Philosophy of social science : a contemporary introduction
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Philosophy of social science : a contemporary introduction
(Routledge contemporary introductions to philosophy)
Routledge, 2014
- : pbk
- : hbk
Available at 18 libraries
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-285) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Philosophy of Social Science: A Contemporary Introduction examines the perennial questions of philosophy by engaging with the empirical study of society. The book offers a comprehensive overview of debates in the field, with special attention to questions arising from new research programs in the social sciences. The text uses detailed examples of social scientific research to motivate and illustrate the philosophical discussion. Topics include the relationship of social policy to social science, interpretive research, action explanation, game theory, social scientific accounts of norms, joint intentionality, reductionism, causal modeling, case study research, and experimentation.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. What is the Philosophy of Social Science?
The Democratic Peace
Azande Witchcraft
Freedom Riders and Free Riders
Philosophy in the Social Sciences
1.2. A Tour of the Philosophical Neighborhood
Normativity
Naturalism
Reductionism
Excelsior!
2. Objectivity, Values, and the Possibility of a Social Science
2.1. The Ideal of Value-Freedom
The United States Census
Dimensions of Value-Freedom
A Moderate Thesis of Value-Freedom
2.2. Impartiality and Theory Choice
Risk and Error
What About Objectivity?
2.3. Essentially Contested Ideas
Value-Neutrality and Emancipatory Research
Objection: Values and the Logic of Discovery
Value Presuppositions and Implicatures
2.4. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion Questions
Further Reading
3. Theories, Interpretations, and Concepts
3.1. Aggression, Violence, and Video Games
3.2. Defining theoretical concepts
The Empiricist View of Concepts and Theory Structure
Realism, Instrumentalism, and the Problem of Construct Validity
3.3. Interpretivism
Ideal Types and Verstehen
Hermeneutics and Meaning
Thick Description and its Challenges
3.4. Realism and Social Concepts
Social Constructions
Realism about Social Kinds
Looping Effects
3.5. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
4. Interpretive Methodology
4.1. Evidence for Interpretation
Qualitative Research Methods and Their Presuppositions
Authority and Authenticity
Reflexivity
4.2. Rationality, Explanation, and Interpretive Charity
The Problem of Apparent Irrationality
Relativism and Rationality
The Principle of Charity
4.3. Cognition, Evolution, and Interpretation
Bounded and Unbounded Rationality
Cognitive Roots of Culture
Interpretation and Cognitive Explanation
The New Questions of Naturalism
4.4. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
Notes to Chapter 4
5. Action and Agency
5.1. Explaining Action
Admiral Tryon and Instrumental Rationality
The Function of General Laws in History
Reasons and Causes
Re-enactment: Verstehen Revisited
5.2. The Games People Play
Rationality and Utility
Games and Strategies
Equilibria
Nash Equilibria and the Battle of the Bismarck Sea
Multiple Equilibria and Coordination Problems
5.3. Agency
The Psychological Plausibility of Rational Choice Theory
Rational Fools?
Game Theory in the Laboratory
Instrumentalism and Structuralism
5.4. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
6. Reductionism: Structures, Agents, and Evolution
6.1. Explaining Revolutions
6.2. Social Theory and Social Ontology
The Individualism-Holism Debate
Definition and Theoretical Reduction
Supervenience
Methodological Localism
6.3. Agents and Social Explanations
Methodological Individualism
Microfoundations and Moderate Explanatory Individualism
Agency and Mechanistic Explanation
6.4. Evolutionary Explanations
Functions in Evolutionary Perspective
Selectionist Explanations of Cooperation and the Evolution of Norms
Consequences of Selectionism for the Social Sciences
6.5. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
7. Social Norms
7.1. Disenchanting the social world
Is and Ought
Normativism
Good Bad Theories
7.2. Norms and Rational Choices
Convention
Conventionality and Normativity
Social Norms
7.3. Normativity and Practice
Norms and practices
Problems for Practice Theory
Practices Without Regularities
7.4. Reductionism and Naturalized Normativity
Normativism and Holism
Norms, Naturalism, and Supervenience
Prospects for Naturalized Normativity
7.5. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
8. Intentions, Institutions, and Collective Action
8.1. Agency and Collective Intentionality
Team Reasoning
Joint Commitment
Group agency
8.2. Joint Intentionality
Cooperation Again: Ontogeny and Development
Plans and Joint Intentions
We-intentions and the We-mode
Acting as a Group Member
8.3. Intentions and Institutions
The Strange Tale of the Druid Penny
Function and Rules in Institutions
Explaining Social Institutions
8.4. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
9. Causality and Law in the Social World
9.1. The Democratic Peace Hypothesis
9.2. Are There Social Scientific Laws?
Characteristics of Natural Laws
Creativity and Complexity
9.3. Conceptualizing Causation
Constant Conjunction
Linear Equation Modeling and Causal Regularities
Interventionism
Capacities and Nomological Engines
9.4. Models and Mechanisms
Secret Springs and Principles
Correlations, Black Boxes, and Processes
Middle Range Theory and Agent-Based Models
9.5. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
10. Methodologies of Causal Inference
10.1. Bayesian Networks and Causal Modeling
Confounds and Common Causes
Bayesian Inference
Challenges to Causal Modeling
10.2. Case Studies and Causal Structure
The Apparent Value of Case Studies
Epistemological Challenges of Case Studies
Justification and Discovery
10.3. Experimentation
What Can We Learn From Social Scientific Experimentation?
Quasi-Experiments and Randomized Controlled Trials
10.4. Extrapolation and Social Engineering
Evidence-based Policy
The FCC Auction
Breaking the Extrapolator's Circle
Performativity and Social Engineering
10.5. Wrap up
Chapter Summary
Discussion questions
Further Reading
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