Buku Varieties of Social Explanation: An Introduction to The Philosophy of Social Science

• Judul Buku: Varieties of Social Explanation: An Introduction to The Philosophy of Social Science
• Penulis: Daniel Little
• Penerbit: United States of America : Westview Press, 1991
• Bahasa: Inggris
• ISBN: 0813305659

Sinopsis Buku Varieties of Social Explanation: An Introduction to The Philosophy of Social Science

The chapters that follow are organized into three parts. Part I introduces three important ideas about the character of social explanation: that it requires identifying causes, that it flows from analysis of the decision making of rational agents and that it requires interpretation of culturally specific norms, values, and worldviews. These three ideas underlie much current social explanation, and they provide the basis for many of the debates that arise in the philosophy of social science.

Part II turns to elaborations and combinations of these basic models of explanation. Functional and structural explanations are sometimes thought to be distinctive types of explanation, but Chapter 5 argues that each depends on causal explanation of social phenomena. Materialist explanation (Marxism and related theories) is sometimes believed to be an autonomous form of explanation as well, but Chapter 6 suggests that this model of analysis actually depends on both rational choice and causal explanations.

Economic anthropology, discussed in Chapter 7, attempts to explain features of social behavior and organization of premodern societies on the basis of rational choice models; much of the debate in this field follows from the contrast between rational choice and interpretive explanations described in Part I. And statistical explanations, common in many areas of social science, are sometimes held to be more rigorous than other forms of explanation.

Chapter 8 presents the central ideas of statistical explanation and concludes that it is in fact a form of causal explanation.

Part III turns to several general problems in the philosophy of social science that arise throughout the first two parts. Chapter 9 considers the topic of methodological individualism, Chapter 10 turns to the topic of cultural relativism, and Chapter 11 concludes with a discussion of the doctrine of naturalism as a methodology for social science.

Each chapter contains a number of examples of social science explanation. These examples are chosen to illustrate various aspects of such explanation and to give the reader a more concrete understanding of social science research. They have been separated from the text so that the reader can refer to them more conveniently.

Professor Little presents an introduction to the philosophy of social science with an emphasis on the central forms of explanation in social science: rational-intentional, causal, functional, structural, materialist, statistical and interpretive.

The book is very strong on recent developments, particularly in its treatment of rational choice theory, micro foundations for social explanation, the idea of supervenience, functionalism, and current discussions of relativism.of special interest is Professor Little’s insight that, like the philosophy of natural science, the philosophy of social science can profit from examining actual scientific examples.

Throughout the book, philosophical theory is integrated with recent empirical work on both agrarian and industrial society drawn from political science, sociology, geography, anthropology, and economics clearly written and well structured, this text provides the logical and conceptual tools necessary for dealing with the debates at the cutting edge of contemporary philosophy of social science. It will prove indispensible for philosophers, social scientists and their students.

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