Methodology Books - Page 2

Truth And Method (Continuum Impacts)

Hans-Georg Gadamer, Joel Weinsheimer, Donald G. Marshall

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Klassisch! 5 out of 5 stars.
31 of 33 people found this review helpful.

First, Truth and Method is a true classic. Basically, it sees Gadamer revitalise 'nonscientific' truth, i.e. the experience of truth inaccessible to method and irreducible to bare statement. The book itself does have a structure/setting that makes it difficult to get into initially (it is usefully read in tandem with a good commentary eg. Joel Weinsheimer's 'Gadamer's Hermeneutics'), but it is simply worth the effort.

Second, the review below is mistaken when it attributes to Gadamer the idea that the Old Testament should be read literally. Gadamer refers to Luther's position that "the Scripture has a univocal sense that can be derived from the text", but he does this as part of an historical overview of hermeneutics and, on the very next page, Luther gets refuted by 18thC historicism. Gadamer moves beyond both these positions to reveal how 'literalism' (and - more pressingly - 'historicism') is a projection of unproductive prejudices. It is an "obstruction", that gets in the way of the truth Gadamer seeks. Also, while T&M is relevant to theology, it should be made clear that Gadamer is writing of a philosophical-universal hermeneutics and not something regional.

Editorial Review:

Written in the 1960s, TRUTH AND METHOD is Gadamer's magnum opus. Looking behind the self-consciousness of science, he discusses the tense relationship between truth and methodology. In examining the different experiences of truth, he aims to "present the hermeneutic phenomenon in its fullest extent.

About Philosophy (8th Edition)

Robert Paul Wolff

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

A Professor's Perspective 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Wolff's perennial textbook, now in its eighth edition, has faults. This is a given for any book or other work in the print medium, and, for that matter, for any human artifact. Nevertheless, after teaching philosophy for thirty-six years using everything from classic sources to newspapers to novels as texts, I have settled on Wolff's About Philosophy as the best means for introducting the most diverse of all academic disciplines.
Naturally, the book reflects the author's interests and preferences, although these are never presented as truths above debate. In fact, Wolff reveals his willingness to revise his own traditional, Western preferences for rationality-based theoretical constructs devised (virtually solely) by those of the male gender. Objectivity, too, comes up for careful scrutiny and, ultimately, rejection as an appropriate property of an acceptable philosophical theory.
In the end, About Philosophy is both a highly personal, and yet, a highly accurate documentation of 2500 years of philosophical speculation and research. Its faults may include that, in spite of its thoroughness and clarity, it does not summarize the views of every philosopher and movement in the Western tradition. No volume, introductory or not, could accomplish this, but the ideas selected by Wolff are clearly among the
germinal springboards for the entirety of Western Civilization.

Editorial Review:

This classic introduction to philosophy explores the major fields, problems, theories, and personalities of philosophy through the biographies and writing of leading thinkers. Contemporary Applications sections in each chapter show how classic philosophy connects to contemporary issues. Each chapter begins with a biography of a great philosopher, combines simple, clear explanations with short selections from classic texts, and focuses on WHAT the great philosophers said, and WHY they said it. Theory of Knowledge. Philosophy of Science. Ethical Theory. The Ethical Dimensions of Medicine. Social and Political Philosophy. Philosophy of Art. Philosophy of Religion. For anyone interested in Philosophy.

The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

A. G. Sertillanges

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Absolutely gorgeous book! 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Still a very good book about:
Why (a lot) and how (a little bit) to become a
good thinker. Very inspiring.

The original French version is available for free online
(among others at www.inquisition.ca).

Cheers!
Stefan

Contact with Genius 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

1998 reprint of 1987 edition, Catholic University of America Press, 296 pages (of which 260 pages form the main body of the book)
Translated from the French (1934 2nd edition) by Mary Ryan

I came across this unusual book when discussing with my most well read friend the problem of deciding how much to read. He told me this topic was covered in Sertillanges' book and suggested I read it.

The title makes it sound as if the book might be pretentious, but it is not. In the same way that Peter Drucker's superb The Effective Executive is a book for any knowledge worker rather than just for managers, Sertillanges' book should be helpful for anyone who wishes to work using their intellect, rather than just for rarefied intellectuals.

The 1998 reissue (the 1992 date listed on Amazon.co.uk is incorrect) of the 1987 edition has a new forward by James Schall. I think he captures the essence of Sertillanges' book very well:

"At first sight...this is a quaint book. At second sight it is an utterly demanding book."

The subtitle of The Intellectual Life describes its contents well: "Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods". For Sertillanges, intellectual work is not something done in isolation of the rest of a person's life. He believes strongly that in order to do intellectual work to one's capacity, one must order the whole of one's life with this goal in mind. And further, that this requires habits of simplicity, detachment, note taking, memory, writing and more. His book is thus a step-by-step manual that sets out these requirements from the general (virtues, character) to the specific (note-taking, writing).

For most people who are not already members of religious orders (Sertillanges was a Dominican friar) it would be terrifically demanding to follow all of Sertillanges' prescriptions - and involve major changes to one's life. Sertillanges does believe, however, that if one takes care with the rest of one's life then intellectual work can be done satisfactorily using only a couple of hours a day. His book is thus a mixture of the extremely demanding and eminently practical - particularly as much of his advice involves cutting out and eliminating habits that waste time and disturb thought (e.g. pointless correspondence and interactions with people, reading of novels and newspapers).

After reading Ben Franklin's autobiography and Charlie Munger's Poor Charlie's Almanack at the beginning of the year, I have become increasingly aware of the crucial role of habits in determining the outcome of peoples' lives. I was stupid enough to have spent a good proportion of my life testing out the truth of Franklin's maxim: "Experience keeps a dear school, yet Fools will learn in no other." I no longer have any doubt that forming good habits - and most especially avoiding forming bad ones - is terribly important. After all, reliability - which Munger considers the single most important determining characteristic for a person's life - is really just another habit.

Sertillanges understood this very well and the importance of habits that facilitate intellectual work is a topic that he brings up repeatedly - and in my view very wisely - in his book:

"One acquires facility in thinking just as one acquires facility in playing the piano, in riding, or painting.... The mind gets into the way of doing what is often demanded of it."

This is not the only resemblance between the advice in Sertillanges' book and that given by Charlie Munger (the best source for his ideas and the most useful book I have ever read is Poor Charlie's Almanack). The importance of a broad base of knowledge, the danger of over-specialisation and the critical importance of only a few ideas in each subject are all covered in this book.

Another striking similarity is Sertillanges' view of the importance of 'contact with genius' and how one goes about acquiring wisdom:

"...the principal profit from reading, at least from reading great works, is not the acquisition of scattered truths, it is the increase of our wisdom."

I was left with somewhat mixed feelings as I progressed through The Intellectual Life. At times Sertillanges' overt religiosity became a little much for me (I am not a religious person) and I found his prescriptions rather daunting.

As I neared the end of the book, however, my view changed and I found myself extremely grateful that Sertillanges' had written this book for us. It was partly because his section on writing answered with great clarity some problems that I had been wrestling with, and partly because I realised that one could simply take what one needed from his book - rather than the whole package.

My difficulty in deciding how much to read remains somewhat unresolved: there is a tension between Sertillanges' advice on reading and that of people like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on investment (my own profession/hobby). Sertillanges advises cutting down on excess (particularly undirected) reading, including, for example, newspapers:

"As to newspapers, defend yourself against them with the energy that the continuity and the indiscretion of their assault make indispensable. You must know what the papers contain, but they contain so little..."

Buffett, on the other hand, claims to read five newspapers a day and urges us to read everything in sight!

I suspect the different advice is due to the type of work. Firstly, I am not sure that investing is an inherently intellectual pursuit (Buffett has often said that after an average level of intelligence the right temperament is more important). Secondly, intelligent investment is just applied opportunism - and in order to take advantage of opportunities we must first be aware of their existence.

I did not find this an easy review to write. I have had to leave out various topics that I would like to have discussed more fully (such as Sertillanges' excellent advice on writing) and still feel this review may be overlong. However, I believe a review that does not attempt to set its subject firmly in context is of limited use. I'll leave the final word to Sertillanges:

"There are books everywhere and only a few are necessary."

I commend this unusual book to you as one of the necessary ones.

Editorial Review:

This edition includes a new foreword by James V. Schall, S.J.

Sertillanges asks in the preface of the 1934 edition of The Intellectual Life: "Do you want to do intellectual work?" He follows with the prescription: "Begin by creating within you a zone of silence, a habit of recollection, a will of renunciation and detachment which puts you entirely at the disposal of work; acquire that state of soul unburdened by desire and self-will which is the state of grace of the intellectual worker. Without that you will do nothing, at least nothing worth while."

First published in 1920, this classic has been repeatedly reprinted and continues to inspire and instruct young scholars.

Language, Truth and Logic

Alfred J. Ayer, Sir Alfred Jules Ayer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A superb book about logical positivism 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Ayer is simply fed up with metaphysical and religious claims that appear to be nonsensical. So he makes us ask the following question about any claim we feel is hard to interpret:

"Would any observations be relevant to the determination of its truth or falsehood?"

That gets us away from having to worry about what otherwise might appear to be cognitive remarks, such as "god exists."

If it is then claimed that there is indeed evidence that would be relevant, we start to interpret claims in that light. If we are told that the existence of thunder and lightning shows that god exists, we can interpret the statement "god exists" as being equivalent to "sometimes, there is thunder and lightning." That, and no more.

The idea is to connect claims to verification, and to connect meaningfulness (or cognitivity) to verifiability.

Plenty of people say that the logical positivists are Wrong, or that Ayer is Wrong. But that is silly. What they have given us is a method for arguing about potentially ambiguous statements. How we use this method is up to us. Saying that this method is Wrong is preposterous. We merely need to figure out when it is appropriate to use it and how to do so.

In this book, we learn a little about logic, and we get some good training in the law of excluded middle. That law says that a proposition has to be either true or false. It is not possible that neither it nor its contradictory are true. We may not be able to tell if it is true or false. But if we see two statements which both appear to be true, they can't truly be contradictory. Ayer gives some good examples of this and of several other elements of logic.

This is indeed a classic work. One can read it in a matter of hours, and it is well worth it for anyone who wants to use logic to seek answers to questions.

Editorial Review:

Classic introduction to objectives and methods of schools of empiricism and linguistic analysis, especially of the logical positivism derived from the Vienna Circle. Topics: elimination of metaphysics, function of philosophy, nature of philosophical analysis, the a priori, truth and probability, critique of ethics and theology, self and the common world, more. "A delightful book...I should like to have written it myself."—Bertrand Russell.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy (2nd Edition)

Jay Stevenson

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Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A guide for the perplexed 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Philosophy is the attempt to enhance the traits we deem desirable and suppress the traits we deem unwanted (a matter of judgment) by getting better acquainted with the world around us (a matter of reality). An improvement in the world around us inevitably follows.Test

To qualify as a philosophical theory, the practitioner of philosophy - the philosopher - must, therefore meet a few tests:

1. To clearly define and enumerate the traits he seeks to enhance (or suppress) and to lucidly and unambiguously describe his ideal of the world

2. Not to fail the tests of every scientific theory (internal and external consistency, falsifiability, possessed of explanatory and predictive powers, etc.)

These are mutually exclusive demands. Reality - even merely the intersubjective sort - does not yield to value judgments. Ideals, by definition, are unreal. Consequently, philosophy uneasily treads the ever-thinning lines separating it, on the one hand, from physics and, on the other hand, from religion.

The history of philosophy is the tale of attempts - mostly botched - to square this obstinate circle. In their desperate struggle to find meaning, philosophers resorted to increasingly arcane vocabularies and obscure systems of thought. It did nothing to endear it to the man (and reader) in the post-Socratic agora.

Enter "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy (Third Edition)" by Jay Stevenson, Ph.D. (Alpha Books).

It is a delightful and structured excursion into the terrain more convolutedly trodden by "Sophie's World". It is a vade mecum in the true sense of the word. It gently holds you by the hand and unflinchingly introduces you to the one intellectual giant after another.

The author knows how intimidating philosophy can be. He, therefore, avoids professional jargon. He talks to the reader, rather than talk at him. The text is peppered with brief insets titled "philoso-facts", "wisdom at work" (how to apply what you have learned), "reality check" (where philosophers disagree with each other and with reality), and "lexicon". Two appendices comprise a glossary and further reading.

The book is an amazing feat. It covers all the major schools of thoughts and philosophers in c. 350 eminently readable pages. New chapters provide extended coverage of the latest developments in post-structuralism and post-modernism.

If this book does not make you fall in love with this tortured discipline - nothing will. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"

Editorial Review:

You're no idiot, of course. You think about your home, your family, and how to get to the office on time. But when it comes to understanding what life is all about, you don't know your Plato from your Kierkegaard. Don't stop seeking the answers! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy shows you how the ideas of the world's great thinkers can help you make sense of your own reality as we head toward the twenty-first century. In this Complete Idiot's Guide, you get:

Doing Philosophy: An Introduction Through Thought Experiments

Theodore Schick, Lewis Vaughn

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Interesting and Good...If You're Interested In Philosophy 3 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

This is a "textbook", strictly speaking, meant for introductory philosophy students. (But, if you aren't a "philosophy student," the book is still easy to read.) It is meant for the person who is an absolute tyco (novice) in philosophy, someone who has no previous knowledge or experience in the study. Schick deals with the major philosophical problems that have been puzzling people (as well as philosophers) over the millennia, like the mind-body, personal identity, God's existence, and other problems. What makes the book interesting, though, is the numerous examples and quotes that Schick provides throughout to text, not merely to re-emphasize a concept or two but to also convince people that philosophy is still being debated in these modern times. Theodore Schick writes quite well and will entertain as well as inform. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing whether you now are you in the future, or if the mind is a separate part of the body, or...

Editorial Review:

Doing Philosophy helps students understand the nature and purpose of philosophical inquiry by explaining what philosophical problems are, how they can be solved, and why searching for solutions is important. By acquainting students with philosophical theories and the thought experiments used to test them, this text fosters active learning and helps students become better thinkers.

Qualitative Methods in Social Work Research (SAGE Sourcebooks for the Human Services)

Deborah K. Padgett

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Editorial Review:

The Second Edition of Qualitative Methods in Social Work Research provides accessible how-to instruction for social work and other practice-based researchers interested in carrying out rigorous and relevant qualitative research. This comprehensive, expanded version offers a sophisticated introduction to qualitative methods based upon six major approaches: ethnography, grounded theory, case study, narrative, phenomenological, and participatory action research. Similar to the earlier edition, this Second Edition is a highly readable introduction to qualitative research that combines attention to methodological rigor with pragmatic concerns for real-world relevance.

New to the Second Edition  

• Offers guidelines for writing a qualitative methods proposal
• Emphasizes community-based and cross-cultural research
• Presents case illustrations of exemplary qualitative studies, with several drawn from the author’s qualitative study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health
• Provides an expanded discussion of the paradigm debates in qualitative inquiry
• Gives detailed instructions on coding and thematic development

Intended Audience  
This textbook is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Introduction to Qualitative Methods, Advance Topics in Qualitative Methods, Field Research, and Qualitative Evaluation in the fields of social work, nursing, education, family and community medicine, public health, psychology, and public administration.

Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials

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Editorial Review:

Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, Third Edition is the third volume of the paperback versions of The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, Third Edition. This portion of the handbook considers the tasks of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting empirical materials, and comprises the Handbook's Parts IV (“Methods of Collecting and Analyzing Empirical Materials”) and V (“The Art and Practices of Interpretation, Evaluation, and Presentation”).

Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, Third Edition introduces the researcher to basic methods of gathering, analyzing and interpreting qualitative empirical materials. Part I moves from interviewing to observing, to the use of artifacts, documents and records from the past; to visual, and autoethnographic methods. It then takes up analysis methods, including computer-assisted methodologies, as well as strategies for analyzing talk and text.

Key Feature of the Third Edition

• Contains a new Reader's Guide prepared by the editors that helps students and researchers navigate through the chapters, locating the different methodologies, methods, techniques, issues, and theories relevant to their work.

• Presents an abbreviated Glossary of terms that offer students and researchers a ready resource to help decode the language of qualitative research.

• Offers recommended Readings that provide readers with additional sources on specific topic areas linked to their research.

Intended Audience

This text is designed for graduate students taking classes in social research methods and qualitative methods as well as researchers throughout the social sciences and in some fields within the humanities.

The Landscape of Qualitative Research

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Landscape of Qualitative Research, Third Edition, the first volume of the paperback versions of the The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, Third Edition, takes a look at the field from a broadly theoretical perspective, and is composed of the Handbook's Parts I (“Locating the Field”), II (“Major Paradigms and Perspectives”), and VI (“The Future of Qualitative Research”).

The Landscape of Qualitative Research, Third Edition attempts to put the field of qualitative research in context. Part I provides background on the field, starting with history, then action research and the academy, and the politics and ethics of qualitative research. Part II isolates what we regard as the major historical and contemporary paradigms now structuring and influencing qualitative research in the human disciplines. The chapters move from competing paradigms (positivist, post positivist, constructivist, critical theory) to specific interpretive perspectives, feminisms, racialized discourses, cultural studies, sexualities, and queer theory. Part III considers the future of qualitative research.

New to the Third Edition

• Contains a new Reader's Guide prepared by the editors that helps students and researchers navigate through the chapters, locating the different methodologies, methods, techniques, issues, and theories relevant to their work.

• Presents an abbreviated Glossary of terms that offer students and researchers a ready resource to help decode the language of qualitative research.

• Offers recommended Readings that provide readers with additional sources on specific topic areas linked to their research.

Intended Audience

This text is designed for graduate students taking classes in social research methods and qualitative methods as well as researchers throughout the social sciences and in some fields within the humanities.

Discourse on Method and Related Writings (Penguin Classics)

Rene Descartes

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new, superb translation of Descartes' seminal contribution to modern philosophy and science.

The age of Newton marks one of the great turning points in intellectual history, and Descartes has a key place at its very heart. Designed for students who approach Descartes from the point of view of his philosophy of science, this is the second of a new two-volume edition of the works of Descartes in Penguin Classics. Descartes did major research in optics, geometry, astronomy, and physiology, although (partly because Galileo had just been condemned by the Inquisition) he published nothing until he was over forty. The Discourse forms the preface to his first collection of scientific papers, outlining a new method based on hypothesis and deduction, which effectively replaced Aristotelian techniques. This edition puts the work in context by including extracts from Descartes' correspondence, the Rules for Guiding One's Intelligence, and The World--a posthumously published summary of his physical theories.

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Desmond M. Clarke