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This is a much-needed new introduction to a field that has been transformed in recent years by exciting new subjects, ideas, and methods. It is designed for students in both philosophy and the social sciences. Topics include ontology, objectivity, method, measurement, and causal inference, and such issues as well-being and climate change.
List of contents
- Introduction
- PART I. Current Debates
- 1: Anna Alexandrova: Well-being
- 2: Wendy Parker: Climate change
- 3: Eileen Munro: Evidence-based policy
- 4: Alison Wylie: Community-based collaborative archaeology
- PART II. Ontological Issues
- 5: Deborah Tollefsen: Social ontology
- 6: Helen Longino: Individuals or population?
- PART III. Questions About Objectivity
- 7: Eleonora Montuschi: Scientific objectivity
- 8: Sharon Crasnow: Feminist standpoint theory
- 9: Heather Douglas: Values in social science
- PART IV. Using Formal Models
- 10: Katie Steele: Choice models
- 11: Cristina Bicchieri: Norms, conventions, and the power of expectations
- PART V. Methodological Perspectives
- 12: Sophia Efstathiou and Zara Mirmalek: Interdisciplinarity in action
- 13: Miriam Solomon: Social epistemology in practice
- PART VI. Research Methods
- 14: Nancy Cartwright and Rosa Runhardt: Measurement
- 15: Mary Morgan: Case studies
- 16: Nancy Cartwright: Causal inference
About the author
Nancy Cartwright is Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Durham and at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her research interests include philosophy and history of science (especially physics and economics), causal inference, objectivity, and evidence, especially on evidence-based policy.
Eleonora Montuschi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at the University of Venice, and Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a philosopher of science working on scientific objectivity, the theory and practice of evidence, and methodological issues of the social sciences.
Summary
This is a much-needed new introduction to a field that has been transformed in recent years by exciting new subjects, ideas, and methods. It is designed for students in both philosophy and the social sciences. Topics include ontology, objectivity, method, measurement, and causal inference, and such issues as well-being and climate change.
Additional text
... this collection also would be a valuable resource for classes in the general philosophy of science. Similarly, the essays are valuable for students in the social sciences, who likely will find them liberating in contrast to some conceptions of the natural sciences that are oversimplified but often still influential. The wide-ranging topics addressed in this volume include currently charged issues regarding climate science and demands for evidence-based public policy and equally charged but long-standing concerns about objectivity and the role of values in science. The essays on these topics, and other essays on matters such as case studies, measurement, and causal analysis, will broaden and deepen readers' understanding of science ... Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students; general readers.
