User:CT Spring 2008

Critical Thinking - Spring 2008 New York University

Class Glossary of Terms

Structuralism - from tompkins

Morality

Post-structuralism

Propaganda is the spreading of information to directly hurt or help a situation; telling just one side of the story leaving many sides out of public knowledge; it involves emotions rather than knowledge (using persuation to influence). [H.Kimball]

Modernity ~ is a term used to describe the condition of being related to modernism. Since the term "modern" is used to describe a wide range of periods, modernity must be understood in its context, the industrial age of the 19th century, and its role in sociology, which since its beginning in that era examined the leap from pre-industrial to industrial society, sometimes considering events of the 18th century as well. For the period since the Middle Ages, the term Modern Times is used. (K. Corbett)

Signifier/Signified: In semiotics (the study of signs and how they are used), a distinction is made between the two inseparable components of a sign: the signifier and the signified. Usually, semiotics is used in the study of language, where the signifier is a set of speech sounds or marks on a page, and the signified is the concept or idea behind the sign. In Williams’ Advertising: The Magic System, advertising turns commodities (beer, for example) into desirable signifiers (masculinity, youth, neighborliness). ~K. Stuart

The Magic System: A short-hand for modern advertising ability to “transform” commodities into stand-ins for (mostly) manufactured, desirable associations. ~K. Stuart