Books and Chapters by Abram Trosky
Shirley Jackson’s iconic 1948 short story “The Lottery” has shocked generations of readers with i... more Shirley Jackson’s iconic 1948 short story “The Lottery” has shocked generations of readers with its pithy portrayal of the easy coexistence of folksiness and barbarism, and the inertial power of tradition and conformity over familial or other moral commitments. Now in its seventieth year, Jackson’s story was initially met with disgust, even outrage, by many of its New Yorker readers. Her recounting with frightening banality a recurring small town stoning has been widely incorporated into secondary school curricula, but not without attempts at censorship and court challenges that made it to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
This chapter explores the tensions at the heart of the story, reaction to it, and perhaps political philosophy itself: the urban/rural divide; the putative need for myth and sacrifice to effect and maintain social cohesion; and the challenges and temptations that culturally-embedded creatures face in introducing more individualistic or cosmopolitan narratives. Jackson’s inclusion of a character “Bentham” in The Lottery provides opportunity to examine the utilitarian tradeoffs in both scenarios: the conservative insistence that the greater good depends on the preservation of hard-fought community identity, and liberal ambivalence regarding social costs and means of improvement. It concludes with a primer on Kantian deontology that highlights the contrast with contemporary moral and legal sensibilities.
International Handbook of Peace and Reconciliation, 2013
Beginning with a discussion of ideological framing in peace and conflict studies and internationa... more Beginning with a discussion of ideological framing in peace and conflict studies and international relations, this chapter presents alternative frameworks for examining discourse in international ethics, compares results from its implementation in eight regions on peace-related items on the Personal and Institutional Rights to Aggression and Peace Survey (PAIRTAPS), and discusses their possible normative implications. The introductory section considers historical and contemporary obstacles to peace and prescriptive and critical reactions. We sketch the contours of a practical pacifism through which social psychological peace research can give both international law and global public opinion their due. Applying agentic and grounded theory approaches influenced by Johan Galtung’s conception of positive peace and sociocognitive psychologist Albert Bandura’s theory of moral engagement, we demonstrate how surveying international attitudes toward peace is one way of making the descriptive medium the prescriptive message.
International Handbook of War, Torture, and Terrorism, 2012
War, terrorism, and torture can each be thought of as a manifestation of political violence—that ... more War, terrorism, and torture can each be thought of as a manifestation of political violence—that is, violence used as a means to achieve some group end. In theory, the violence that characterizes modern warfare is tactical and directed. In contrast to the indiscriminate or symbolic violence that characterizes terrorism, warfare has traditionally been carried out by national militaries against each other. However, the continuation of weapons-as-aid from the developed to the developing world, the irresponsible regulation of its distribution and the recirculation of Cold War munitions stockpiles on the black market have contributed to the growth of asymmetric warfare involving non-state actors. Despite the periodic romanticization of both battlefield and guerilla warfare, observers have for centuries commented on the awful, inertial power of violence to blur these categories, begetting wanton pain, suffering, and death, the “senselessness” of which calls into question violence’s very instrumentality. Torture—the controlled, if surreptitious, application of force that frequently spirals into something more sadistic—is emblematic of this terrible transformation.
Papers by Abram Trosky
The Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014
Introduction, Definition, History, Traditional & Contemporary Debates, International & Practical ... more Introduction, Definition, History, Traditional & Contemporary Debates, International & Practical Relevance, and Future Directions for the concept of Human Rights
Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014
The discursive character of human rights, commonly used as a mass noun, gives it no dis- crete hi... more The discursive character of human rights, commonly used as a mass noun, gives it no dis- crete historical origin, rationale, or definition. We refer instead to its various codifications in reli- gious texts, moral philosophy, founding national documents, and the international treaties, char- ters, conventions, covenants, declarations, and protocols that outline the duties corresponding to these rights. Regarding the objects of human rights, we can speak of a “foundational five”: (1) personal security, (2) material subsistence, (3) elemental equality, (4) personal freedom, and (5) recognition as a member of the human community. Withstanding dissent, the concept of human rights has proved legally, politically, and philosophically robust. Though universal, it accom- modates a diversity of justifications and supports diversity as a value. Human rights represent pluralism in practice and serve to ground the basic “goods” agreed as necessary for human development the world over.
Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014
Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014
Nowhere has the critical impulse “overshot its target” as widely as in relation to the concept an... more Nowhere has the critical impulse “overshot its target” as widely as in relation to the concept and activity of justification (Latour, 2002). The truth of this proposition in psychology is evidenced in the ambiguity of language and concepts dealing with the truth of propositions generally: reasons are not always reasonable, but often “rationalizations”; moral justification might as easily be called “moralizing”; and what is “just” can always be countered as just one’s opinion.
A great deal of psychological theory and research focuses on the construction and deconstruction of justifications, with much of this work documenting the ways in which justifications can be self-serving (Wolff & Moser, 2008; Gino & Ariely, 2012), group-serving (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999), or system-serving (Jost & Banaji, 1994; Shepherd & Kay, 2012; Day, Kay, Holmes, & Napier, 2011). The emancipatory potential of critical psychology’s contribution lies not only in critique of ego-justification and social dominance, but in championing the more empathic principles that ground authentic justification and the values of pluralism and inclusivity.
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2008
Summarizes a presentation that describes the transnational Group on International Perspectives on... more Summarizes a presentation that describes the transnational Group on International Perspectives on Governmental Aggression and Peace (GIPGAP), which has been developing a conceptual and coding model that provides a multi-level multidimensional approach to understanding and analyzing judgments concerning individual and institutional aggression, violence, and conflict resolution. This model uses insights from ethics and political theory to analyze qualitative responses along dimensions of perceived locus of responsibility and impact in order to evaluate their ethical defensibility based on the relative presence or absence of Bandura's mechanisms of moral engagement and disengagement.
Journal of Political Science Education
Human Rights Review, 2017
The democratic surprises of 2016—Brexit and the Trump phenomenon—fueled by “fake news”, both real... more The democratic surprises of 2016—Brexit and the Trump phenomenon—fueled by “fake news”, both real and imagined, have come to constitute a centrifugal, nationalistic, even tribal moment in politics. Running counter to the shared postwar narrative of increasing internationalism, these events reignited embers of cultural and moral relativism in academia and public discourse dormant since the culture wars of the 1990s and ‘60s. This counternarrative casts doubt on the value of belief in universal human rights, which many in the humanities and social sciences argue have of late been used as instruments of postcolonial oppression. This book essay introduces three texts written before the dawn of the latest “post-truth” era—The Sociology of Human Rights by Mark Frezzo, The Political Sociology of Human Rights by Kate Nash, and Keeping Faith with Human Rights by Linda Hogan—that address moral skepticism of human rights. Along with these authors, the essay briefly treats human rights’ past and prospects, analogizing it to the waves of feminist thought: in international politics, developing nations first desired a seat at the table and repeal of discriminatory laws and practices; when one-nation-one-vote did not result in equal treatment, the persistence of hierarchy helped developing nations awaken to their own evolving national identities and they wished to be recognized as not only equal, but different and unique. The essay recapitulates and amplifies these authors’ argument that the contemporary challenge for all nations, their citizens, and for the human rights community is to deliberatively decide what values unite these identities beyond simple self-determination and extend them toward the goal of a just global whole. The essay also makes an original contribution in summarizing the initial post-war debate in the United Nations that birthed the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, which has been subject to revisionism and perspectivism typical of cultural and moral relativism. It provides some social scientific, historical, and philosophic grounding for serious conversation of the ideas of truths in politics, and universal, transcultural goods and rights that underpin the authority of the international human rights regime in theory and practice. It does so while recognizing the serious epistemological challenges to this universalist conception, chiefly: how a social construct can be both time-bound human creation and continue to be morally binding across space, time, and the accelerated change global citizens of all corners are experiencing, simultaneously yet in their own way.
Pedagogy, Culture & Society
Abstract This paper considers the impact of global and national political polarisation on perspec... more Abstract This paper considers the impact of global and national political polarisation on perspectives of instructors and learners in Arabic classrooms at Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in the United States with particular interest in understanding cultural conflicts that occur between instructors and learners. Instructors and learners at DLIFLC responded to a survey, the qualitative data from which are analysed using discourse analysis, research in intercultural communication, and theories of pedagogy. The analysis indicates that while cultural conflict is part of the language-learning experience, there are communicative strategies to turn moments of discord into assets which often involve the ancillary role of non-native speaking instructors who assist in preventing and mediating conflict between native-speaking instructors and students. The paper begins with a brief literature review that informs our theoretical framework, and a description of the study, followed by an analysis of the data it generated and discussion of their implications for DLIFLC and similarly-situated classrooms.
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2000
Summarizes a presentation that describes the transnational Group on International Perspectives on... more Summarizes a presentation that describes the transnational Group on International Perspectives on Governmental Aggression and Peace (GIPGAP), which has been developing a conceptual and coding model that provides a multi-level multidimensional approach to understanding and analyzing judgments concerning individual and institutional aggression, violence, and conflict resolution. This model uses insights from ethics and political theory to analyze qualitative responses along dimensions of perceived locus of responsibility and impact in order to evaluate their ethical defensibility based on the relative presence or absence of Bandura's mechanisms of moral engagement and disengagement.
Journal of Political Science Education , 2019
Political theory instructors are often familiar with the syllabus themed “Liberalism and its Crit... more Political theory instructors are often familiar with the syllabus themed “Liberalism and its Critics.” Liberalism, however, is often narrowly and teleologically defined as the progressive expansion of human freedom. Further, counter or alternative narratives leave students as mere critics without constructive insight into the balance of individualism and cosmopolitanism. With these problematic approaches in mind, this article offers a civic republican viewpoint to supplement the limited approaches in “Liberalism and its Critics.” The course proposed by the authors reframes common methodology to include civic republicanism as a parallel and sympathetic intellectual development to liberalism, at times intertwined, and at others anticipating and supplementing its deficiencies. This article first shows the deficiencies of the inadequate narrative/counter-narrative approach and highlights why civic republicanism presents a novel approach to teaching theory. The authors then provide a possible course description with specific learning outcomes, a recommended course structure with suggested readings, and some concluding considerations on implementing such a course.
Holocaust and genocide education are important components of leadership education for civilians a... more Holocaust and genocide education are important components of leadership education for civilians and service members alike. The paper describes the US Coast Guard Academy’s Holocaust symposium as an example of leadership education for service members that is equally applicable to other contexts of secondary and tertiary education (particularly in nations relying on volunteer militaries). The important lessons the symposium conveys include: 1) genocide is a threat to all humanity, and the loss of one group is a loss to all; 2) a bystander makes an active choice that may result in escalating harm to others; 3) prejudice has had a long history but it is still alive today; and 4) blind obedience to authority and leaders is dangerous. These experiences should lead students to not only recognize the social, political, and military antecedents to atrocity-producing situations, but help develop in them the moral judgment and courage to identify and prevent these conditions at home and abroad.
This paper considers the impact of global and national political polarization on perspectives of ... more This paper considers the impact of global and national political polarization on perspectives of instructors and learners in Arabic classrooms at DLIFLC in the United States with particular interest in understanding cultural conflicts that occur between instructors and learners. Instructors and learners at DLIFLC responded to a survey, the qualitative data from which are analyzed using discourse analysis, research in intercultural communication, and theories of pedagogy. The analysis indicates that while cultural conflict is part of the language-learning experience, there are communicative strategies (Byrum 1997) to turn moments of discord into assets which often involve the ancillary role of non-native speaking instructors (NNS) who assist in preventing and mediating conflict between native-speaking (NS) instructors and students. The paper begins with a brief literature review that informs our theoretical framework, and a description of the study, followed by an analysis of the data it generated and discussion of their implications for DLIFLC and similarly-situated classrooms.
Book Reviews by Abram Trosky
The democratic surprises of 2016—Brexit and the Trump phenomenon—fueled by “fake news”, both real... more The democratic surprises of 2016—Brexit and the Trump phenomenon—fueled by “fake news”, both real and imagined, have come to constitute a centrifugal, nationalistic, even tribal moment in politics. Running counter to the shared postwar narrative of increasing internationalism, these events reignited embers of cultural and moral relativism in academia and public discourse dormant since the culture wars of the 1990s and ‘60s. This counternarrative casts doubt on the value of belief in universal human rights, which many in the humanities and social sciences argue have of late been used as instruments of postcolonial oppression. This book essay introduces three texts written before the dawn of the latest “post-truth” era—The Sociology of Human Rights by Mark Frezzo, The Political Sociology of Human Rights by Kate Nash, and Keeping Faith with Human Rights by Linda Hogan—that address moral skepticism of human rights. Along with these authors, the essay briefly treats human rights’ past and prospects, analogizing it to the waves of feminist thought: in international politics, developing nations first desired a seat at the table and repeal of discriminatory laws and practices; when one-nation-one-vote did not result in equal treatment, the persistence of hierarchy helped developing nations awaken to their own evolving national identities and they wished to be recognized as not only equal, but different and unique. The essay recapitulates and amplifies these authors’ argument that the contemporary challenge for all nations, their citizens, and for the human rights community is to deliberatively decide what values unite these identities beyond simple self-determination and extend them toward the goal of a just global whole. The essay also makes an original contribution in summarizing the initial post-war debate in the United Nations that birthed the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, which has been subject to revisionism and perspectivism typical of cultural and moral relativism. It provides some social scientific, historical, and philosophic grounding for serious conversation of the ideas of truths in politics, and universal, transcultural goods and rights that underpin the authority of the international human rights regime in theory and practice. It does so while recognizing the serious epistemological challenges to this universalist conception, chiefly: how a social construct can be both time-bound human creation and continue to be morally binding across space, time, and the accelerated change global citizens of all corners are experiencing, simultaneously yet in their own way.
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Books and Chapters by Abram Trosky
This chapter explores the tensions at the heart of the story, reaction to it, and perhaps political philosophy itself: the urban/rural divide; the putative need for myth and sacrifice to effect and maintain social cohesion; and the challenges and temptations that culturally-embedded creatures face in introducing more individualistic or cosmopolitan narratives. Jackson’s inclusion of a character “Bentham” in The Lottery provides opportunity to examine the utilitarian tradeoffs in both scenarios: the conservative insistence that the greater good depends on the preservation of hard-fought community identity, and liberal ambivalence regarding social costs and means of improvement. It concludes with a primer on Kantian deontology that highlights the contrast with contemporary moral and legal sensibilities.
Papers by Abram Trosky
A great deal of psychological theory and research focuses on the construction and deconstruction of justifications, with much of this work documenting the ways in which justifications can be self-serving (Wolff & Moser, 2008; Gino & Ariely, 2012), group-serving (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999), or system-serving (Jost & Banaji, 1994; Shepherd & Kay, 2012; Day, Kay, Holmes, & Napier, 2011). The emancipatory potential of critical psychology’s contribution lies not only in critique of ego-justification and social dominance, but in championing the more empathic principles that ground authentic justification and the values of pluralism and inclusivity.
Book Reviews by Abram Trosky
This chapter explores the tensions at the heart of the story, reaction to it, and perhaps political philosophy itself: the urban/rural divide; the putative need for myth and sacrifice to effect and maintain social cohesion; and the challenges and temptations that culturally-embedded creatures face in introducing more individualistic or cosmopolitan narratives. Jackson’s inclusion of a character “Bentham” in The Lottery provides opportunity to examine the utilitarian tradeoffs in both scenarios: the conservative insistence that the greater good depends on the preservation of hard-fought community identity, and liberal ambivalence regarding social costs and means of improvement. It concludes with a primer on Kantian deontology that highlights the contrast with contemporary moral and legal sensibilities.
A great deal of psychological theory and research focuses on the construction and deconstruction of justifications, with much of this work documenting the ways in which justifications can be self-serving (Wolff & Moser, 2008; Gino & Ariely, 2012), group-serving (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999), or system-serving (Jost & Banaji, 1994; Shepherd & Kay, 2012; Day, Kay, Holmes, & Napier, 2011). The emancipatory potential of critical psychology’s contribution lies not only in critique of ego-justification and social dominance, but in championing the more empathic principles that ground authentic justification and the values of pluralism and inclusivity.
Identifying ‘the good’ with the practice and promotion of humane, pro-social values, as many in critical fields wish, makes the vocation of teaching an unavoidably normative activity. How a teacher teaches, I argue, is as important in communicating this normative dimension of liberal citizenship, as the content. Across disciplines, descriptive similarities in how people are persuaded have prescriptive implications for teachers of philosophy, political theory, ethics, and, more controversially, history.
Citing former teachers of my own, from Howard Zinn to Elie Wiesel, I conclude by showing how the study of history is emblematic of the goal of the liberal arts generally: the study of meaning and its use to the living, all of us. On this view, education can be seen as a sort of technology for self- and collective improvement, which is itself governed by nonrelative principles of justice.