Toward a science of man in society : a positive approach to the integration of social knowledge
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Bibliographic Information
Toward a science of man in society : a positive approach to the integration of social knowledge
[s.n.], [20--], c1961
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Reprint. Originally published: The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1961 (Studies in social life ; 6)
Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-221) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
THIS study is concerned with the search for a new unity of social knowledge and social inquiry. As such it is addressed to all those who see in the present compartmentalization and special ization of the social sciences the reason for the bewildering pro liferation of subject matters, the preoccupation with trivia and the failure to make the maximum use of our knowledge for human welfare. More specifically, I am addressing this book to those who are dealing with "interdisciplinary" problems such as the study of foreign areas, the analysis of sociocultural change, economic development of "backward" economies and the planning and teaching of "integrated" courses in the social sciences. The book suggests an answer to the question, How can our specialized knowledge about man and society be unified? As such the study reflects the conviction that all scientific knowledge, in order to make the greatest possible contribution to human welfare, must become comprehensive in character. In fact, such knowledge differs from popular and common-sense understanding precisely by the fact that it is systematically formulated and held together in terms of a few unifying conceptual frameworks. Indeed, all scientific understanding is, above all, an effort to simplify by unifying what has long appeared as unrelated and disparate. Those who believe that compartmentalization and specialization are the royal road to success in the social sciences may find this an irritating book.
Table of Contents
One The Fragmentation of Social Knowledge.- I. Specialization and Compartmentalization: Symptoms and Effects.- 1. Contradictory Orientations in the Social Sciences.- 2. The Fragmentation of Social Knowledge.- 3. The Fragmentation of Social Knowledge and the Modern University.- II. The Causes of Compartmentalization.- 1. Diversity of Explanations.- 2. Secularization and Synthesis.- The Lapse into Naturalism.- The Role of Analogies.- 3. The Limitations of Earlier Syntheses.- 4. Economics and Compartmentalization.- 5. Psychoanalysis and Compartmentalization.- III. Approaches to Integration: A Critical Review.- 1. Integration by Interdepartmentalism.- 2. Integration by Historiography.- 3. Integration by Analogy.- 4. Positivism and the Unity of Science.- 5. Dialectical Materialism and the Integration of Social Knowledge.- Two Levels of Organization Inanimate Matter, Living Organisms and Human Society.- IV. Inanimate Matter.- 1. Complementarity and Uncertainty.- 2. The Determinacy of Macro-Physical Processes.- V. Living Organisms.- 1. The Hereditary Process.- 2. Living Organisms as Open Systems.- 3. Structure and Purpose.- 4. The Psycho-Physical Hypothesis 96 Note on the Origin of Life.- VI. Human Society.- 1. Enculturation.- 2. The Economic System, Power, Coercion, and Government.- 3. Social Action and Social Indeterminacy.- 4. Human Societies as Systems with Specific Structures.- 5. Social Change.- Three Man and Culture as Integrating Conceptual Frameworks.- VII. Integration by Common-Denominator Concepts.- 1. The Nature of Integrating Concepts.- 2. Integrating Conceptual Frameworks in the Social Sciences.- 3. The Complementary Concepts of Man and Culture.- Note on Earlier Attempts to Erect a System of Social Knowledge upon an Explicit Concept of Man.- VIII. Toward a Concept of Man and Human Nature.- 1. The "Premature" Birth of the Human Infant.- 2. Biological Weaknesses as Latent Potentialities.- 3. The Structure of Human Needs and Motives.- 4. Rationality and Emotionality.- 5. A Bio-Cultural Concept of Man and Human Nature.- Note on Monistic Principles of Human Needs and Human Behavior.- IX. The Modern Concept of Culture.- 1. Definition of the Culture Concept.- 2. The "Causes" of Culture.- 3. The Integration of Culture.- 4. Integration, Diversity and Autonomy.- Summary and Conclusions.- Note on Culture and Psychopathology.- X. Integration and the Strategy of Scientific Inquiry.- 1. The Orientation toward the Social Context.- 2. The Preoccupation with Social Structure, Social Dynamics and Cumulative Causation.- 3. The Acceptance of Social Indeterminacy and Incomplete Predictability.- 4. The Importance of Real Types and Substantive Analysis.- XI. Toward of Science of Man in Society.- Index of Authors.- Subject Matter Index.
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