Philosophical Foundations of the Three Sociologies (RLE Social Theory) - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Philosophical Foundations of the Three Sociologies (RLE Social Theory) write by Ted Benton. This book was released on 2014-09-19. Philosophical Foundations of the Three Sociologies (RLE Social Theory) available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. An extended historical and philosophical argument, this book will be a valuable text for all students of the philosophy of the social sciences. It discusses the serious alternatives to positivist and empiricist accounts of the physical sciences, and poses the debate between naturalism and anti-naturalism in the social sciences in new terms. Recent materialist and realist philosophies of science make possible a defence of naturalism which does not make concessions to positivism and which recognizes the force of several of the anti-positivist arguments from the main anti-naturalist (neo-Kantian) tradition. The author presents a critical evaluation of empiricist and positivist theories of knowledge, and investigates some classic attempts at using them to provide the philosophical foundation for a scientific sociology. He takes the Kantian critique of empiricism as the starting point for the main anti-positivist and anti-naturalist philosophical approaches to the social studies. He goes on to investigate the inadequacy of post-Kantian arguments from Rickert, Weber, Winch and others, both against non-positivist forms of naturalism and as the possible source of a distinctive philosophical foundation for the social studies. The book concludes with a critical investigation of the Marxian tradition and an attempt to establish the possibility of a materialist and realist defence of the project of a natural science of history, which escapes the fundamental flaws of both positivist and neo-Kantian attempts at philosophical foundation.
Philosophy of Social Science
Philosophy of Social Science - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Philosophy of Social Science write by Ted Benton. This book was released on 2017-09-16. Philosophy of Social Science available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Philosophers and social scientists share a common goal: to explore fundamental truths about ourselves and the nature of the world in which we live. But in what ways do these two distinct disciplines inform each other and arrive at these truths? The 10th anniversary edition of this highly regarded text directly responds to such issues as it introduces students to the philosophy of social science. While staying true to the writing of the late Ian Craib, this perennial text has been brought up to date by Ted Benton. This new edition includes previously unpublished personal insights from both authors, incorporates new commentaries on classic content and features an additional chapter on recent developments in the field. The book: • Addresses critical issues relating to the nature of social science • Interrogates the relationship between social science and natural science • Encompasses traditional and contemporary perspectives • Introduces and critiques a wide range of approaches, from empiricism and positivism to post structuralism and rationalism. Written in an engaging and student-friendly style, the book introduces key ideas and concepts while raising questions and opening debates. A cornerstone text in the Traditions in Social Theory series, this book remains essential reading for all students of social theory.
Positivism and Sociology (RLE Social Theory)
Positivism and Sociology (RLE Social Theory) - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Positivism and Sociology (RLE Social Theory) write by Peter Halfpenny. This book was released on 2014-08-21. Positivism and Sociology (RLE Social Theory) available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Any serious attempt to explain social life has to come to terms with sociology's positivist legacy. It is a heritage on the one hand from the seventeenth-century political arithmeticians and the later moral statisticians who believed that quantification would provide the basis for a dispassionate analysis of social affairs; and on the other hand from the nineteenth-century post-Enlightenment social philosophers who were eager to develop an empirical science of society that would enable them to control social conduct – just as the physical sciences had provided the knowledge to tame nature. Yet every debate about the relation between positivism and sociology is clouded by the diversity of uses of the term 'positivism' – uses that are so varied that some can pronounce positivism dead while others find it still the vital force that dominates sociology. The particular merit of Peter Halfpenny's book is that it makes this diversity of uses its central theme. In order to provide a clear basis from which to assess controversial questions about the contribution of the positivist traditions to sociology, the book reviews twelve different important uses of the term 'positivism' that have emerged at different times since the mid-nineteenth century, when Auguste Comte coined both 'positivism' and 'sociology'. This review is conducted by examining the historical development of the two independent roots of modern sociological positivism – positivist philosophy and statistics – and by analysing logical positivist philosophy, which in many ways defined the course of twentieth century philosophy of the social (as well as the natural) sciences.
Sociology and Social Research (RLE Social Theory)
Sociology and Social Research (RLE Social Theory) - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Sociology and Social Research (RLE Social Theory) write by Geoff Payne. This book was released on 2014-08-21. Sociology and Social Research (RLE Social Theory) available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A social science which has become so remote from the society which pays for its upkeep is ultimately doomed, threatened less by repression than by intellectual contempt and financial neglect. This is the message of the authors of this book in this reassessment of the evolution and present state of British sociology. Their investigation analyses the discipline as a social institution, whose product is inexorably shaped by the everyday circumstances of its producers; it is the concrete outcome of people’s work, rather than a body of abstract ideas. Drawing upon their varied experience as teachers and researchers, they identify three major trends in contemporary sociology. First, that the discipline’s rapid expansion has led to a retreat from rigorous research into Utopian and introspective theorising. Second, that the concept of sociological research is being taught in a totally false way because of this, and encourages ‘research’ within a wholly academic environment. Third, that the current unpopularity of sociology with academics, prospective students and politicians is no coincidence, but a reflection of the conditions under which sociology is now produced and practised. In Sociology and Social Research the authors suggest substantial changes in sociological research, the way in which it is carried out and the conditions under which it is undertaken. Their book is a timely warning to fellow sociologists when the profession is under attack as a result of public expenditure cuts.
Ideas and Intervention (RLE Social Theory)
Ideas and Intervention (RLE Social Theory) - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Ideas and Intervention (RLE Social Theory) write by Joe Bailey. This book was released on 2014-08-13. Ideas and Intervention (RLE Social Theory) available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Theorizing in sociology has increasingly become a self-generating and self-fulfilling activity, as sociologists absorb theory as an isolated and formalist part of their discipline. Joe Bailey believes that sociological theory should be a contribution to practical social intervention. His book presents a practical view of social theorizing as an activity at which sociologists are skilled and which they could teach to the interventionist professions. The relation between theory and practice is defined as one in which theory guides practice and makes explicit necessary choices. A description of disciplines and professions is provided as a basis for examining social intervention in three areas – law, social work and urban planning. The author considers some exemplary contributions which sociological theorizing could and should provide, and concludes by proposing a pluralist view of theory as the best strategy for a sociology relevant to practice.
