Philosophies of Social Science : The Classic and Contemporary Readings

by Delanty, Gerard; Strydom, Piet

• ISBN13: 9780335208845
• ISBN10: 0335208843
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Open Univ Pr

Summary

"This book will certainly prove to be a useful resource and reference point ... a good addition to anyone's bookshelf." Network "This is a superb collection, expertly presented. The overall conception seems splendid, giving an excellent sense of the issues... The selection and length of the readings is admirably judged, with both the classic texts and the few unpublished pieces making just the right points." William Outhwaite, Professor of Sociology, University of Sussex "... an indispensable book for all of us in philosophy and the social sciences who teach and care about the shape of social knowledge in the future." Steven Seidman, Professor of Sociology, State University of New York Albany "For a comprehensive account of the ways in which world transformations affect claims to social scientific knowledge, one need look no further than Gerard Delanty and Piet Strydom's Philosophies of Social Science. ...this collection captures nicely the increasingly engaged political nature of the philosophy of social science. Debates about pragmatism, feminism and postmodernism are particularly well represented" The Australian What is social science? How does it differ from the other sciences? What is the meaning of method in social science? What is the nature and limits of scientific knowledge? This collection of over sixty extracts from classic works on the philosophy of social science provides an essential textbook and a landmark reference in the field. It highlights the work of some of the most influential authors who have shaped social science. The texts explore the question of truth, the meaning of scientific knowledge, the nature of methodology and the relation of science to society, including edited extracts from both classic and contemporary works by authors such as Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Max Horkheimer, Jurgen Habermas, Alvin Gouldner, Karl-Otto Apel, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Dorothy Smith, Donna Haraway, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida and Claude Levi-Strauss. The readings are representative of the major schools of thought, including European and American trends in particular as well as approaches that are often excluded from mainstream traditions. From a teaching and learning perspective the volume is strengthened by extensive introductions to each of the six sections, as well as a general introduction to the reader as a whole. These introductions contextualise the readings and offer succinct summaries of them. This volume is the definitive companion to the study of the philosophy of social science, taught within undergraduate or postgraduate courses in sociology and the social sciences.

Author Biography

Gerard Delanty is Professor of Sociology in the University of Liverpool, UK. He was Visiting Professor at York University, Toronto in 1998, at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan in 2000, and he has taught at universities in Ireland, Germany and Italy. His books include Social Science: Beyond Constructivism and Realism (1997), Social Theory in a Changing World (1999), Modernity and Postmodernity: Knowledge, Power, the Self (2000), Challenging Knowledge: The University in the Knowledge Society (2002).

Piet Strydom is Statutory Lecturer in Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Cork. He is a former founder-director of the Centre for European Social Research, Cork. Besides many articles on social theory and the philosophy of social science in anthologies and in such journals as Telos, Political Studies, Theory, Culture & Society, Philosophy and Social Criticism, European Journal of Social Theory, Current Sociology and Sociological Theory, books he has published include Discourse and Knowledge (2000), and Risk, Environment and Society (2002). He is currently writing a book on the new cognitive sociology.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements	xi
Introduction What is the philosophy of social science?	1	(12)
PART 1 Positivism, its dissolution and the emergence of post-empiricism	13	(72)
Introduction: a general outline	13	(5)
The selected texts	18	(8)
Emile Durkheim	26	(5)
What is a social fact? (1895)
Otto Neurath	31	(4)
The scientific world conception (1929)
Carl G. Hempel	35	(4)
Concept and theory in social science (1952)
Ernst Nagel	39	(3)
Methodological problems of the social sciences (1961)
Karl Popper	42	(5)
The problem of induction (1934)
Rudolf Carnap	47	(4)
Confirmation, testing and meaning (1936)
Talcott Parsons	51	(4)
Theory and empirical fact (1937)
A.J. Ayer	55	(2)
The characterization of sense-data (1940)
W.V.O. Quine	57	(5)
Two dogmas of empiricism (1951)
Ludwig Wittgenstein	62	(8)
Language games and meaning (1953)
Stephen Toulmin	70	(2)
The evolution of scientific ideas (1961)
Thomas Kuhn	72	(6)
A role for history (1962)
Imre Lakatos	78	(3)
Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes (1970)
Paul Feyerabend	81	(4)
Against method (1975)
PART 2 The interpretative tradition	85	(122)
Introduction: a general outline	85	(3)
The selected texts	88	(11)
Wilhelm Dilthey	99	(3)
The development of hermeneutics (1900)
Georg Simmel	102	(5)
On the nature of historical understanding (1918)
How is society possible? (1908)
Max Weber	107	(14)
`Objectivity' in social science (1904)
Sigmund Freud	121	(4)
The dream-work (1900) A philosophy of life (1932)
Ernst Cassirer	125	(3)
From a critique of abstraction to relationalism (1910)
Karl Mannheim	128	(6)
Competition as a cultural phenomenon (1929)
Alfred Schutz	134	(8)
Concept and theory formation in the social sciences (1954)
Maurice Merleau-Ponty	142	(5)
The philosopher and sociology (1960)
Martin Heidegger	147	(5)
The age of the world picture (1938)
Peter Winch	152	(6)
Philosophy and science (1958)
Hans-Georg Gadamer	158	(6)
Hermeneutical understanding (1960)
Jurgen Habermas	164	(8)
The hermeneutic claim to universality (1973)
Paul Ricoeur	172	(10)
Towards a critical hermeneutic: hermeneutics and the critique of ideology (1973)
Charles Taylor	182	(5)
Interpretation and the sciences of man (1971)
Clifford Geertz	187	(4)
The thick description of culture (1973)
Aaron Cicourel	191	(3)
Method and measurement (1964)
Harold Garfinkel	194	(8)
Rational properties of scientific and common-sense activities (1960)
Erving Goffman	202	(5)
Primary frameworks (1974)
PART 3 The critical tradition	207	(70)
Introduction: a general outline	207	(3)
The selected texts	210	(8)
Max Horkheimer	218	(6)
Traditional and critical theory (1937)
Herbert Marcuse	224	(4)
Philosophy and critical theory (1937)
Theodor W. Adorno	228	(6)
Sociology and empirical research (1969)
Jurgen Habermas	234	(12)
Knowledge and human interests (1965)
The tasks of a critical theory (1981)
Karl-Otto Apel	246	(13)
Types of social science in light of human cognitive interests (1977)
Albrecht Wellmer	259	(5)
Critical theory of society (1969)
Roberto Mangabeira Unger	264	(3)
The critical argument (1975)
Alvin Gouldner	267	(10)
Towards a reflexive sociology (1970)
PART 4 Pragmatism, semiotics and transcendental pragmatics	277	(44)
Introduction: a general outline	277	(3)
The selected texts	280	(6)
Charles S. Peirce	286	(4)
A definition of pragmatic and pragmatism (1902)
John Dewey	290	(8)
Social inquiry (1938)
Charles Morris	298	(11)
Foundations of the theory of signs (1938)
Pragmatics and semantics (1946)
C. Wright Mills	309	(7)
Situated actions and vocabularies of motive (1940)
Karl-Otto Apel	316	(5)
Transcendental pragmatics (1979)
PART 5 The structuralist controversy: language, discouse and practice	321	(44)
Introduction: a general outline	321	(4)
The selected texts	325	(5)
Claude Levi-Strauss	330	(10)
Structural analysis in linguistics and in anthropology (1958)
Language and the analysis of social laws (1951)
Lucien Goldmann	340	(2)
The human sciences and philosophy (1966)
Michel Foucault	342	(12)
The order of things (1966)
Power/knowledge (1976)
Jacques Derrida	354	(5)
Structure, sign and play in the discourses of the human sciences (1966)
Pierre Bourdieu	359	(6)
The logic of practice (1980)
PART 6 New directions and challenges	365	(103)
Introduction: a general outline	365	(12)
The selected texts	377	(7)
Richard J. Bernstein	384	(4)
`Anti-foundationalism' (1991)
Pierre Bourdieu	388	(12)
Radical doubt (1992)
On science and politics (1999)
Anthony Giddens	400	(5)
Social science as a double hermeneutic (1984)
Dorothy Smith	405	(5)
The standpoint of women in the everyday world (1987)
Donna Haraway	410	(6)
Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective (1988)
Patricia Hill Collins	416	(3)
The sociological significance of black feminist thought (1986)
Karin Knorr-Cetina	419	(2)
Strong constructivism (1993)
Ian Hacking	421	(7)
What is social construction? The teenage pregnancy example (2002)
Steve Fuller	428	(8)
The project of social epistemology and the elusive problem of knowledge in contemporary society (2002)
Niklas Luhmann	436	(6)
The cognitive program of constructivism and a reality that remains unknown (1990)
Roy Bhaskar	442	(6)
Transcendental realism and the problem of naturalism (1979)
Jon Elster	448	(8)
Rational choice and the explanation of social action (2001)
Randall Collins	456	(4)
Sociological realism (1998)
Jurgen Habermas	460	(8)
Realism after the linguistic-pragmatic turn (1999)
Further reading	468	(7)
Index	475