Individualism and the Unity of Science

Individualism and the Unity of Science PDF Author: Harold Kincaid
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847686636
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
In this original and important book, Harold Kincaid defends a view of the special sciences -- all sciences outside physics -- as autonomous and nonreducible. He argues that the biological and social sciences provide explanations that cannot be captured by explanations at the level of their constituent parts, and yet that this does not commit us to mysterious, nonphysical entities like vital forces or group minds. A look at real scientific practice shows that the many different sciences can be unified in a way that leaves them each an autonomous explanatory role. This book will be of great interest to philosophers of science and social scientists.

Individualism and the Unity of Science

Individualism and the Unity of Science PDF Author: Harold Kincaid
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847686636
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
In this original and important book, Harold Kincaid defends a view of the special sciences -- all sciences outside physics -- as autonomous and nonreducible. He argues that the biological and social sciences provide explanations that cannot be captured by explanations at the level of their constituent parts, and yet that this does not commit us to mysterious, nonphysical entities like vital forces or group minds. A look at real scientific practice shows that the many different sciences can be unified in a way that leaves them each an autonomous explanatory role. This book will be of great interest to philosophers of science and social scientists.

Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate

Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate PDF Author: Julie Zahle
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319053442
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
This collection of papers investigates the most recent debates about individualism and holism in the philosophy of social science. The debates revolve mainly around two issues: firstly, whether social phenomena exist sui generis and how they relate to individuals. This is the focus of discussions between ontological individualists and ontological holists. Secondly, to what extent social scientific explanations may and should, focus on individuals and social phenomena respectively. This issue is debated amongst methodological holists and methodological individualists. In social science and philosophy, both issues have been intensively discussed and new versions of the dispute have appeared just as new arguments have been advanced. At present, the individualism/holism debate is extremely lively and this book reflects the major positions and perspectives within the debate. This volume is also relevant to debates about two closely related issues in social science: the micro-macro debate and the agency-structure debate. This book presents contributions from key figures in both social science and philosophy, in the first such collection on this topic to be published since the 1970s.

Methodological Individualism

Methodological Individualism PDF Author: Lars Udehn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134601905
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Throughout the history of social thought, there has been a constant battle over the true nature of society, and the best way to understand and explain it. This volume covers the development of methodological individualism, including the individualist theory of society from Greek antiquity to modern social science. It is a comprehensive and systematic treatment of methodological individualism in all its manifestations.

The Unity of Science

The Unity of Science PDF Author: Rudolf Carnap
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136654291
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 107

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Book Description
As a leading member of the Vienna Circle, Rudolph Carnap's aim was to bring about a "unified science" by applying a method of logical analysis to the empirical data of all the sciences. This work, first published in English in 1934, endeavors to work out a way in which the observation statements required for verification are not private to the observer. The work shows the strong influence of Wittgenstein, Russell, and Frege.

A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography

A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography PDF Author: Aviezer Tucker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444351524
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
A COMPANION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY The philosophy of historiography examines our representations and knowledge of the past, the relation between evidence, inference, explanation and narrative. Do we possess knowledge of the past? Do we just have probable beliefs about the past, or is historiography a piece of convincing fiction? The philosophy of history is the direct philosophical examination of history, whether it is necessary or contingent, whether it has a direction or whether it is coincidental, and if it has a direction, what it is, and how and why it is unfolding? The fifty entries in this Companion cover the main issues in the philosophies of historiography and history, including natural history and the practices of historians. Written by an international and multi-disciplinary group of experts, these clearly written entries present a cutting-edge updated picture of current research in the philosophies of historiography and history. This Companion will be of interest to philosophers, historians, natural historians, and social scientists.

Rationality and Explanation in Economics

Rationality and Explanation in Economics PDF Author: Maurice Lagueux
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135150346
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book analyses the role of rationality in economics focusing on which conditions the rationality assumption makes valuable explanations possible and what kinds of explanation are then involved.

Consilience

Consilience PDF Author: E. O. Wilson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804154066
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 485

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them." —The Wall Street Journal One of our greatest scientists—and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Nature and The Ants—gives us a work of visionary importance that may be the crowning achievement of his career. In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities. Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. He explores the chemistry of the mind and the genetic bases of culture. He postulates the biological principles underlying works of art from cave-drawings to Lolita. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.

Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences

Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences PDF Author: Harold Kincaid
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521558914
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This 1996 book argues that behind the diverse methods of the natural sciences lies a common core of scientific rationality.

The Philosophy of Science

The Philosophy of Science PDF Author: Sahotra Sarkar
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415939275
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1012

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Book Description
The first in-depth reference to the field that combines scientific knowledge with philosophical inquiry, this encyclopedia brings together a team of leading scholars to provide nearly 150 entries on the essential concepts in the philosophy of science. The areas covered include biology, chemistry, epistemology and metaphysics, physics, psychology and mind, the social sciences, and key figures in the combined studies of science and philosophy. (Midwest).

Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences

Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences PDF Author: Byron Kaldis
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1412986893
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1195

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Book Description
The entries in this encyclopedia give readers an opportunity to explore interconnections, clarify commonalities as well as differences or comparative contrasts, discover new fields or ideas of intellectual interest, explore adjacent conceptual zones that may be found to further expand their own disciplinary domains, and also understand better their own academic areas of expertise and the historical provenance of each. -- p. xxxi.