Theory and Progress in Social Science

ISBN-13: 9780521574945 / Angielski / Miękka / 1997 / 272 str.

James B. Rule

Opis

This work attacks questions that have long troubled social scientists--questions of the cumulative nature of social inquiry. Does the knowledge generated by the study of social, political, and economic life grow more comprehensive over time? Do today's social scientists in any meaningful sense know more than their intellectual ancestors about such perennial concerns as the origins of war and peace, or the causes of economic growth, or the forces shaping social stratification, or origins of civil upheaval? These questions go to the heart of social scientists' soul-searching as to whether they are indeed engaged in "science."

Recenzje

"Rule has an answer that is well worth pondering." Anthony Oberschall, Social Forces

Spis treści

Introduction: Progress: formal and substantive; 1. Dilemmas of intellectual progress; 2. The reckoning of progress; Introduction to Part II; 3. Rational choice; 4. From Parsons to Alexander: closure through theoretical generality; 5. Network analysis; 6. Feminist analysis in social science James Rule and Leslie Irvine; Introduction to Part III; 7. Theory as expression; 8. Theory for coping; 9. Summary and conclusion.