trevor pateman | University of Sussex (original) (raw)
Drafts by trevor pateman
Previously unpublished, 1980
A short demonstration showing how an emergent property can be generated from a methodologically i... more A short demonstration showing how an emergent property can be generated from a methodologically individualist theory. Specifically, using methodologically individualist Condorcetian probability theory it can be shown that a Majority of voters can (if certain conditions are satisfied) have a probability of being right which is different from that of any individual voter. In other words, a Majority has at least one emergent propety (and that property is a social fact) whic is not possessed by individual voters. See also the essay on Majoritarianism on this site.
An informal study based on my twenty five years of experience as a UK-based stamp dealer and illu... more An informal study based on my twenty five years of experience as a UK-based stamp dealer and illustrating the development of stamp collecting as part of a globalised industry which structured norms of how stamps should be collected.
Jean Rhys exploits the possibility of moving between French and English to create social commenta... more Jean Rhys exploits the possibility of moving between French and English to create social commentary, humour, and as a search for something which will express the predicament of her main character.
This 2022 upload replaces previous versions of my study of the painting by Simon Maris now titled... more This 2022 upload replaces previous versions of my study of the painting by Simon Maris now titled Isabella (previously titled Young Negro Girl; later Young Girl with a Fan) and in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. It will hopefully appear in print in 2023 as a chapter of my book Culture as Anarchy
An informal proposal to think of mental illness in terms strictly analogous to those used to thin... more An informal proposal to think of mental illness in terms strictly analogous to those used to think of physical illness and to indicate some potential advantages of such a way of thinking.
selectedworks.co.uk, 2007
A short, informal introduction to the main themes of Trevor Pateman Language in Mind and Language... more A short, informal introduction to the main themes of Trevor Pateman Language in Mind and Language in Society (Oxford University Press 1987). Written in the 1990s and first published at selectedworks.co.uk in 2007
Studies in Pragmatics, 2017
A theorization of how Grice-type conversational norms are suspended in interaction with computer ... more A theorization of how Grice-type conversational norms are suspended in interaction with computer programs. Originally published 1981as the opening article in the first issue of the journal Language and Communication and then re-published in the Journal of Pragmatics (1982). This version is from Trevor Pateman, Studies in Pragmatics (2017) where it appears as chapter 4 and where the bibliographical references can be found.
The Best I Can Do, 2016
A critical consideration of a project "Adjustment of Colonial Terminology" to retitle paintings i... more A critical consideration of a project "Adjustment of Colonial Terminology" to retitle paintings in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The project was made public at the end of 2015 and the original version of this study was published as a response on my personal blog at the end of 2015. A single painting by Simon Maris previously titled, "Young Negro Girl" and re-titled "Young Girl with a Fan" was taken as the focus of the study. The blog post was then rewritten as a chapter of my book The Best I Can Do, published in spring 2016, and that version is the basis of the version published here on academia.edu with an important footnote which updates to the story to summer 2020. I have not tried to rewrite the original claims I made in the light of the subsequent (and still unfinished) research conducted by the Rijksmuseum. But I have now 2021 added a further long postscript setting that research within a discussion of Portrait and Genre paintings.
A general account of how the past does affect the present, both of all individuals and in all soc... more A general account of how the past does affect the present, both of all individuals and in all societies, but argued in such a way as to avoid a "declinist" view of history. It allows for the possibility of "social collapse" and suggests the kind of circumstance i which that might occur or has occurred.
Very few, if any, collectible objects present themselves as such, as if naturally. Collectibles a... more Very few, if any, collectible objects present themselves as such, as if naturally. Collectibles are objects which have been imagined and transformed within networks of discourses, ideas, technologies, and techniques which characterise and define them. Over
Starting from the opening lines of Descartes' Discourse two contrasting approaches to human stupi... more Starting from the opening lines of Descartes' Discourse two contrasting approaches to human stupidity are unfolded, essentialist and non-essentialist, and a rebuke offered to contemporary essentialising discourse. * Descartes opens his Discourse on the Method of 1637 with a breathtakingly other worldly statement: Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; No doubt most readers are then relieved when he goes on immediately to undercut that wild claim with what appears to be some very this worldly irony: for everyone thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess. The reader now put into a good mood, Descartes promptly and unrepentantly doubles down on his original claim: And in this it is not likely that all are mistaken; the conviction is rather to be held as testifying that the power of judging aright and of distinguishing truth from error, which is properly what is called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men; Can he really be serious? It seems so for he immediately continues: the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects. For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.-and after a diversion to which I will recur, he concludes his opening remarks by restating for the third time (this guy is nothing if not persistent) his initial claim:
A brief discussion of inner emigration and reclusiveness starting from a psychoanalytic classific... more A brief discussion of inner emigration and reclusiveness starting from a psychoanalytic classification developed by Karen Horney.
Language in Mind and Language in Society, 1987
Argues against the sociologism of much sociology and seeks to use cognitive science to rework the... more Argues against the sociologism of much sociology and seeks to use cognitive science to rework the theory of ideology. Argues that ideologies are inherently variable through time and between individuals, whatever social or cultural efforts are made to stabilise them. This is because the mind is not (or is not completely) plastic to social and cultural shaping. Ideologies are like languages, since they are internalised in individuals as generative mechanisms which are not transparent to introspection or self-monitoring. The work of Göran Therborn, Stephen Stich, Hilary Putnam and Tyler Burge is referenced. Slightly revised in 2005 for a website version from the original in chapter 5 of my book Language in Mind and Language in Society (1987).
Abstract: Develops a distinction between language as something we have knowledge of and language ... more Abstract: Develops a distinction between language as something we have knowledge of and language as something we have beliefs about. This distinction is formulated using the philosopher's notion of an intentional object of belief. Together with the distinction between collective (= mutual belief) and distributive judgements, the argument seeks to dissolve false controversies between idiolectal (Chomsky) and sociological approaches to language.
Notes on Elisabeth Geblesco's Un Amour de Transfert, Journal de mon controle avec Lacan (2008)
Cogito, 1988
Rousseau's attempted justifications for majoritarianism are clarified by reference to the mathema... more Rousseau's attempted justifications for majoritarianism are clarified by reference to the mathematical arguments advanced at the same period by the Marquis de Condorcet.
Previously unpublished, 1980
A short demonstration showing how an emergent property can be generated from a methodologically i... more A short demonstration showing how an emergent property can be generated from a methodologically individualist theory. Specifically, using methodologically individualist Condorcetian probability theory it can be shown that a Majority of voters can (if certain conditions are satisfied) have a probability of being right which is different from that of any individual voter. In other words, a Majority has at least one emergent propety (and that property is a social fact) whic is not possessed by individual voters. See also the essay on Majoritarianism on this site.
An informal study based on my twenty five years of experience as a UK-based stamp dealer and illu... more An informal study based on my twenty five years of experience as a UK-based stamp dealer and illustrating the development of stamp collecting as part of a globalised industry which structured norms of how stamps should be collected.
Jean Rhys exploits the possibility of moving between French and English to create social commenta... more Jean Rhys exploits the possibility of moving between French and English to create social commentary, humour, and as a search for something which will express the predicament of her main character.
This 2022 upload replaces previous versions of my study of the painting by Simon Maris now titled... more This 2022 upload replaces previous versions of my study of the painting by Simon Maris now titled Isabella (previously titled Young Negro Girl; later Young Girl with a Fan) and in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. It will hopefully appear in print in 2023 as a chapter of my book Culture as Anarchy
An informal proposal to think of mental illness in terms strictly analogous to those used to thin... more An informal proposal to think of mental illness in terms strictly analogous to those used to think of physical illness and to indicate some potential advantages of such a way of thinking.
selectedworks.co.uk, 2007
A short, informal introduction to the main themes of Trevor Pateman Language in Mind and Language... more A short, informal introduction to the main themes of Trevor Pateman Language in Mind and Language in Society (Oxford University Press 1987). Written in the 1990s and first published at selectedworks.co.uk in 2007
Studies in Pragmatics, 2017
A theorization of how Grice-type conversational norms are suspended in interaction with computer ... more A theorization of how Grice-type conversational norms are suspended in interaction with computer programs. Originally published 1981as the opening article in the first issue of the journal Language and Communication and then re-published in the Journal of Pragmatics (1982). This version is from Trevor Pateman, Studies in Pragmatics (2017) where it appears as chapter 4 and where the bibliographical references can be found.
The Best I Can Do, 2016
A critical consideration of a project "Adjustment of Colonial Terminology" to retitle paintings i... more A critical consideration of a project "Adjustment of Colonial Terminology" to retitle paintings in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The project was made public at the end of 2015 and the original version of this study was published as a response on my personal blog at the end of 2015. A single painting by Simon Maris previously titled, "Young Negro Girl" and re-titled "Young Girl with a Fan" was taken as the focus of the study. The blog post was then rewritten as a chapter of my book The Best I Can Do, published in spring 2016, and that version is the basis of the version published here on academia.edu with an important footnote which updates to the story to summer 2020. I have not tried to rewrite the original claims I made in the light of the subsequent (and still unfinished) research conducted by the Rijksmuseum. But I have now 2021 added a further long postscript setting that research within a discussion of Portrait and Genre paintings.
A general account of how the past does affect the present, both of all individuals and in all soc... more A general account of how the past does affect the present, both of all individuals and in all societies, but argued in such a way as to avoid a "declinist" view of history. It allows for the possibility of "social collapse" and suggests the kind of circumstance i which that might occur or has occurred.
Very few, if any, collectible objects present themselves as such, as if naturally. Collectibles a... more Very few, if any, collectible objects present themselves as such, as if naturally. Collectibles are objects which have been imagined and transformed within networks of discourses, ideas, technologies, and techniques which characterise and define them. Over
Starting from the opening lines of Descartes' Discourse two contrasting approaches to human stupi... more Starting from the opening lines of Descartes' Discourse two contrasting approaches to human stupidity are unfolded, essentialist and non-essentialist, and a rebuke offered to contemporary essentialising discourse. * Descartes opens his Discourse on the Method of 1637 with a breathtakingly other worldly statement: Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; No doubt most readers are then relieved when he goes on immediately to undercut that wild claim with what appears to be some very this worldly irony: for everyone thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess. The reader now put into a good mood, Descartes promptly and unrepentantly doubles down on his original claim: And in this it is not likely that all are mistaken; the conviction is rather to be held as testifying that the power of judging aright and of distinguishing truth from error, which is properly what is called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men; Can he really be serious? It seems so for he immediately continues: the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects. For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.-and after a diversion to which I will recur, he concludes his opening remarks by restating for the third time (this guy is nothing if not persistent) his initial claim:
A brief discussion of inner emigration and reclusiveness starting from a psychoanalytic classific... more A brief discussion of inner emigration and reclusiveness starting from a psychoanalytic classification developed by Karen Horney.
Language in Mind and Language in Society, 1987
Argues against the sociologism of much sociology and seeks to use cognitive science to rework the... more Argues against the sociologism of much sociology and seeks to use cognitive science to rework the theory of ideology. Argues that ideologies are inherently variable through time and between individuals, whatever social or cultural efforts are made to stabilise them. This is because the mind is not (or is not completely) plastic to social and cultural shaping. Ideologies are like languages, since they are internalised in individuals as generative mechanisms which are not transparent to introspection or self-monitoring. The work of Göran Therborn, Stephen Stich, Hilary Putnam and Tyler Burge is referenced. Slightly revised in 2005 for a website version from the original in chapter 5 of my book Language in Mind and Language in Society (1987).
Abstract: Develops a distinction between language as something we have knowledge of and language ... more Abstract: Develops a distinction between language as something we have knowledge of and language as something we have beliefs about. This distinction is formulated using the philosopher's notion of an intentional object of belief. Together with the distinction between collective (= mutual belief) and distributive judgements, the argument seeks to dissolve false controversies between idiolectal (Chomsky) and sociological approaches to language.
Notes on Elisabeth Geblesco's Un Amour de Transfert, Journal de mon controle avec Lacan (2008)
Cogito, 1988
Rousseau's attempted justifications for majoritarianism are clarified by reference to the mathema... more Rousseau's attempted justifications for majoritarianism are clarified by reference to the mathematical arguments advanced at the same period by the Marquis de Condorcet.
A recently (2024) discovered letter in which William Grant Broughton (1788-1853) writes at length... more A recently (2024) discovered letter in which William Grant Broughton (1788-1853) writes at length about his parish duties at Hartley Wespall in Hampshire, England and the preparations he is making for his move to nearby Farnham. He writes to Dr Keate who has the church living and is Rector but whose day job is Headmaster of Eton College. Broughton later (1829) became Archdeacon of Sydney and then Bishop of Australia and is a major figure in the early history of the Anglican church in Australia and colonial politics. An introduction and full transcription is provided.
Culture as Anarchy, 2023
A small contribution to thinking about cultural change which points to arithmetic and logic as sp... more A small contribution to thinking about cultural change which points to arithmetic and logic as special cases which do not fit the usual picture. Written accessibly and hopefully suitable for a seminar discussion.
journal of aesthetic education, 1997
A formal, philosophical delineation of aspects of the exercise of imagination and the evaluation ... more A formal, philosophical delineation of aspects of the exercise of imagination and the evaluation of imaginative acts against a background of psychoanalytic concepts derived from the work of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott.
British journal of aesthetics, 1986
Abstract: Review discussion of David Best, Feeling and Reason in the Arts. London: George Allen a... more Abstract:
Review discussion of David Best, Feeling and Reason in the Arts. London: George Allen and Unwin 1985. Revised from an original version appearing in British Journal of Aesthetics, vol 26, number 2, Spring 1986, pp. 172-75.
Language & Communication, 1983
Language & Communication, 1982
Language & Communication, 1989
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 1980
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 1985
Key Concepts: A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education, 1991
Revised and previously unpublished version of the essay "Play" in Trevor Pateman, Key Concepts. A... more Revised and previously unpublished version of the essay "Play" in Trevor Pateman, Key Concepts. A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education. London: 1991; unrevised reprint 2016. The works of Gregory Bateson, Donald Winnicott, Freud, Melanie Klein, Johann Huizinga, Friedrich Schiller are referenced, though some only in passing.
Radical Philosophy , 1972
A reading of one case study in R D Laing and A Esterson, Sanity Madness and the Family, trying to... more A reading of one case study in R D Laing and A Esterson, Sanity Madness and the Family, trying to highlight the cognitive (epistemological) aspects of a schizophrenic's predicament. Written in 1970 or 1971, published in 1972, it does not use the word gaslighting (now added to the original title) but approaches the idea epistemologically.
Women and Film, 1974
A critique of V.Kehoe's technical manual, The Technique of Film and Television Make-up for color ... more A critique of V.Kehoe's technical manual, The Technique of Film and Television Make-up for color and black and white, first published in 1957 and then in a revised edition 1969. The critique is modelled on the approach of Roland Barthes in Mythologies; in particular it makes use of the idea that ideologies seek to convert the cultural into the natural.
Aletheia, 1984
Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Way of the Masks (La Voie des Masques) provides an accessible introducti... more Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Way of the Masks (La Voie des Masques) provides an accessible introduction to his structuralism, including the concepts of opposition and diacritical meaning. The essay seeks to show how diacritical meaning on the axis of structure can emerge out of dialogue on the axis of history. Lévi-Strauss is thus linked to Bakhtin and Bourdieu.
Radical Philosophy, 1982
Abstract: This essay seeks to show that J S Mill’s theory of liberty is inter-connected with and ... more Abstract: This essay seeks to show that J S Mill’s theory of liberty is inter-connected with and arguably derivative from his theory of authority. The argument is developed by introducing related work by Mill’s contemporaries, notably Sir George Cornewall Lewis, and also by reference to Mill’s understanding of Greek philosophy.
Methodological problems in sex difference research illustrated in this review of Angela Saini's b... more Methodological problems in sex difference research illustrated in this review of Angela Saini's book Inferior(2017)
readingthisbook.com, 2020
A critique of Scholar's use of the term creolisation to characterise lexical borrowing into Engli... more A critique of Scholar's use of the term creolisation to characterise lexical borrowing into English from spoken and written French to English
readingthisbook.com, 2022
Abstract: The arguments of Neil Levy’s Bad Beliefs are connected to earlier traditions within Fre... more Abstract: The arguments of Neil Levy’s Bad Beliefs are connected to earlier traditions within French Enlightenment and English Utilitarian traditions.
A retrospective 2016 review of Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch
This is the complete text of my very short book "Culture as Anarchy" as published in 2023. It sho... more This is the complete text of my very short book "Culture as Anarchy" as published in 2023. It shows my thinking on a range of topics in the humanities and social sciences including the dynamics of cultural change (where I claim some freshness of approach), Nature and Culture, cultural appropriation, social construction. It sums up fifty years of engagement with social and cultural theorising begun as a student in Oxford, London and Paris in the 1960s - 1970s.
Nabokov's Dream, 2020
Abstract: Complete text of Trevor Pateman Nabokov's Dream published in paperback by degree zero 2... more Abstract: Complete text of Trevor Pateman Nabokov's Dream published in paperback by degree zero 2020 as ISBN 978 0 9935879 8 6.
Materials and Medium, 2016
An introductory comparison of the formalisms of Clive Bell, Viktor Shklovsky and Bertolt Brecht ... more An introductory comparison of the formalisms of Clive Bell, Viktor Shklovsky and Bertolt Brecht including a discussion of Shklovsky's autobiographical Sentimental Journey.
Language, Truth and Politics (Second edition), 1980
A comparison of the argument in Barthes' Empire of Signs with the argument in Barthes' Mythologie... more A comparison of the argument in Barthes' Empire of Signs with the argument in Barthes' Mythologies. Written 1976. Published in 1980 as Appendix 4 to the second edition of Trevor Pateman, Language, Truth and Politics. Republished 2010 at selectedworks.co.uk. Translations from L'Empire des Signes are my own.
Studies in Pragmatics, 2017
Abstract: A Review of Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, Relevance, Communication and Cognition. Oxf... more Abstract: A Review of Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, Relevance, Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. A first version appeared in Poetics Today. This version is from Trevor Pateman, Studies in Pragmatics (2017) where it appears as chapter 5 along with the bibliographical references.
Studies in Pragmatics, 2017
A detailed epistemological and methodological critique of the East Anglia school of critical ling... more A detailed epistemological and methodological critique of the East Anglia school of critical linguistics as represented in the books Language and Control (Fowler, Hodge, Kress, and Trew 1979) and Language and Ideology (Kress and Hodge 1979).
Studies in Pragmatics, 2017
This is chapter 3 of my book Studies in Pragmatics (2017) which is a revised version of an articl... more This is chapter 3 of my book Studies in Pragmatics (2017) which is a revised version of an article originally published in 1989. It attempts through a detailed discussion to bring the work of Bakhtin/Volosinov into relation with Anglo-American language pragmatics. The Bibliography for the article can be found in the book version.
studies in pragmatics, 2017
The original 1983 version of this paper sought to introduce ideas from language pragmatics into t... more The original 1983 version of this paper sought to introduce ideas from language pragmatics into the study of advertising messages and imagery and thus to move beyond the semiological approach pioneered by Roland Barthes. The original was revised around 1990 for a book which never appeared, and was then lightly revised again to make a chapter in Trevor Pateman, Studies in Pragmatics (2017) where the Bibliography for the works cited below can be found. The original pre-dated the appearance of Sperber and Wilson's major book on Relevance (1986), discussion of which appears in Studies in Pragmatics as chapter 5.
Nabokov's Dream, 2021
Common sense hand proofs for the claim that writers cannot control everything they do, and that s... more Common sense hand proofs for the claim that writers cannot control everything they do, and that specific intentions do not attach to everything we do. The argument avoids commitment to any particular literary theories. This is an extract from Trevor Pateman, Nabokov's Dream (2021)
Language in Mind and Language in Society, 1987
An extended defence of Chomskyan linguistics and the Cognitive Paradigm in general against the Wi... more An extended defence of Chomskyan linguistics and the Cognitive Paradigm in general against the Wittgensteinian critiques of Saul Kripke, Baker & Hacker, Esa Itkonen and others. Consideration is given to the Private Language arguments; to the distinction between public (outer) and private (inner); to the distinction between the social and the individual; to ascription and causality; to rule-normativity; to creativity arguments. Comments from Noam Chomsky and Peter Hacker are included in the extensive Endnotes.
Between Remembering and Forgetting, 2020
An informal, undergraduate level introduction to a group of interrelated concepts using examples ... more An informal, undergraduate level introduction to a group of interrelated concepts using examples mostly taken from contemporary English language sources. The only explicit theoretical references are to Bakhtinian dialogism and recent work in language pragmatics (relevance theory).