Goals and Behaviour

• Authors: Milan Stuchlík

Title variants

CS

Cíle a chování

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the first part of this paper I intend to argue that anthropologists have a predominantly causal conception of explanation and that the only feasible way to avoid this is to apply consistently the assumption of goal-orientation of behaviour, that is to hold what could broadly be called a teleological conception of explanation – a view that developments are due to the purpose or design that is served by them. Further on I will try to show that groups and norms do not exist and act independently of people. They have no existence as “things” apart from forming a part of the relevant stock of knowledge of the members of society. They can be brought to bear on actions only by people invoking them. Thus we have to make a sharp distinction between the conceptual or notional level of phenomena, and the transactional or processual level, sometimes known as cultural and social respectively.

Keywords

EN

goal orientation of behaviour; groups; norms; causal explanation of behaviour individual strategies

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY
• ANTHROPOLOGY: ANTHROPOLOGY

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press, Czech Republic
• Journal: Historická sociologie (Historical Sociology)
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 9-42

Dates

published

2014-12

Contributors

author

Milan Stuchlík

• Pracoviště historické sociologie, Fakulta humanitních studií Univerzity Karlovy v Praze, U Kříže 8, 158 00 Praha 5 (Czech Republic)

Identifiers

DOI

10.14712/23363525.2014.1