Indoctrination and Self-Deception or Free and Critical Thought?

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Year:
Pages:236
ISBN:0-7734-7407-2
978-0-7734-7407-9
Price:$179.95 + shipping
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This work is centered on three levels. First, it illustrates the contemporary pervasiveness of indoctrination and ideology. Second, it correlates the successful resistance to them with the intensity by which persons affirm not simply ideas, but experiences of self, freedom, love and critical thinking. Third, its approach, which is philosophical, differs from conventional studies by creatively examining the affective and ‘conversational’ dynamics.

Reviews

“ ... a welcome contribution to the ongoing debate regarding the ontological validity of human freedom. His illuminating study is as stimulating as it is pioneering, as inclusive as it is incisive, and as profound as it is subtly nuanced. In seven chapters, he thoroughly explores every aspect of his subject, from an analysis of propaganda and indoctrination (with concrete illustrations drawn from contemporary political life) to an examination of indoctrination, self-deception, and religion (with strategies for combating self-deception).” – George E. Saint-Laurent

Table of Contents

Table of contents:
Preface; Introduction
1. Propaganda and Indoctrination. Terms and methods; Strategies at the Far Left, Far Right and Mainstream; the Co-option of Intellectuals; Justifications for Self- and Other-deception
2. Contrasting ideology and Theory. Negative Aspects of Cultural fundamentalism
3. Verifications of Freedom: Contrasting Determinist, Existential, and Experiential Claims about Freedom
4. Free Selves: Indoctrination or Reality? Correlating Consciousness of Self-identity and Resisting Indoctrination
5. The Fullness of Freedom: Confirming the Other. Ideology or its Cure?
6. Critical Thought and Feeling. Logical, Conversational and Affective Components
7. Indoctrination, Self-deception, and Religion. Strategies for Combating Self-deception; Thought Experiments
Afterword; bibliography; indexes of names and subjects

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