Intellectual Styles by Johan Galtung Seminar: Innovation, Change and Decision-Making in international Organisations Kat

1. Intellectual Styles by Johan Galtung Seminar: Innovation, Change and Decision-Making in international Organisations Katja Schülke, Björn Bauer

2. Overview: • Biography of Johan Galtung • Definition of Intellectual Style • Dimensions of Intellectual Styles • 3.1 Paradigm Analysis • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • 3.3 Commentary on others • Summary of the four Intellectual Styles • Conditions and Consequences • World Intellectual Style

3. Biography of Johan Galtung • One of the great figures in • Peace Studies • Born 1930 in Norway • Degrees in Mathematics and • Sociology • Established the first peace research institute in 1959 • Professor of Conflict and Peace Research • 1987 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize • Director of Transcend

4. 2. Definition of Intellectual Style Style Center Periphery USA, GB Canada, Australia saxonic nipponic Japan --- tectonic Germany Eastern Europe gallic France Latin countries „[…] basic culture-bound models of thought and behavior shown principally by intellectuals.“

5. 3. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • Paradigm Analysis • Description of reality • Theory Formation • Commentary on others

6. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.1 Paradigm Analysis • Paradigm Analysis means to recognize • and to analyse the paradigm you use • Try to discover the limitations of your own • intellect

7. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.1 Paradigm Analysis • Tectonic and Gallic: • Strong in Paradigm Analysis • Saxonic and Nipponic: • Weak in Paradigm Analysis

8. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • Description of reality: • Deals with the importance and degree of data • collection and documentation • Theory Formation: • Refers to the process how theories are set up and • if they are based on data • „[…] theory formation is the stringing together of • words, with occasional anchoring in a data base.“ • (Galtung, )

9. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation Both dimensions act as counterparts Saxonic Teutonic Gallic Nipponic Description of reality strong weak weak strong Theory Formation weak strong strong weak

10. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • Saxonic: • Penchant for documentation • Analyse all sources concealing nothing • Goal is to find all relevant information • Faith and beliefs enter to a small degree • Tolerant and democratic, less elitist • Underlying figure of theory formation are • a couple of small pyramids

11. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • Gallic: • Intellectual activity has at its very center • theory formation • Function of data would be to illustrate rather • than to demonstrate • Persuasion is carried by elegance • Words in theories connote something and • carry conviction

12. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • There is a totality to things, a balance rather • than a center (hammock) • Gallics goal is elegance (if necessary at the • expense of rigor) • Elitist (only the strongest survive •  Darwinian struggle)

13. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • Teutonic: • Intellectual activity has at its very center • theory formation • Function of data would be to illustrate rather • than to demonstrate • Purely deductive • Goalto arrive from a small number of premises at • a high number of conclusions

14. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • One big pyramid is the forming exercise • The teutonic aim for rigor (if necessary at the • expense of elegance) • Elitist (only the strongest survive •  Darwinian struggle)

15. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.2 Description of reality and Theory Formation • Nipponic: • Very different visions of how real reality is constituted • Dialectic way of thinking • Little or no theory at all being developed • Japanese almost never pronounce absolute statements • Underlying figure of theory formation is a circle •  no beginning and no end • tolerant and democratic, less elitist • (opposed to gallic and teutonic)

16. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.3 Commentary on other intellectuals • Saxonic: • Pluralism is an important value • Togetherness / Team Work • Debate is seen as a source of delight • Changing opinion in the course of a • debate is appreciated

17. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.3 Commentary on other intellectuals • Gallic and Tectonic: • Presentator has the role of a defendant • No complimentary introduction • Discussants go straight for the weakest points • Nobody changes opinion • Change opinion in the course of the • debate is not honorable • Engage in a debate with a strict • antagonist would be consideredhopeless

18. Dimensions of Intellectual Style • 3.3 Commentary on other intellectuals • Nipponic: • Not very skillful at debating • Established social relations can not be harmed • Collectivistic solidarityno victimisation • Classification into schools preempts a debate • No direct focus on weak argumentations

19. 4. Summary of the four Intellectual Styles • Typical question when somebody is faced with a proposition: • Saxonic: How do you operationalize it? • Teutonic: How can you trace this back from basic principles? • Gallic: Is it possible to say this in French? • Nipponic: Who is your master?

20. 5. Conditions and Consequences • Relationship between language and Intellectual Style • A language has to fit the intellectual style of • the concerned culture • Class differences in languages are related • to differences in Intellectual Style •  Intellectual Style has a class character

21. 5. Conditions and Consequences • Intellectual Style and the culturally defined • notion of truth • Permanent truth  Deductive Intellectual Style • Flexible truth  Dialectical Intellectual Style • Notions of truth are related to a country`s status • in the world order

22. 5. Conditions and Consequences • Intellectual Style and social structures • vertical, polarized and individualist tectonic • horizontal, individualist and polarized  gallic • horizontal, individualist and less polarized  saxonic • vertical, collectivist and non polarized  nipponic

23. 5. Conditions and Consequences • The situation of peripheries • Hypothesis: periphery intellectual cultures don`t • produce anything new, but do only imitate their • center

24. 6. World Intellectual Style • World Intellectual Style is improbable • because of cultural and language variety • If there was a World Intellectual Style •  Saxonic • industrialization • exigencies of UN system

25. Thank you for your attention!