Author: Graham MacDonald
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136838619
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
Originally published in 1980, this book examines the major issues in the philosophy of social science, paying specific attention to cross-cultural understanding, humanism versus scientism, individualism versus collectivism, and the shaping of theory by evaluative commitment. Arguing for a cross-cultural conception of human beings, the authors defend humanism and individualism, and reject the notion that social inquiry is necessarily vitiated by an adherence to values.
Author: William Outhwaite
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136830766
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480
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Book Description
First published in 1983, this book examines the problems of concept formation in the social sciences, and in particular sociology, from the standpoint of a realistic philosophy of science. Beginning with a discussion of positivistic, hermeneutic, rationalist and realistic philosophies of science, Dr Outhwaite argues that realism is best able to furnish rational criteria for the choice and specification of social scientific concepts. A realistic philosophy of science therefore acts as his reference point for the dialectical presentation of alternative accounts.
Author: Zygmunt Bauman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136955542
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 184
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Book Description
Originally published in 1978, this important work, by one of the leading European social theorists, is arguably the best introduction to the hermeneutic tradition as a whole. It is designed to help students of sociology and philosophy place the problems of "understanding social science" in their historical and philosophical context. It does so by presenting the major current in sociological thought as responses to the challenge of hermeneutics. The idea that true knowledge of social life can be attained only if human conduct is seen as meaningful action whose meaning is accordingly grasped has been presented as a discovery of recent sociology. In fact its history is long and its connections plentiful, reaching beyond the boundaries of sociology itself. Yet it is in sociology that the hermeneutic tradition has attracted most interest but most misinterpretation. The debate is in full swing and there is no attempt to offer "correct" solutions - the emphasis instead is upon revealing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the main approaches. However it is Bauman's view that the theory of understanding may achieve valid results only if it treats the problem of understanding as an aspect of the ongoing process of social life.
Author: Hilary Putnam
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136961836
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
First published in 1978, this reissue presents a seminal philosophical work by professor Putnam, in which he puts forward a conception of knowledge which makes ethics, practical knowledge and non-mathematic parts of the social sciences just as much parts of 'knowledge' as the sciences themselves. He also rejects the idea that knowledge can be demarcated from non-knowledge by the fact that the former alone adheres to 'the scientific method'. The first part of the book consists of Professor Putnam's John Locke lectures, delivered at the University of Oxford in 1976, offering a detailed examination of a 'physicalist' theory of reference against a background of the works of Tarski, Carnap, Popper, Hempel and Kant. The analysis then extends to notions of truth, the character of linguistic enquiry and social scientific enquiry in general, interconnecting with the great metaphysical problem of realism, the nature of language and reference, and the character of ourselves.
Author: Peter Morton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317629256
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314
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Book Description
In this title, first published in 1984, Peter Morton argues that in late Victorian Britain a group of novelists and essayists quite consciously sought and found ideas in post-Darwinian biology that were susceptible to imaginative transformation. The period between 1860 and 1900 was a time of great confusion in biology; the natural selection hypothesis was in retreat before its acute critics, and no extension of evolutionary theory to human affairs was too bizarre to attract its quota of enthusiasts. Writers capitalised on this prevailing uncertainty and used it to their own artistic or polemic ends. A fascinating and interdisciplinary title, this reissue will interest students of late Victorian literature, as well as historians of biological theory between The Origin of Species and Mendel.
Author: Denton E. Morrison
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351271598
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196
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Book Description
Originally published in 1975, Energy provides a comprehensive bibliography of energy in the context of the social sciences. The book argues that energy problems are best seen in the context of social phenomena, such as social attitudes, social behaviours, social institutions and structures and populations. The authors argue that to examine energy problems outside of the context of social factors is to lack a full and detailed examination of the subject. The bibliography provides a comprehensive collection of sources from a range of areas in the social sciences on the subject of energy.
Author: Denton Morrison
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351235648
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283
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Book Description
Originally published in 1977, Energy II provides a comprehensive and updated bibliography of energy in the context of the social sciences. Following on from the first bibliography published in 1975, this book offers a fully updated bibliography, and argues that energy problems are best seen in the context of social phenomena, such as social attitudes, social behaviours, social institutions and structures and populations. The book provides a unique list of references that examine energy problems outside of the context of social factors.
Author: Roman Jakobson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317857399
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 76
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Book Description
First published in Great Britain in 1973, Main Trends in the Science of Language was part of a series of books that resulted from a study carried out by UNESCO in collaboration with national and international research centres in the social sciences, as well as with groups of individual scholars. The book examines the position of linguistics in the years surrounding the publication of the book before considering the subject’s potential, future development. It looks at linguistic vistas, the place of linguistics among the sciences of man and linguistics and natural sciences. This book will be of interest to the educated reader, research workers, and professional associations as well as to national and international institutions that organize, plan and finance scientific research.
Author: Ted Honderich
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131751582X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
Leading British, American and European philosophers contribute to this collection of essays, first published in 1976, in political philosophy. They are essays which have to do in different ways with better societies than the ones we have, and with ways of getting them. They exemplify what can fairly be called real political philosophy. Its past makers have been Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, Mill and Marx, and it consists in advocacy of certain social ends and of certain means, rather than uncommitted inquiry or comment. The advocacy is of a kind, of course, which depends on analysis and argument. The book will be of interest not only to those who are primarily concerned with philosophy, but students of politics as well.
Author: Israel Scheffler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317810856
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263
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Book Description
First published in 1963, this title considers the philosophical problems encountered when attempting to provide a clear and general explanation of scientific principles, and the basic confrontation between such principles and experience. Beginning with a detailed introduction that considers various approaches to the philosophy and theory of science, Israel Scheffler then divides his study into three key sections – Explanation, Significance and Confirmation – that explore how these complex issues involved have been dealt with in contemporary research. This title, by one of America’s leading philosophers, will provide a valuable analysis of the theory and problems surrounding the Philosophy of Science.
