The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences

by Turner, Stephen P.; Roth, Paul A.

• ISBN13: 9780631215387
• ISBN10: 0631215387
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780470756478
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-27
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences collects newly commissioned essays that examine fundamental issues in the social sciences.The philosophy of the social sciences is concerned with a wide range of problems that pertain to explanations of human action and thought. This volume is the first of its kind to survey the full range of issues that philosophy of social science now encompasses. These include postmodernism, science studies, feminist philosophy, evolutionary accounts of social life, rational choice theory, practice theory, and causal modeling. The book also provides a retrospective look at the origins of the problem of the scientific character of social science and the changes that the field has undergone. Written by an international cast of leading philosophers, each essay offers an examination of the hottest issues in this field. It is a must-read for philosophers of social science and philosophically inclined social scientists.

Author Biography

Stephen P. Turner is Graduate Research Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Florida. He is the author of many books including Sociological Explanation as Translation (1980). He is also editor of the Cambridge Companion to Max Weber (2000).

Paul A. Roth is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences (1987). He co-founded and co-organizes the annual St. Louis Roundtable in the Philosophy of Social Science and is a member of the editorial board of Philosophy of the Social Sciences.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	vii
Introduction. Ghosts and the Machine: Issues of Agency, Rationality, and Scientific Methodology in Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science	1	(18)
Stephen P. Turner
Paul A. Roth
Part I Pasts	19	(70)
Cause, the Persistence of Teleology, and the Origins of the Philosophy of Social Science	21	(21)
Stephen P. Turner
Phenomenology and Social Inquiry: From Consciousness to Culture and Critique	42	(22)
Brian Fay
Twentieth-century Philosophy of Social Science in the Analytic Tradition	64	(25)
Thomas Uebel
Part II Programs	89	(146)
Critical Theory as Practical Knowledge: Participants, Observers, and Critics	91	(19)
James Bohman
Decision Theory and Degree of Belief	110	(33)
Piers Rawling
The Methodology of Rational Choice	143	(23)
Lars Udehn
Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences	166	(19)
Paul Humphreys
The Practical Turn	185	(22)
David G. Stern
Science & Technology Studies and the Philosophy of Social Sciences	207	(28)
Steve Fuller
Part III Problematics	235	(99)
``See Also Literary Criticism'': Social Science Between Fact and Figures	237	(21)
Hans Kellner
The Descent of Evolutionary Explanations: Darwinian Vestiges in the Social Sciences	258	(33)
Lynn Hankinson Nelson
How Standpoint Methodology Informs Philosophy of Social Science	291	(20)
Sandra Harding
Beyond Understanding: The Career of the Concept of Understanding in the Human Sciences	311	(23)
Paul A. Roth
Bibliography	334	(34)
Index	368