Practices of Truth
An ethnomethodological inquiry into Arab contexts
The claim of this book is that truth is a matter of language games and practical achievements: it is a “member phenomenon”. To document this statement, it proceeds to the investigation of instances of truth-related practices in various Arab contexts. Bearing on the constitution of actions and events, on what is factual or objective, on predictability, consequentiality, intentionality, causality, and on the many ways people orient to them, such a varied set of questions appears thoroughly moral. The praxeological respecification this book undertakes leads to important considerations regarding the question of morality in ordinary reasoning, and the categories and categorizations on which that morality is based: moral values are publicly available; morality has a modal logic; moral values and conventions have an open texture; objectivity is a practical achievement carried out by members of society; the moral order is an omnipresent, constitutive characteristic of social practice.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 214] 2011. xiv, 173 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2011
Published online on 21 October 2011
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Foreword | pp. ix–xiv
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Introduction | pp. 1–6
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Chapter 1. Learning the truth: Memorizing the Koran in an Egyptian kuttâb* | pp. 7–36
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Chapter 2. The context of truth practices: Legislating the Sharî‘a at the shopfloor level* | pp. 37–58
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Chapter 3. Telling the truth: The judge and the law in family matters | pp. 59–80
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Chapter 4. The truth about oneself: Three Arab channels and their “self-presentation” | pp. 81–106
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Chapter 5. Speaking the truth: Advocacy video clips against terror* | pp. 107–134
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Chapter 6. Narratives of truth: Documenting the mind in a psychiatric hospital | pp. 135–154
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Conclusion. Truth: A matter of language game and practical achievement | pp. 155–164
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Index | pp. 171–174
“It is a fine book that will appeal to sociologists, anthropologists, and sociolinguists, as well as any social scientist interested in contemporary Islamic society.”
Kenneth Liberman, University of Oregon
“This volume by Baudouin Dupret is immensely interesting and informative, and, more significantly, it is very original in not only its substantive areas of analysis, but, and here is the nub of its genuine originality, its focus upon a way of thinking about ethnomethodology which uses it as a way of describing the logic of recurrent social situations in many different contexts and circumstances. This is definitely a huge contribution. [...] A really illuminating piece of scholarship. We are truly fortunate to have this level of work addressed to issues in our field.”
Jeff Coulter, Boston University
“Baudouin Dupret’s book brings together a fascinating series of studies dealing with a diversity of settings and cases. Their conceptual link lies in the situated practices for managing and establishing truth. The book raises several interesting challenges. [...] These challenges make the book very stimulating. If it is not sure that truth always represents the core issue of all of the practices studied, it is sure that the book offers an important development of the ethnomethodological perspective on key contemporary topics such as the establishment, contestation, reproduction of norms, standards, values, identity, normality, morality and truth.”
Lorenza Mondada, University of Basel, in Journal of Language and Politics Vol. 15:4 (2016)
Cited by (16)
Cited by 16 other publications
Belkaïd, Meryem
Greco, Luca
Mouna, Khalid & Oussama El Oualidi
Fliche, Benoît & Christophe Pons
Nasi, Nicola
Kaufmann, Laurence & Pierre-Nicolas Oberhauser
Rhani, Zakaria
Caronia, Letizia
Dupret, Baudouin & Clémentine Gutron
Dupret, Baudouin & Clémentine Gutron
Roca-Cuberes, Carles & Rafael Ventura
Caronia, Letizia & Luigina Mortari
Dupret, Baudouin & Louis Quéré
[no author supplied]
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General