New Philosophies of Social Science: Realism, Hermeneutics and Critical Theory

ISBN-13: 9780333363157 / Angielski / Miękka / 1987 / 145 str.

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Opis

The demise of empiricist philosophies of science has contributed to the current disarray of philosophy in the social sciences. This book argues that a realist analysis of the structures and processes which make up the social world can provide a way out of its present impasse. These processes, ranging from the interpersonal negotiation of meaning to the constraining influence of administrative or market structures, cannot be understood as mere constructs either in the minds of the theorist or of the social factors themselves, since they actually generate the social world as we know it. The author develops some implications of this approach and presents a realist view of some of the principal theoretical traditions and controversies within sociology and other social sciences.

Spis treści

Introduction.- Philosophies of Social Science: the Old and the New Realist.- Philosophies of Science.- Realism and Social Science.- Hermeneutics Critical Theory.- Realism and the Sociological Tradition.- Action, Structure and Realist Philosophy.- Index.

O autorze

WILLIAM OUTHWAITE is Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK. His previous publications include Understanding Social Life (1975, 2nd edition 1986) and Concept Formation in Social Science (1983).