Microfoundations, Method, and Causation: On the Philosophy of the Social SciencesTransaction Publishers - 272 頁 The convergence of inexactness and intelligibility in social phenomena makes social and historical inquiry fascinating. The social world is not chaotic and social processes are not unrelated strings of events. We can explain social patterns in ways that illuminate social outcomes. At the same time, the social world does not constitute a closed, determined system of variables and outcomes, in the same way that quantum chemistry systemizes the properties of all physical structures. Instead, the social sciences are a tangle of cross-cutting, overlapping sets of theories, hypotheses, causal models, idealized facts, interpretive principles, and bodies of empirical findings that may illuminate but do not reduce. In "Microfoundations, Method, and Causation, "Daniel Little combines a purely philosophical perspective on social science, with the theoretical and empirical practice of working scientists. Part 1 focuses on the theory of popular politics constructed within the context of analytical Marxism. In part 2, Little asks if rational choice theory provides an adequate basis for explaining patterns of social, political, and economic behavior in traditional China. The essays in part 3 reveal the philosophy of social science as understood by philosophers. Here, Little probes issues of objectivity, empiricism, and generalizations, and makes the case that social generalizations are not akin to laws of nature. Little's approach to social science research effectively points out the limits inherent in social theories, as well as questions and answers that may be posed to the social world. In a clear, compelling, and honest fashion, he urges both the social scientist and the philosopher who studies the social sciences, to make the most of empirical methods of research to develop hypotheses about the social world. As such, this is a must read for sociologists, social theorists, and philosophers. |
搜尋書籍內容
第 1 到 5 筆結果,共 73 筆
... Problem to Theory , Mario Bunge Philosophy of Science , Volume 2 : From Explanation to Justification , Mario Bunge Critical Approaches to Science and Philosophy , edited by Mario Bunge Microfoundations , Method , and Causation : On the ...
... problems in the philoso- phy of social science retreat in significance . It is possible to address these foundational questions from two ends : from the fully general and a priori perspective of pure philosophy , or through reflection ...
... problems . The essays in this Part focus on the theory of popular politics that can be constructed within the context of the premises of analytical Marxism . And it emerges that many of the problems that arise in the effort to formulate ...
... problems are ubiquitous among social phenomena ( 1 , 3 , 5,7 ) ; • there are no supra - individual actors in social causation ( 1 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 10 ) . For this observer , at least , the fascination of social and historical inquiry ...
... problems in the logic of explanation of collective phenomena and problems concerning functionalist explanation . These criticisms oper- ate at a level of abstraction which is closer to the actual practice of social science , and ...
內容
xiii | |
25 | |
Marxism and Popular Politics | 49 |
Explanation in Area Studies | 75 |
RationalChoice Theory and Asian Studies | 77 |
Collective Action and the Traditional Village | 99 |
Identity Politics Microfoundations for Asian Studies | 121 |
The Brenner Debate | 129 |
Objectivity Generalization and Causation | 167 |
Evidence and Objectivity in the Social Sciences | 169 |
Causal Explanation in the Social Sciences | 193 |
An Experiment in Causal Reasoning | 211 |
On the Scope and Limits of Generalization in the Social Sciences | 233 |
References | 253 |
Index | 265 |
The HighLevel Equilibrium Trap | 147 |