underlies many attempts at understanding pattern recognition in the visual system and many other aspects of perceptual functioning and learning. The problem pertains to the supposed difficulties in acquiring the capacity to recognize innumerable instances of a general pattern from the presentation of one or a few cases. We argue that this is a false problem, an artefact of the assumptions that underlie its for…
Blunderbuss and Scattershot
Professor Wetherick (2000) returns to address the issues between us. In our view, the motley of disconnected arguments that he presents are united by their foundational misconception of our position. In dealing with these as systematically as we can, we shall attempt to restate our original line of attack in relation to the points which he raises. These points pertain to the notion that we are `linguistic determinists'; that we fail to grasp the …
Elucidation vs Pseudo-Explanation in Psychology
Our response to Professor Wetherick (1999) encompasses some issues beyond the purview of his contribution, but which we believe are relevant to a serious appraisal of his comments on our original paper on J.J. Gibson (Sharrock & Coulter, 1998). In our view, Wetherick perists in the conflation of conceptual and empirical questions, presenting a more complex `solution' to the Gibsonian problem which we had attempted not to solve but to dissolve. Th…
Discourse and Mind
On What We Can See
The work of James J. Gibson is widely acclaimed to be among the most important contributions to the critique of cognitivist approaches to the study of human visual preception. In this paper, we question this assessment of Gibson. While we acknowledge his bold attempt to break away from the central tenets of the cognitivist paradigm (especially his rejection of all accounts of vision cast in terms of `inner representations'), we nonetheless detect…
On J.J. Gibson
In response to our respondents, we note that we probably share more in agreement than separates us in disagreement. We note several such points and then note that we continue to disagree with Costall and Leudar's (1998) distinction between the `conceptual' and the `empirical'. We also disagree with Noble's (1988) claim that Gibson understood perception as an achievement
Why I Am Not a Right-Winger
Although occasioned by the publication by David Horowitz of his book, Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey, this essay is not restricted to the assessment of Horowitz’s arguments alone. Rather, an attempt is made to review, in a schematic way, various facets of the experience of the “New Left” and of the Cold War in order to confront what the author believes are widely circulating myths about both, some of which permeate Horowitz’s own treatment o…
A logic for ‘context’
Human Practices and the Observability of the ‘Macrosocial
How are we to conceive of the relationship(s) between classical depictions of „macrosocial“ phenomena and the empirically observable world of situated human practices and interactions? Sociologists since Weber have addressed this problem in a variety of ways, but persistent conceptual difficulties remain largely unresolved. In this discussion, the fundamental issue of the „observability“ of the „macrosocial“ will be the focus of analytical attent…
The Sacks lectures
Conceptual Transformations
Searle's `Simple' Solution
Is contextualising necessarily interpretive
Logique et praxéologie
Cet article examine la relation qu 'il peut y avoir entre logique et sociologie, et évalue la contribution de l 'ethnométhodologie à l 'analyse de cette relation. Si la logique est l 'exploration des propriétés du logos plutôt que la codification du langage naturel, alors il y a tout un domaine d'étude où logique et sociologie peuvent se féconder réciproquement : celui de la praxis. Pour illustrer cette possibilité de coopération, l'auteur présen…
Ethnomethodology and the Contemporary Condition of Inquiry
Bilmes on ‘Internal States’
The social construction of mind
Contingent andA Priori structures in sequential analysis
Twenty-five Theses against Cognitivism
In this article, my intention is to focus the case against cognitive science and its derivative, cognitive neuroscience, in the form of (maybe) debatable propositions, using the method of paragraphing a la Ludwig Wittgenstein
Discourse and Mind
The Debate over Cognitivism
In our Introduction to the articles in this Special Issue, the editors have set out some of the lineaments of the debate over cognitivistic conceptions of social phenomena. They have also set out to show that cognitivism, of at least a residual kind, is manifest in classical sociologies, and the position of some canonical authors is critically discussed. The article debates the analytic practices contributing to cognitivism in classical sociologi…
Remarks on the Conceptualization of Social Structure
Decontextualised Meanings
Perceptual Accounts and Interpretive Asymmetries
This paper looks at some available members' methods for dealing with perceptual accounts that occasion non-acceptance on the part of account-recipients. Perceptual-account producers and recipients include former mental patients, mental welfare officers, 'flying-saucer' witnesses and investigators of such sightings. The paper constitutes an ethnomethodological discussion of the management of communicative and cognitive order
Language and the Conceptualization of Meaning
This paper attempts to examine what is involved when language is treated as a phenomenon of theoretic concern for the sociologist. The approach to 'meaning' suggested by Wittgenstein is outlined and counterposed to formalized representations of the 'semantics' of natural languages. The critical issue of 'rules of correct use' of language symbols is discussed, and some theoretical problems in describing 'linguistic competence' are raised. Some of …
Human Practices and the Observability of the ‘Macrosocial
How are we to conceive of the relationship(s) between classical depictions of „macrosocial“ phenomena and the empirically observable world of situated human practices and interactions? Sociologists since Weber have addressed this problem in a variety of ways, but persistent conceptual difficulties remain largely unresolved. In this discussion, the fundamental issue of the „observability“ of the „macrosocial“ will be the focus of analytical attent…
Is contextualising necessarily interpretive
Logique et praxéologie
Cet article examine la relation qu 'il peut y avoir entre logique et sociologie, et évalue la contribution de l 'ethnométhodologie à l 'analyse de cette relation. Si la logique est l 'exploration des propriétés du logos plutôt que la codification du langage naturel, alors il y a tout un domaine d'étude où logique et sociologie peuvent se féconder réciproquement : celui de la praxis. Pour illustrer cette possibilité de coopération, l'auteur présen…
Rule-Following, Rule-Governance and Rule-Accord
In this discussion, I describe my introduction to Rawls' famous paper on rules and situate this in a broader intellectual context. I then attempt to locate its significance within developments in linguistics (especially in speech-act analysis) and also in ethnomethodology. My main idea is that Rawls' concept of a 'constitutive rule' is in deep harmony with many of Wittgenstein's insights into the same thematic
The Sacks lectures
Bilmes on ‘Internal States’
A special issue
Transparency of Mind
What's Wrong with the New Criminology
Reflections on the “Darwin‐Descartes” Problem
Harvey Sacks
Harvey Sacks, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of California at Irvine in the United States, was killed in an automobile accident near the Irvine campus in November of last year. His death was both a stunning personal loss to his family, friends and close associates and a great professional loss to those of us (in several disciplines) who had felt the impact of his intellectual achievements. We have lost in Sacks one of o…
What is “Discursive Psychology”
A logic for ‘context’
Conceptual Transformations
Theory, Madness and Membership
In her review of my book, Approaches to Insanity ('Any man Goes Mad', Sociology , May 1975), Ms. Hillier articulates her dissatisfaction, not only with my own treatment of some of the issues raised by present research-strategies dealing with 'schizophrenia', but with ethnomethodology more generally. (She writes of the 'extreme confusion of the whole ethnomethodological paradigm' and of 'its logical flaws' (p. 326, her review)). In making these cl…
Image of Man in Marx
citizen; when, as an indi vidual man, his everyday life, his work, his relationships he has become a species-being; and when he has recognized and organised his own powers as powers. . . .27 Alienation of Species The human species develops alien ation (Entfremdung). From animal ity of primitive communism, there arose a endeavour to combat scarcity and dominate nature on part of proto-man. The history of this endeav our is human 'pre-history'; onl…
L'anthropologie philosophique dans le marxisme
Decontextualised Meanings
Language and Social Behaviour
Language and the Conceptualization of Meaning
This paper attempts to examine what is involved when language is treated as a phenomenon of theoretic concern for the sociologist. The approach to 'meaning' suggested by Wittgenstein is outlined and counterposed to formalized representations of the 'semantics' of natural languages. The critical issue of 'rules of correct use' of language symbols is discussed, and some theoretical problems in describing 'linguistic competence' are raised. Some of …
What's Wrong with the New Criminology
Approaches to Insanity
Perceptual Accounts and Interpretive Asymmetries
This paper looks at some available members' methods for dealing with perceptual accounts that occasion non-acceptance on the part of account-recipients. Perceptual-account producers and recipients include former mental patients, mental welfare officers, 'flying-saucer' witnesses and investigators of such sightings. The paper constitutes an ethnomethodological discussion of the management of communicative and cognitive order
Theory, Madness and Membership
In her review of my book, Approaches to Insanity ('Any man Goes Mad', Sociology , May 1975), Ms. Hillier articulates her dissatisfaction, not only with my own treatment of some of the issues raised by present research-strategies dealing with 'schizophrenia', but with ethnomethodology more generally. (She writes of the 'extreme confusion of the whole ethnomethodological paradigm' and of 'its logical flaws' (p. 326, her review)). In making these cl…
Harvey Sacks
Harvey Sacks, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of California at Irvine in the United States, was killed in an automobile accident near the Irvine campus in November of last year. His death was both a stunning personal loss to his family, friends and close associates and a great professional loss to those of us (in several disciplines) who had felt the impact of his intellectual achievements. We have lost in Sacks one of o…
Transparency of Mind
Problems of Reflexivity and Dialectics in Sociological Inquiry
Spurious Sociology
The brain as agent
The social construction of mind
A special issue
Remarks on the Conceptualization of Social Structure
Rethinking Cognitive Theory
Contingent andA Priori structures in sequential analysis
Mind in Action
1. Epistemic Sociology 2. The Socio-Logic of Knowledge and Belief 3. The Cognizing Subject 4. Knowledge of Mind 5. Praxis and Personality 6. Realism and the Mind 7. Explanation, Psychologism and Social Construction Concluding Remarks
The praxiology of perception
A range of arguments are presented to demonstrate that (1) human visual orientations are conceptually constituted (concept‐bound); (2) the concept‐boundedness of visual orientations does not require a cognitivist account according to which a mental process of ‘inference’ or of ‘interpretation’ must be postulated to accompany a purely ‘optical’ registration of ‘wavelengths of light’, ‘photons’, or contentless ‘information'; (3) concept‐bound visua…
Mind in Action
Is the `New Sentence Problem' a Genuine Problem
The theoretical problem of explaining how people can produce and understand `sentences' they have never heard before has, for some time, been at the center of psycholinguistic and cognitive theorizing. It has rarely been questioned as a coherently formulated `problem' in itself. In recent years, however, a range of conceptual criticisms has been advanced from within the Wittgensteinian tradition. A consideration of these criticisms in relation to…
Bilmes on ‘Internal States’
Ethnomethodology and the Contemporary Condition of Inquiry
Philosophy (40 works) · Epistemology (37 works) · Sociology (34 works) · Psychology (26 works) · Linguistics (19 works) · Computer Science (18 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Cognitive science (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (9 works)