Introduction.- Part I: Personal Being.- Chapter 1: Personal Reflections on Rom Harré.- Chapter 2: Rom Harré, Positioning Theory and the Social Sciences: A Personal and Sympathetic Portrait.- Chapter 3: Rom Harré on Personal Agency.- Chapter 4: What Is It To Be a Human Being? Rom Harré on Self and Identity.- Part II: Social Science and Positioning Theory.- Chapter 5: The Social Philosophy of Harré as a Philosophy of Culture.- Chapter 6: The Discursive Ontology of the Social World.- Chapter 7: A Constructionist Conversation with Positioning Theory.- Chapter 8: Revisiting the Greenspeak.- Chapter 9: Governmental Power and Positioning of Marginalized People.- Part III: Psychology as a Normative Science.- Chapter 10: Ethics in Socio-Cultural Psychologies.- Chapter 11: Psychiatry as a Hybrid Discipline.- Chapter 12: Rom Harré as a Moral Philosopher.- Chapter 13: The Social Construction of Emotions.- Chapter 14: Discursive Cognition and Neural Networks.- Part IV: Wittgenstein and Psychology.- Chapter 15: Harré and Hinges - Metaphysics of Ungrounded Foundations.- Chapter 16: Psychology and Non-Sense: Schizophrenese as Example.- Chapter 17: On the Soul, the Death of the Soul, and the Nature of Evil. Commentary on the Contributions.
Bo Allesøe Christensen is assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University. He has served as a reviewer for several journals - Social and Cultural Geography, The Review of Political Economy, Psychology and Society, and Academic Quarter. He has published in several scholarly journals, including the International Journal of Dialogical Science, Cultural Analysis, Philosophical Investigations, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, and the Review of Political Economy.
Rom Harré’s career spans more than 40 years of original contributions to the development of both psychology and other human and social sciences. Recognized as a founder of modern social psychology, he developed the microsociological approach ‘ethogenics’ and facilitated the discursive turn within psychology, as well as developed the concept of positioning theory. Used within both philosophy and social scientific approaches aimed at conflict analysis, analyses of power relations, and narrative structures, the development and impact of positioning theory can be understood as part of a second cognitive revolution. Whereas the first cognitive revolution involved incorporating cognition as both thoughts and feelings as an ineliminable part of psychology and social sciences, this second revolution released this cognition from a focus on individuals, and towards a focus of understanding individuals as participating in public practices using public discourses as part of their cognition. This edited volume adds to the scholarly conversation around positioning theory, evaluates Rom Harré’s significance for the history and development of psychology, and highlights his numerous theoretical contributions and their lasting effects on the psychological and social sciences.
Included among the chapters:
What is it to be a human being? Rom Harré on self and identity
The social philosophy of Harré as a philosophy of culture
The discursive ontology of the social world
Ethics in socio-cultural psychologies
Discursive cognition and neural networks
The Second Cognitive Revolution: A Tribute to Harré is an indispensable reader for anyone interested in his cognitive-historical turn, and finds an audience with academics and researchers in the social and human science fields of cognitive psychology, social psychology, discursive psychology, philosophy, sociology, and ethnomethodology.