Philosophies of Social Science: The Classic and Contemporary Readings.

Maidenhead/Philadelphia: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill, 481 pages

Abstract
This collection of over sixty extracts from some of the classic works on the philosophy of social
science provides an essential textbook and a landmark reference in the field. It highlights the
work of some of the most influential authors who have shaped social science, including: Emile
Durkheim, George Simmel, Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Max Horkheimer, Jürgen Habermas, Alvin
Gouldner, Karl-Otto Apel, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Dorothy Smith
and Donna Haraway.

The reading have been selected with a view to being representative of the major schools of
thought, including American and European trends in particular, as well as approaches that are
often excluded from the mainstream traditions. From a teaching and learning perspective, the
volume is strengthened by the extensive introductions to each of the six sections, as well as a
general inrtroduction to the reader as a whole. The introductions contextualize the readings and
offer succinct summaries of them.

Contents

Preface and acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION What is the philosophy of social science?

PART 1 Positivism, its dissolution and the emergence of post-empiricism

Introduction: a general outline
The selected texts
1 EMILE DURKHEIM What is a social fact? (1895)
2 OTTO NEURATH The scientific world conception (1929)
3 CARL G. HEMPEL Concept and theory in social science (1952)
4 ERNST NAGEL Methodological problems of the social sciences (1961)
5 KARL POPPER The problem of induction (1934)
6 RUDOLF CARNAP Confirmation, testing and meaning (1936)
7 TALCOTT PARSONS Theory and empirical fact (1937)
8 A.J. AYER The characterization of sense-data (1940)
9 W.V.O. QUINE Two dogmas of empiricism (1951)
10 LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN Language games and meaning (1953)
11 STEPHEN TOULMIN The evolution of scientific ideas (1961)
12 THOMAS KUHN A role for history (1962)
13 IMRE LAKATOS Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes (1970)
14 PAUL FEYERABEND Against method (1975)
PART 2 The interpretative tradition
Introduction: a general outline
The selected texts
15 WILHELM DILTHEY The development of hermeneutics (1900)
16 GEORG SIMMEL On the nature of historical understanding (1918)
How is society possible? (1908)
17 MAX WEBER “Objectivity” in social science (1904)
18 SIGMUND FREUD The dream-work (1900) A philosophy of life (1932)
19 ERNST CASSIRER From a critique of abstraction to relationalism (1910)
20 KARL MANNHEIM Competition as a cultural phenomenon (1929)
21 ALFRED SCHUTZ Concept and theory formation in the social sciences (1954)
22 MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY The philosopher and sociology (1960)
23 MARTIN HEIDEGGER The age of the world picture (1938)
24 PETER WINCH Philosophy and science (1958)
25 HANS-GEORG GADAMER Hermeneutical understanding (1960)
26 JÜRGEN HABERMAS The hermeneutic claim to universality (1973)
27 PAUL RICOEUR Towards a critical hermeneutic: hermeneutics and the critique of ideology
(1973)
28 CHARLES TAYLOR Interpretation and the sciences of man (1971)
29 CLIFFORD GEERTZ The thick description of culture (1973)
30 AARON CICOUREL Method and measurement (1964)
31 HAROLD GARFINKEL Rational properties of scientific and common-sense activities (1960)
32 ERVING GOFFMAN Primary frameworks (1974)
PART 3 The critical tradition
Introduction: a general outline
The selected texts
33 MAX HORKHEIMER Traditional and critical theory (1937)
34 HERBERT MARCUSE Philosophy and critical theory (1937)
35 THEODOR W. ADORNO Sociology and empirical research (1969)
36 JÜRGEN HABERMAS Knowledge and human interests (1965)
The tasks of a critical theory (1981)
37 KARL-OTTO APEL Types of social science in light of human cognitive interests (1977)
38 ALBRECHT WELLMER Critical theory of society (1969)
39 ROBERTO MANGABEIRA UNGER The critical argument (1975)
40 ALVIN GOULDNER Towards a reflexive sociology (1970)
PART 4 Pragmatism, semiotics and transcendental pragmatics
Introduction: a general outline
The selected texts
41 CHARLES S. PEIRCE A definition of pragmatic and pragmatism (1902)
42 JOHN DEWEY Social inquiry (1938)
43 CHARLES MORRIS Foundations of the theory of signs (1938)
Pragmatics and semantics (1946)
44 C. WRIGHT MILLS Situated actions and vocabularies of motiv (1940)
45 KARL-OTTO APEL Understanding and explanation (1979)
PART 5 The structuralist controversy: language, discourse and practice
Introduction: a general outline
The selected texts
46 CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS Structural analysis in linguistics and in anthropology (1958)
Language and the analysis of social laws (1951)
47 LUCIEN GOLDMANN The human sciences and philosophy (1966)
48 MICHEL FOUCAULT The order of things (1966) Power/knowledge (1976)
49 JACQUES DERRIDA Structure, sign and play in the discourses of the human sciences (1966)
50 PIERRE BOURDIEU The logic of practice (1980)
PART 6 New directions and challenges
Introduction: a general outline
The selected texts
51 RICHARD J. BERNSTEIN ‘Anti-foundationalism’ (1991)
52 PIERRE BOURDIEU Radical doubt (1992)
On science and politics (1999)
53 ANTHONY GIDDENS Social science as a double hermeneutic (1984)
54 DOROTHY SMITH The standpoint of women in the everyday world (1987)
55 DONNA HARAWAY Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege
of partial perspective (1988)
56 PATRICIA HILL COLLINS The sociological significance of black feminist thought (1986)
57 KARIN KNORR-CETINA Strong constructivism (1993)
58 IAN HACKING What is social construction? The teenage pregnancy example (2002)
59 STEVE FULLER The project of social epistemology and the elusive problem of knowledge in
contemporary society (2002)
60 NIKLAS LUHMANN The cognitive program of constructivism and a reality that remains
unknown (1990)
61 ROY BHASKAR Transcendental realism and the problem of naturalism (1979)
62 JON ELSTER Rational choice and the explanation of social action (2001)
63 RANDALL COLLINS Sociological realism (1998)
64 JÜRGEN HABERMAS Realism after the linguistic-pragmatic turn (1999)

Further reading
Index