Philosophy Books - Page 7

Social Science: Beyond Constructivism and Realism (Concepts in Social Thought)

Gerard Delanty

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Editorial Review:

An ambitious and wide-ranging text about the debates of social science. This concise and comprehensive volume provides an accessible overview of the main debates on the sociology and philosophy of the social sciences. Exploring the changing conceptions of social science from the sixteenth century to today, Delanty argues how this group of disciplines is recovering its role as the critical voice of modernity.

Foucault's New Domains

Mike Gane: Terr

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Editorial Review:

This book explores the influence of Foucault's later writings on basic theoretical and research concerns in the social sciences. The introduction contextualizes the development of Foucault's writings within a biographical frame and leads into Foucault's College de France lecture, 'Kant on Enlightenment and Revolution' which (along with Colin Gordon's commentary) raises the issues crucial to Foucault's latter project: the relationship between reason and liberty. The answer suggested - involving a reformulation of the relationship between the subject and power - connects with the issues raised in subsequent chapters, including Pasquino's focus on the relationship between the governmentality of the modern state and the self-governing individual and Meuret's analysis of the link between Adam Smith's novel conception of political economy and the emergent political structures of modern capitalist states. The following four chapters all extend Foucault's insights into new domains of social analysis: namely the role of language in constructing and governing the econmomy (Miller and Rose), the shifting relations between sovereignty and responsibility in the welfare state (Donzelot), the role of the professional expert in constructing new social realities amenable to governance (Johnson), the significance of th technologies of government in the development of a political rationality of the humanities (Hunter). In the final chapter Bevis, Cohen and Kendall subject Foucault's last major enterprise, the history of sexuality, to a critique, the criteria of which are derived from Foucault's own methodological measures of adequacy - that it be a history of the present which enable sus to think in novel ways and facilitates action. By showing how Foucault's writings increasingly influence and reconstruct social theory and analysis the book will appeal to a wide range of social scientist and other academics.

Philosophy of Social Science: The Methods, Ideals, and Politics of Social Inquiry

Michael Root

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

What planted the seed which brought forth root? 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The social sciences sufficiently got rid of the human dimension long ago so that discussions on the human resemble something wholly different. Philosophy, these days, often wants to fine-tune what is popular (in the sciences) and that is what this book does. Rather than reinvigorate a field in need of much oxygen this book mostly reconsiders issues in a politically correct pragmatism. It's highlight is that it is easy to understand; doesn't seek to shroud in mystery the hinges that move the thinking that it is based upon.

Editorial Review:

This book is a critical introduction to the philosophy of social science, providing a clear description and provocative account of many of the methods and ideals that guide research and teaching in the social sciences. Root describes how theories are constructed and tested, how facts are predicted or explained, data collected and categorized, causes identified and findings presented in the social sciences and explains why, though the methods are intended to be value-free, they end up being partisan. Along with the description and criticism of the present philosophy of the social sciences, the book offers an alternative philosophy for the social sciences - based on ideals and methods for research and teaching that favor one conception of the good over others.

The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory

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The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

The Blackwell text is an excellent companion or primary text of social thoery. Topics include the areas of classical to postmodern theory as well as current theoritical debates. A few of the main theorists include Marx, Blumber, Giddens, and Bourdieu. A must have for sociological students and professionals!

Editorial Review:

Leading scholars from around the world provide the first truly international overview of the major developments in 20th-century Western social thought. This work also discusses feminism, world systems theory, ethnomethodology, critical theory, classical sociology, hermenuetics, action theory, and cultural sociology.

Waiting for Foucault, Still (Paradigm (Chicago, Ill.), 1.)

Marshall Sahlins

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Editorial Review:

First devised as after-dinner entertainment at a decennial meeting of the Association of Social Anthropologists in Great Britain, and first published by Prickly Pear Press in 1993, this expanded edition of Waiting for Foucault represents some of the brightest anthropological satire—mixed in with some of the most serious intellectual issues in the human sciences. Whether he's summing up the state of the discipline ("Some things are better left un-Said") or ruminating on the ancients, Sahlins delivers a strong mixture of wit and wisdom.

Equity

H. Peyton Young

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The seldom followed path to wisdom 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

More technical than the Win-Win solution of Brams & Taylor, Equity offer a deeper and broader insight to the notion of equity. It covers the notion of equity with bounded claim and the solution brougth by diffrent culture, equity in taxing philosophy and devellops the problem of equity when there is more than 2 actors. In my opinion, it is certainly one of the best book if you want a broad coverage of the notion of equity. There is some math however, but you may skip most of it without loosing the point.

Editorial Review:

Governments and institutions, perhaps even more than markets, determine who gets what in our society. They make the crucial choices about who pays the taxes, who gets into college, who gets medical care, who gets drafted, where the hazardous waste dump is sited, and how much we pay for public services. Debate about these issues inevitably centers on the question of whether the solution is "fair." In this book, H. Peyton Young offers a systematic explanation of what we mean by fairness in distributing public resources and burdens, and applies the theory to actual cases.

Social Science in the Crucible: The American Debate over Objectivity and Purpose, 19181941

Mark Smith

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Editorial Review:

The 1920s and 30s were key decades for the history of American social science. The success of such quantitative disciplines as economics and psychology during World War I forced social scientists to reexamine their methods and practices and to consider recasting their field as a more objective science separated from its historical foundation in social reform. The debate that ensued, fiercely conducted in books, articles, correspondence, and even presidential addresses, made its way into every aspect of social science thought of the period and is the subject of this book.
Mark C. Smith first provides a historical overview of the controversy over the nature and future of the social sciences in early twentieth-century America and, then through a series of intellectual biographies, offers an intensive study of the work and lives of major figures who participated in this debate. Using an extensive range of materials, from published sources to manuscript collections, Smith examines "objectivists"—economist Wesley Mitchell and political scientist Charles Merriam—and the more "purposive thinkers"—historian Charles Beard, sociologist Robert Lynd, and political scientist and neo-Freudian Harold Lasswell. He shows how the debate over objectivity and social purpose was central to their professional and personal lives as well as to an understanding of American social science between the two world wars. These biographies bring to vivid life a contentious moment in American intellectual history and reveal its significance in the shaping of social science in this country.

Aspects of Enlightenment

Thomas Osborne

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Editorial Review:

Aspects of Enlightenment is an attempt to reconfigure the terrain of contemporary social theory. Critical of sociologistic approaches in that discipline and of vague concepts such as modernity and postmodernity, the book argues that the proper subject matter of social theory is enlightenment itself. Dismissing for the most part the conflicts in social and critical theory between realist and relativist approaches, the book argues for the merits of various limited kinds of anti-foundationalism that would guide fieldwork in specific areas of enlightenment. As a means of illustrating this approach, the book focuses on case studies that consider critical attitudes to scientific, therapeutic and aesthetic kinds of enlightenment. A key theme throughout the book is the status of the social sciences themselves with regard to the question of enlightenment, as well as with the nature of the vocation of the intellectual as the embodiment of particular kinds of critical ethos. Finally, the book in an oblique homage to the work of Michel Foucault who figures here, along with Max Weber, as an exemplar of the critical attitude to enlightenment.

The Search for Society: Quest for a Biosocial Science and Morality

Robin Fox

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Social Science Beware! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This truly is a stunning book. All throughout, the reader can sense Fox's frustration with his colleagues and with humanity's view of itself in general. This is a plea for the longest kind of perspective, one that recognizes the horrifically-disturbing blip that history represents on the 5-million year timeline that is the human story. Fox makes it unabashedly clear that if we do not embrace an evolutionary view of ourselves, we are destined to live in out-of-control, frustrating, dehumanizing societies. The closest thinker that I have found to Fox is Paul Shepard, another brilliant scholar who shreds the boundaries of disciplines. But Fox is even bolder in his challenge to the academy and it's Enlightenment heritage, dismissing as useless much of the classic thought, as well as the current drivel -- since neither considers the full ethical implications of a Darwinian worldview. Great stuff!

Social Theory in a Changing World: Conceptions of Modernity (Blackwell Companions to Social Theory)

Gerard Delanty

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Editorial Review:

This book provides a critical assessment of contemporary social theory for students in the social sciences. Delanty examines the writings of a number of key contemporary thinkers, including Habermas, Foucault, Bauman, Touraine, Giddens and Beck, and provides a clear account of the strengths and limitations of their work.