1st Edition

Drugspeak The Analysis of Drug Discourse

By John Booth Davies Copyright 1997
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    Drugspeak The Analysis of Drug Discourse describes the way in which conversations between drug users vary and change according to context and circumstance in ways that suggest that there is no single truth about the state we call addicted. The central thesis of the book is that the explanations that drug users give for their drug use make sense not so much as sources of facts, but as primarily functional statements shaped by a climate of moral and legal censure. Consequently the significance of drug conversations lies not in their literal semantics but in the purposes such conversations serve. The argument raises a number of fundamental issues about the performative rather than the informative nature of language, about the nature of the scientific facts concerning drug use, and about the very nature of science itself. Starting with a general overview of the problems arising from a mechanistic and deterministic view of science, the book identifies a need for a new approach to the un

    Drug Taking and the Laws of Nature Diagnostic Criteria: Scientific Definition or Functional Discourse? The Status of Verbal Report Social Criterion Analysis Modelling Drugspeak Predicting Behaviour from Speech

    Biography

    John Booth Davies