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This book argues for a new direction of research, namely History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences (HPSS). By adding a historical approach to the philosophy of the social sciences, the editor and authors show how fruitful HPSS is and simultaneously sheds new light on many central issues concerning the nature, development, and methodologies of the social sciences. This book revisits some classic works on the nature and methodology of the social sciences as well as offering a careful historical examination of the origins and development of a selection of social sciences and their distinctive methodologies. By reassessing the important debates in the philosophy of the social sciences as well as the methodological disputes between social scientists, the book provides a valuable resource to researchers and advanced students, but also to general readers.
List of contents
Acknowledgements.- Chapter 1. Let s Do HPSS! (Yafeng Shan).- Chapter 2. Auguste Comte and the Origins of Social Science (Michel Bourdeau).- Chapter 3. Wilhelm Dilthey s Philosophy of the Human Sciences (Eric S. Nelson).- Chapter 4. Georg Simmel on Philosophical Sociology as a Life-Science (Olli Pyyhtinen and Thomas Kemple).- Chapter 5. Émile Durkheim as Negative Foil: The creation of a contested legacy through collective (mis)representation (Paul Carls).- Chapter 6. Max Weber s Contribution to the Philosophy of Science (Basit Bilal Koshul).- Chapter 7. The Critical Philosophy of Social Science of Left-Wing Logical Empiricism (Thomas Uebel).- Chapter 8. Thomas Kuhn and the Social Sciences (William Outhwaite).- Chapter 9. From Objective Methodology to Situated Research: The Changing Place of the Researcher in French Sociology (Pauline Launay and Cherry Schrecker).- Chapter 10. American Sociology: Between Science and Reform (Stephen Turner).- Chapter 11. Origins of Sociology in Germany (Stephan Moebius).- Chapter 12. Three Methodological Ruptures in the History of Anthropology (Thomas Hylland Eriksen).- Chapter 13. History and Philosophy of Market Design: Mathematical Politics of Resource Allocation (Ivan Boldyrev).- Chapter 14. A History of Methodological Debates in Political Science (Sharon Crasnow).- Chapter 15. Early Theorizing About Mechanisms in the Social Sciences (Petri Ylikoski).- Chapter 16. Dimensions of the Methodological Individualism/Holism Debate (Jeroen Van Bouwel).- Index.
About the author
Yafeng Shan
is Associate Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His books include Rethinking Thomas Kuhn’s Legacy (Springer, 2024), Alternative Approaches to Causation: Beyond Difference-Making and Mechanism (OUP, 2024), Philosophical Foundations of Mixed Methods Research: Dialogues between Researchers and Philosophers (Routledge, 2023), Evidential Pluralism in the Social Sciences (Routledge, 2023), Examining Philosophy Itself (Wiley, 2023), New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress (Routledge, 2022), and Doing Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: A Case Study of the Origin of Genetics (Springer, 2020).
Summary
This book argues for a new direction of research, namely ‘History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences’ (HPSS). By adding a historical approach to the philosophy of the social sciences, the editor and authors show how fruitful HPSS is and simultaneously sheds new light on many central issues concerning the nature, development, and methodologies of the social sciences. This book revisits some classic works on the nature and methodology of the social sciences as well as offering a careful historical examination of the origins and development of a selection of social sciences and their distinctive methodologies. By reassessing the important debates in the philosophy of the social sciences as well as the methodological disputes between social scientists, the book provides a valuable resource to researchers and advanced students, but also to general readers.
