Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science

This is the first comprehensive anthology in the philosophy of social science to appear since the late 1960s. Covering all of the major areas in the discipline, it will serve as the standard source for scholarship in the field and could be used as the basis for an entire course. The anthology offers one complete, convenient, and well-chosen selection of readings, plus three specially commissioned articles that encompass the entire range of topics in the field and cover both sides of currently hot debates about explanation, methodological individualism, and the special sciences. The introductions to each section provide a map through the discipline. Michael Martin is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. Lee C. McIntyre is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colgate University. Sections cover: Explanation, Prediction, and Laws. Interpretation and Meaning. Rationality. Functional Explanation. Reductionism, Individualism, and Holism. Objectivity and Values. Problems of the Special Sciences. Commissioned articles: Taylor on Interpretation and the Sciences of Mani Michael Martin. Microfoundations of Marxism, D. Little. Evidential Constraints: Pragmatic Empiricism in Archaeology, A. Wylie.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Sources and Acknowledgments
Are the Social Sciences Really Inferior?	p. 5
What Would an Adequate Philosophy of Social Science Look Like?	p. 21
The Function of General Laws in History	p. 43
The Theory of Complex Phenomena	p. 55
A Possible Distinction between Traditional Scientific Disciplines and the Study of Human Behavior	p. 71
Psychology as Philosophy	p. 79
General Laws and Explaining Human Behavior	p. 91
Defending Laws in the Social Sciences	p. 111
Complexity and Social Scientific Laws	p. 131
Reflexive Predictions	p. 145
Human Nature and Human History	p. 163
The Rationale of Actions	p. 173
Interpretation and the Sciences of Man	p. 181
Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture	p. 213
Hermeneutics and the Hypothetico-Deductive Method	p. 233
Another Look at the Doctrine of Verstehen	p. 247
Taylor on Interpretation and the Sciences of Man	p. 259
Some Problems about Rationality	p. 285
The Status of Rationality Assumptions in Interpretation and in the Explanation of Action	p. 299
The Nature and Scope of Rational-Choice Explanation	p. 311
The Principle of Charity and the Problem of Irrationality (Translation and the Problem of Irrationality)	p. 323
The Logic of Functional Analysis	p. 349
Function and Cause	p. 377
Functional Explanation: In Marxism	p. 391
Functional Explanation: In Social Science	p. 403
Assessing Functional Explanations in the Social Sciences	p. 415
Social Facts	p. 433
Historical Explanation in the Social Sciences	p. 441
Methodological Individualism Reconsidered	p. 451
Methodological Individualism and Social Explanation	p. 459
Microfoundations of Marxism	p. 479
Reduction, Explanation, and Individualism	p. 497
Social Science and the Mental	p. 515
"Objectivity" in Social Science and Social Policy	p. 535
Neutrality in Political Science	p. 547
The Value-Oriented Bias of Social Inquiry	p. 571
The Philosophical Importance of the Rosenthal Effect	p. 585
Psychology Constructs the Female	p. 597
Reasoning about Ourselves: Feminist Methodology in the Social Sciences	p. 611
A Method for Critical Research	p. 625
The Methodology of Positive Economics	p. 647
If Economics Isn't Science, What Is It?	p. 661
Actions, Reasons, and Causes	p. 675
Special Sciences (or: The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis)	p. 687
Narrative Explanations: The Case of History	p. 701
The Autonomy of Historical Understanding	p. 713
On the Possibility of Lawful Explanation in Archaeology	p. 733
Evidential Constraints: Pragmatic Objectivism in Archaeology	p. 747
Bibliography	p. 767
Index	p. 773
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science

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