Abstract
This paper examines two practices — the Roman Catholic Practice of Eucharist and the game Dungeons and Dragons — to show how social critique can be mounted from within a practice. It begins by relating Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of tradition to his earlier analysis of ideology and to the notion of ideology in general. The paper then tackles two dominant forms of ideology — Commodity Fetishism and Scientism — and shows how both Eucharist and Dungeons and Dragons promote critical thinking to resist those ideologies. In the process, it denies the Althusserian-Foucauldian analysis of ideology as mere materiality and defends a conception of ideology as material and ideal.
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References
I would like to thank Ron Beadle, Geoff Moore, Samantha Coe, Carter Crockett, Kelvin Knight, and Ted Schatzki for detailed comments on earlier drafts of this paper
Alasdair MacIntyre Against the Self-Images of the Age: Essays on Ideology and Philosophy Notre Dame, IN., University of Notre Dame Press 1978 p.5
Ibid p 6
Ibid
Slavoj Zizek “The Spectre of Ideology” in: Slavoj Zizek (ed.) Mapping Ideology pp 1–33 London,Verso Press p 10
Ibid p 12
Ibid p 13
Ibid p 15
Ibid p 17
Thomas Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 2 nd Ed Chicago, University of Chicago 1970, p 187–8
Terry Eagleton Ideology: An Introduction London, Verso Press 1990, p 224
I thank Kelvin Knight for pointing to this issue
Alasdair MacIntyre After Virtue 2 nd Ed Notre Dame IN., University of Notre Dame Press 1984 pp 187.
David Hawkes Ideology. The New Critical Idiom 2 nd Ed London, Routledge 2003 pp 168–169
Terry Eagleton Ideology op.cit p 138
Plato’s Republic for Readers: A Constitution translated George A. Blair Lanham, MD., University Press of America 1988
Alasdair MacIntyre After Virtue 2nd Ed op.cit pp 201–203
Ibid p 187
Zizek The Spectre of Ideology (op. cit.) p 3
Elizabeth Frazer and Nicola Lacey The Politics of Community: A Feminist Critique of the Liberal- Communitarian Debate Toronto, University of Toronto Press 1993 p 3
Ibid p 143
Ibid p 145
Terry Eagleton Ideology op. cit. p 183
Slavoj Zizek The Spectre of Ideology op. cit. p 7
I would like to thank Kelvin Knight for pointing this out
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Nicholas, J. Eucharist and Dragon Fighting as Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism and Scientism. Philos. of Manag. 7, 93–106 (2008). https://doi.org/10.5840/pom2008719
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/pom2008719