Full Description
Understanding the deepest issues in the philosophy of social science means understanding the personal and cultural biases social scientists cannot help but bring to their research.
This introduction is essential for students of philosophy and the social sciences, who are interested in the foundations of their disciplines. It focuses on conceptual and methodological questions in a way that identifies the often unexamined assumptions underlying the practice of social science.
These personal and cultural biases are critically analyzed along with the key ways they shape research and the interpretation of findings in different disciplines including psychology, the behavioural sciences and economics.
Chapters are thoroughly updated and do not presume a substantial background in philosophy. They cover new topics including:
§ Problems in the collection and sorting of data, free will-determinism dilemmas and scientific explanations in social science
§ Questions raised by post-truth "positional" epistemologies of the social, led by feminist and race-oriented studies
§ Disguised ideologies including white superiority— the systematic assumption that white people matter more than non-whites and the parallel ideology that men and their contributions to society are more valuable than women.
What makes this introduction unique is the emphasis throughout on how cultural ideals remain hidden away in social-science research, yet colour every aspect of social inquiry: material rarely discussed in the philosophical and professional literature on social science.
Contents
Introduction
Part One: Philosophical and Historical Background
Overview
1. Conceptions of Science
2. Historical and Philosophical Roots of the Social Sciences
3. Five Modes of Social Inquiry
Part Two: Cultural Ideals and Social Science Inquiry
Overview
4. Cultural Ideals I: Instrumentalism
5. Cultural Ideals II: Liberal Individualism
6. Cultural Ideals III: White Superiority and Male Superiority
7. Garbage in - Garbage out: Passing off Cultural Ideals as Scientific Research
Part Three: Disciplinary Issues
Overview
8. The Myth of Value-Neutrality
9. Methodological Holism and Methodological Individualism
10. Handling Data
11. Determinism and Free Will
12. Psychology and the Behavioural Sciences
13. Political Science
14. Economics
Part Three: Natural Science and Human Inquiry: Differences of Degree or Kind?
Overview
15. Comparing Natural Science and Social Inquiry
16. Explanations in the Social Sciences
17. Rational Choice Theory as Representative Example
18. Beyond Objectivism and Relativism
Bibliography
Index
