Good Gossip

ISBN 10: 070060670X / ISBN 13: 9780700606702

Edité par MP-KAN Uni Press of Kansas, 1994

New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. N° de réf. du vendeur FW-9780700606702

Synopsis :

As ubiquitous and influential as gossip is, it has been surprisingly downplayed as a topic of philosophical, psychological, and sociological investigation and debate.

In Good Gossip, twenty-two scholars from several disciplines turn a professional eye to that much-maligned yet heavily practiced form of conversation. Going beyond merely trying to explain a previously ignored human behavior, many of them argue that gossip has unexpected virtues. They show how it contributes to community cohesion and helps individuals better understand their own predicaments, problems, and personal idiosyncrasies in light of knowledge about the life experiences of others. Without gossip, the authors show, we would have no access to such knowledge.

Gossip also serves as a mode by which people resist and subvert power in a world that would otherwise seem overpowering. People gossip about the rich and famous in order to "cut them down to size," and informal gossip networks help overcome the depersonalizing tendencies of modern society.

Provocative and varied, this book looks at gossip from diverse angles by including essays on gossip and humor, logic, morality, privacy, legal and medical issues, feminism, history, rumors, and reputation. Although many of the authors conclude that gossip has a positive aspect that ought to be encouraged rather than prohibited, the collection as a whole does not constitute an unqualified vindication of gossip, but rather paves the way for future debate on this omnipresent pastime.

À propos de l'auteur: Robert F. Goodman is coauthor of Deadlock in School Desegregation and coeditor of Rethinking Knowledge and Values: Reflections Across the Disciplines.

Aaron Ben-Ze'ev is author of The Perceptual System: Philosophical and Psychological Considerations and Aristotle's On the Soul.

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Good Gossip
Éditeur : MP-KAN Uni Press of Kansas
Date d'édition : 1994
Reliure : PAP
Etat : New