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{{Short description|Study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences}}
{{Redirect|Philosophy of the Social Sciences|the academic journal|Philosophy of the Social Sciences (journal)}}
{{Redirect|Philosophy of the Social Sciences|the academic journal|Philosophy of the Social Sciences (journal)}}
{{Multiple issues|
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The '''philosophy of social science''' is the study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences such as psychology, economics, political science and sociology. Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities between the social and the [[natural science]]s, causal relationships between social phenomena, the possible existence of social laws, and the [[ontology|ontological]] significance of [[structure and agency]].
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'''Philosophy''' in this sense means how '''social science''' integrates with other related scientific disciplines, which implies a rigorous, systematic endeavor to build and organize knowledge relevant to the interaction between individual people and their wider social involvement.


Scientific rationalism tried to dissociate logical transactions from the emotional motivation to so engage, which strategic and tactical objectives work together as [[heuristics|heuristic strategies]], some of which are explored below. <ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy-of-science/article/abs/scientific-rationality-and-human-reasoning/60CE3B35001928F7088A3588A14202C7 Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022: Scientific Rationality and Human Reasoning]</ref>
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== Auguste Comte and positivism ==

⚫
=={{anchor|Auguste Comte and positivism}} Auguste Comte and positivism ==
{{Main|Auguste Comte|Positivism}}
{{Main|Auguste Comte|Positivism}}
Comte first described the epistemological perspective of positivism in ''[[The Course in Positive Philosophy]]'', a series of texts published between 1830 and 1842. These texts were followed by the 1848 work, ''[[A General View of Positivism]]'' (published in English in 1865). The first three volumes of the ''Course'' dealt chiefly with the physical sciences already in existence ([[mathematics]], [[astronomy]], [[physics]], [[chemistry]], [[biology]]), whereas the latter two emphasised the inevitable coming of [[social science]]. Observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and classifying the sciences in this way, Comte may be regarded as the first [[philosopher of science]] in the modern sense of the term.<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/ Stanford Encyclopaedia: Auguste Comte</ref> For him, the physical sciences had necessarily to arrive first, before humanity could adequately channel its efforts into the most challenging and complex "Queen science" of human society itself. His ''View of Positivism'' would therefore set-out to define, in more detail, the empirical goals of sociological method.
Comte first described the epistemological perspective of positivism in ''[[The Course in Positive Philosophy]]'', a series of texts published between 1830 and 1842. These texts were followed by the 1848 work, ''[[A General View of Positivism]]'' (published in English in 1865). The first three volumes of the ''Course'' dealt chiefly with the natural sciences already in existence ([[geoscience]], [[astronomy]], [[physics]], [[chemistry]], [[biology]]), whereas the latter two emphasised the inevitable coming of [[social science]]. Observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and classifying the sciences in this way, Comte may be regarded as the first [[philosopher of science]] in the modern sense of the term.<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/ Stanford Encyclopaedia: Auguste Comte</ref> For him, the physical sciences had necessarily to arrive first, before humanity could adequately channel its efforts into the most challenging and complex "Queen science" of human society itself. His ''View of Positivism'' would therefore set-out to define, in more detail, the empirical goals of sociological method.


Comte offered an [[social evolutionism|account of social evolution]], proposing that society undergoes three phases in its quest for the truth according to a general 'law of three stages'. The idea bears some similarity to [[Karl Marx|Marx's]] view that human society would progress toward a [[communist]] peak. This is perhaps unsurprising as both were profoundly influenced by the early [[Utopian socialist]], [[Henri de Saint-Simon]], who was at one time Comte's teacher and mentor. Both Comte and Marx intended to develop, scientifically, a new secular ideology in the wake of European [[secularisation]].
Comte offered an [[social evolutionism|account of social evolution]], proposing that society undergoes three phases in its quest for the truth according to a general 'law of three stages'. The idea bears some similarity to [[Karl Marx|Marx's]] view that human society would progress toward a [[communist]] peak. This is perhaps unsurprising as both were profoundly influenced by the early [[Utopian socialist]], [[Henri de Saint-Simon]], who was at one time Comte's teacher and mentor. Both Comte and Marx intended to develop, scientifically, a new secular ideology in the wake of European [[secularisation]].
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The early sociology of [[Herbert Spencer]] came about broadly as a reaction to Comte. Writing after various developments in evolutionary biology, Spencer attempted (in vain) to reformulate the discipline in what we might now describe as [[social Darwinism|socially Darwinistic]] terms (although Spencer was a proponent of [[Lamarckism]] rather than Darwinism).
The early sociology of [[Herbert Spencer]] came about broadly as a reaction to Comte. Writing after various developments in evolutionary biology, Spencer attempted (in vain) to reformulate the discipline in what we might now describe as [[social Darwinism|socially Darwinistic]] terms (although Spencer was a proponent of [[Lamarckism]] rather than Darwinism).


The modern academic discipline of sociology began with the work of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). While Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte's philosophy, he retained and refined its method, maintaining that the social sciences are a logical continuation of the natural ones into the realm of human activity, and insisting that they may retain the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach to causality.<ref name="Wacquant">Wacquant, Loic. 1992. "Positivism." In Bottomore, Tom and William Outhwaite, ed., ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Social Thought''</ref> Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the [[University of Bordeaux]] in 1895. In the same year he argued, in ''[[The Rules of Sociological Method]]'' (1895):<ref name="autogenerated2000">Gianfranco Poggi (2000). ''Durkheim.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref> "[o]ur main goal is to extend scientific rationalism to human conduct... What has been called our positivism is but a consequence of this rationalism."<ref name="DinW">Durkheim, Emile. 1895. ''The Rules of Sociological Method''. Cited in Wacquant (1992).</ref> Durkheim's seminal monograph ''[[Suicide (Durkheim book)|Suicide]]'' (1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst [[Catholic]] and [[Protestant]] populations, distinguished sociological analysis from [[psychology]] or philosophy.
The modern academic discipline of sociology began with the work of [[Émile Durkheim]] (1858–1917). While Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte's philosophy, he retained and refined its method, maintaining that the social sciences are a logical continuation of the natural ones into the realm of human activity, and insisting that they may retain the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach to causality.<ref name="Wacquant">Wacquant, Loic. 1992. "Positivism." In Bottomore, Tom and William Outhwaite, ed., ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Social Thought''</ref> Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the [[University of Bordeaux]] in 1895. In the same year he argued, in ''[[The Rules of Sociological Method]]'' (1895):<ref name="autogenerated2000">Gianfranco Poggi (2000). ''Durkheim.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref> "[o]ur main goal is to extend scientific rationalism to human conduct... What has been called our positivism is but a consequence of this rationalism."<ref name="DinW">Durkheim, Emile. 1895. ''The Rules of Sociological Method''. Cited in Wacquant (1992).</ref> Durkheim's seminal monograph ''[[Suicide (Durkheim book)|Suicide]]'' (1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst [[Catholic]] and [[Protestant]] populations, distinguished sociological analysis from [[psychology]] or philosophy.


The positivist perspective, however, has been associated with '[[scientism]]'; the view that the methods of the natural sciences may be [[absolute (philosophy)|applied to all]] areas of investigation, be it philosophical, social scientific, or otherwise. Among most social scientists and historians, orthodox positivism has long since fallen out of favor. Today, practitioners of both social and physical sciences recognize the distorting effect of [[observer bias]] and structural limitations. This scepticism has been facilitated by a general weakening of deductivist accounts of science by philosophers such as [[Thomas Kuhn]], and new philosophical movements such as [[critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)|critical realism]] and [[neopragmatism]]. Positivism has also been espoused by '[[Technocracy|technocrats]]' who believe in the inevitability of [[social progress]] through science and technology.<ref>Schunk, ''Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective, 5th'', 315</ref> The philosopher-sociologist [[Jürgen Habermas]] has critiqued pure [[instrumental rationality]] as meaning that scientific-thinking becomes something akin to [[ideology]] itself.<ref>Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.68</ref>
The positivist perspective, however, has been associated with '[[scientism]]'; the view that the methods of the natural sciences may be [[absolute (philosophy)|applied to all]] areas of investigation, be it philosophical, social scientific, or otherwise. Among most social scientists and historians, orthodox positivism has long since fallen out of favor. Today, practitioners of both social and physical sciences recognize the distorting effect of [[observer bias]] and structural limitations. This scepticism has been facilitated by a general weakening of deductivist accounts of science by philosophers such as [[Thomas Kuhn]], and new philosophical movements such as [[critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)|critical realism]] and [[neopragmatism]]. Positivism has also been espoused by '[[Technocracy|technocrats]]' who believe in the inevitability of [[social progress]] through science and technology.<ref>Schunk, ''Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective, 5th'', 315</ref> The philosopher-sociologist [[Jürgen Habermas]] has critiqued pure [[instrumental rationality]] as meaning that scientific-thinking becomes something akin to [[ideology]] itself.<ref>Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.68</ref>
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Though essentially all major social scientists since the late 19th century have accepted that the discipline faces challenges that are different from those of the [[natural science]]s, the ability to determine [[causality|causal relationships]] invokes the same discussions held in science [[meta-theory]]. Positivism has sometimes met with caricature as a breed of naive empiricism, yet the word has a rich history of applications stretching from [[Auguste Comte|Comte]] to the work of the [[Vienna Circle]] and beyond. By the same token, if positivism is able to identify causality, then it is open to the same [[critical rationalism|critical rationalist]] non-[[justificationism]] presented by [[Karl Popper]], which may itself be disputed through [[Thomas Kuhn]]'s conception of epistemic [[paradigm shift]].
Though essentially all major social scientists since the late 19th century have accepted that the discipline faces challenges that are different from those of the [[natural science]]s, the ability to determine [[causality|causal relationships]] invokes the same discussions held in science [[meta-theory]]. Positivism has sometimes met with caricature as a breed of naive empiricism, yet the word has a rich history of applications stretching from [[Auguste Comte|Comte]] to the work of the [[Vienna Circle]] and beyond. By the same token, if positivism is able to identify causality, then it is open to the same [[critical rationalism|critical rationalist]] non-[[justificationism]] presented by [[Karl Popper]], which may itself be disputed through [[Thomas Kuhn]]'s conception of epistemic [[paradigm shift]].


Early German hermeneuticians such as [[Wilhelm Dilthey]] pioneered the distinction between natural and social science ('[[Geisteswissenschaft]]'). This tradition greatly informed [[Max Weber]] and [[Georg Simmel]]'s [[antipositivism]], and continued with [[critical theory]].<ref name="Outhwaite, William 2009 p.22">Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.22</ref> Since the 1960s, a general weakening of deductivist accounts of science has grown side-by-side with critiques of "[[scientism]]", or 'science ''as ideology'''.<ref>Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.19</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] argues, in his ''On the Logic of the Social Sciences'' (1967), that "the positivist thesis of unified science, which assimilates all the sciences to a natural-scientific model, fails because of the intimate relationship between the social sciences and history, and the fact that they are based on a situation-specific understanding of meaning that can be explicated only hermeneutically … access to a symbolically prestructured reality cannot be gained by observation alone." <ref name="Outhwaite, William 2009 p.22"/> ''Verstehende'' social theory has been the concern of phenomenological works, such as [[Alfred Schütz]] ''Phenomenology of the Social World'' (1932) and [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]]'s ''[[Truth and Method]]'' (1960).<ref>Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.23</ref> Phenomenology would later prove influential in the subject-centred theory of the [[post-structuralists]].
Early German hermeneuticians such as [[Wilhelm Dilthey]] pioneered the distinction between natural and social science ('[[Geisteswissenschaft]]'). This tradition greatly informed [[Max Weber]] and [[Georg Simmel]]'s [[antipositivism]], and continued with [[critical theory]].<ref name="Outhwaite, William 2009 p.22">Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.22</ref> Since the 1960s, a general weakening of deductivist accounts of science has grown side-by-side with critiques of "[[scientism]]", or 'science ''as ideology'''.<ref>Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.19</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] argues, in his ''On the Logic of the Social Sciences'' (1967), that "the positivist thesis of unified science, which assimilates all the sciences to a natural-scientific model, fails because of the intimate relationship between the social sciences and history, and the fact that they are based on a situation-specific understanding of meaning that can be explicated only hermeneutically … access to a symbolically prestructured reality cannot be gained by observation alone."<ref name="Outhwaite, William 2009 p.22"/> ''Verstehende'' social theory has been the concern of phenomenological works, such as [[Alfred Schütz]] ''Phenomenology of the Social World'' (1932) and [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]]'s ''[[Truth and Method]]'' (1960).<ref>Outhwaite, William, 1988 ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'', Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}} p.23</ref> Phenomenology would later prove influential in the subject-centred theory of the [[post-structuralists]].


The mid-20th-century [[linguistic turn]] led to a rise in highly philosophical sociology, as well as so-called "[[Postmodernism|postmodern]]" perspectives on the social acquisition of knowledge.<ref>{{cite book |author=Giddens, A |title=Sociology |publisher=Polity |location=Oxford, UK |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sociology0005gidd/page/714 714] |year=2006 |isbn=0-7456-3379-X |url=https://archive.org/details/sociology0005gidd/page/714 }}</ref> One notable critique of social science is found in [[Peter Winch]]'s Wittgensteinian text ''The Idea of Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy'' (1958). [[Michel Foucault]] provides a potent critique in his [[The Order of Things|archaeology of the human sciences]], though Habermas and [[Richard Rorty]] have both argued that Foucault merely replaces one such system of thought with another.<ref>Jürgen Habermas. ''Taking Aim at the Heart of the Present'' in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.</ref><ref>Richard Rorty. ''Foucault and Epistemology'' in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.</ref>
The mid-20th-century [[linguistic turn]] led to a rise in highly philosophical sociology, as well as so-called "[[Postmodernism|postmodern]]" perspectives on the social acquisition of knowledge.<ref>{{cite book |author=Giddens, A |title=Sociology |publisher=Polity |location=Oxford, UK |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sociology0005gidd/page/714 714] |year=2006 |isbn=0-7456-3379-X |url=https://archive.org/details/sociology0005gidd/page/714 }}</ref> One notable critique of social science is found in [[Peter Winch]]'s Wittgensteinian text ''The Idea of Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy'' (1958). [[Michel Foucault]] provides a potent critique in his [[The Order of Things|archaeology of the human sciences]], though Habermas and [[Richard Rorty]] have both argued that Foucault merely replaces one such system of thought with another.<ref>Jürgen Habermas. ''Taking Aim at the Heart of the Present'' in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.</ref><ref>Richard Rorty. ''Foucault and Epistemology'' in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.</ref>
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* [[Philosophy of psychology]]
* [[Philosophy of psychology]]
* [[Political philosophy]]
* [[Political philosophy]]
* [[Positive economics]]
* [[Social constructionism]]
* [[Social constructionism]]
* [[Social fact]]
* [[Social fact]]
* [[Social philosophy]]
* [[Social philosophy]]
* [[Sociology of sociology]]
{{Div col end}}
{{Div col end}}


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==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |first=David |last=Braybrooke |year=1986 |title=Philosophy of Social Science|publisher=Prentice Hall|isbn=0-13-663394-3 }}
* {{cite book |first=David |last=Braybrooke |year=1986 |title=Philosophy of Social Science|publisher=Prentice Hall|isbn=0-13-663394-3 }}
* Bunge, Mario. 1996. ''Finding Philosophy in Social Science.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
* {{cite book |first=Martin |last=Hollis |author-link=Martin Hollis (philosopher)|year=1994 |title=The Philosophy of Social Science: An Introduction|publisher=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-44780-1 }}
* {{cite book |first=Martin |last=Hollis |author-link=Martin Hollis (philosopher)|year=1994 |title=The Philosophy of Social Science: An Introduction|publisher=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-44780-1 }}
* {{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Little |year=1991 |title=Varieties of Social Explanation : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Science |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=0-8133-0566-7 }}
* {{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Little |year=1991 |title=Varieties of Social Explanation : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Science |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=0-8133-0566-7 }}
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===Books===
===Books===
* [https://in.sagepub.com/en-in/sas/encyclopedia-of-philosophy-and-the-social-sciences/book234813 Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, Byron Kaldis, SAGE, 2013]
* [https://in.sagepub.com/en-in/sas/encyclopedia-of-philosophy-and-the-social-sciences/book234813 Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, Byron Kaldis, SAGE, 2013]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=HmBIVO7PZAgC&dq=%22philosophy+of+social+science%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=a_WkScn7CJ3etgf0gPHWBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result Philosophy of Social Science by Alexander Rosenberg]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=HmBIVO7PZAgC&q=%22philosophy+of+social+science%22 Philosophy of Social Science by Alexander Rosenberg]
* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521447801 The Philosophy of Social Science: An Introduction by Martin Hollis]
* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521447801 The Philosophy of Social Science: An Introduction by Martin Hollis]
* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1557865388 Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science: A Multicultural Approach by Brian Fay]
* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1557865388 Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science: A Multicultural Approach by Brian Fay]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=w219QgAACAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s Philosophy of social science: the methods, ideals, and politics of social inquiry by Michael Root]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=w219QgAACAAJ Philosophy of social science: the methods, ideals, and politics of social inquiry by Michael Root]


==External links==
==External links==
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{{Science and technology studies}}
{{Science and technology studies}}
{{Social sciences}}
{{Social sciences}}
{{Social and political philosophy}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


[[Category:Philosophy of social science| ]]
[[Category:Philosophy of social science| ]]
[[Category:Social philosophy|Soc]]

Latest revision as of 17:56, 10 June 2024

"Philosophy of the Social Sciences" redirects here. For the academic journal, see Philosophy of the Social Sciences (journal).

Philosophy in this sense means how social science integrates with other related scientific disciplines, which implies a rigorous, systematic endeavor to build and organize knowledge relevant to the interaction between individual people and their wider social involvement.

Scientific rationalism tried to dissociate logical transactions from the emotional motivation to so engage, which strategic and tactical objectives work together as heuristic strategies, some of which are explored below. [1]

Auguste Comte and positivism

[edit]
Main articles: Auguste Comte and Positivism

Comte first described the epistemological perspective of positivism in The Course in Positive Philosophy, a series of texts published between 1830 and 1842. These texts were followed by the 1848 work, A General View of Positivism (published in English in 1865). The first three volumes of the Course dealt chiefly with the natural sciences already in existence (geoscience, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology), whereas the latter two emphasised the inevitable coming of social science. Observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and classifying the sciences in this way, Comte may be regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.[2] For him, the physical sciences had necessarily to arrive first, before humanity could adequately channel its efforts into the most challenging and complex "Queen science" of human society itself. His View of Positivism would therefore set-out to define, in more detail, the empirical goals of sociological method.

Comte offered an account of social evolution, proposing that society undergoes three phases in its quest for the truth according to a general 'law of three stages'. The idea bears some similarity to Marx's view that human society would progress toward a communist peak. This is perhaps unsurprising as both were profoundly influenced by the early Utopian socialist, Henri de Saint-Simon, who was at one time Comte's teacher and mentor. Both Comte and Marx intended to develop, scientifically, a new secular ideology in the wake of European secularisation.

The early sociology of Herbert Spencer came about broadly as a reaction to Comte. Writing after various developments in evolutionary biology, Spencer attempted (in vain) to reformulate the discipline in what we might now describe as socially Darwinistic terms (although Spencer was a proponent of Lamarckism rather than Darwinism).

The modern academic discipline of sociology began with the work of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). While Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte's philosophy, he retained and refined its method, maintaining that the social sciences are a logical continuation of the natural ones into the realm of human activity, and insisting that they may retain the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach to causality.[3] Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux in 1895. In the same year he argued, in The Rules of Sociological Method (1895):[4] "[o]ur main goal is to extend scientific rationalism to human conduct... What has been called our positivism is but a consequence of this rationalism."[5] Durkheim's seminal monograph Suicide (1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst Catholic and Protestant populations, distinguished sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy.

The positivist perspective, however, has been associated with 'scientism'; the view that the methods of the natural sciences may be applied to all areas of investigation, be it philosophical, social scientific, or otherwise. Among most social scientists and historians, orthodox positivism has long since fallen out of favor. Today, practitioners of both social and physical sciences recognize the distorting effect of observer bias and structural limitations. This scepticism has been facilitated by a general weakening of deductivist accounts of science by philosophers such as Thomas Kuhn, and new philosophical movements such as critical realism and neopragmatism. Positivism has also been espoused by 'technocrats' who believe in the inevitability of social progress through science and technology.[6] The philosopher-sociologist Jürgen Habermas has critiqued pure instrumental rationality as meaning that scientific-thinking becomes something akin to ideology itself.[7]

Durkheim, Marx, and Weber are more typically cited as the fathers of contemporary social science. In psychology, a positivistic approach has historically been favoured in behaviourism.

Epistemology

[edit]

In any discipline, there will always be a number of underlying philosophical predispositions in the projects of scientists. Some of these predispositions involve the nature of social knowledge itself, the nature of social reality, and the locus of human control in action.[8] Intellectuals have disagreed about the extent to which the social sciences should mimic the methods used in the natural sciences. The founding positivists of the social sciences argued that social phenomena can and should be studied through conventional scientific methods. This position is closely allied with scientism, naturalism and physicalism; the doctrine that all phenomena are ultimately reducible to physical entities and physical laws. Opponents of naturalism, including advocates of the verstehen method, contended that there is a need for an interpretive approach to the study of human action, a technique radically different from natural science.[9] The fundamental task for the philosophy of social science has thus been to question the extent to which positivism may be characterized as 'scientific' in relation to fundamental epistemological foundations. These debates also rage within contemporary social sciences with regard to subjectivity, objectivity, intersubjectivity and practicality in the conduct of theory and research. Philosophers of social science examine further epistemologies and methodologies, including realism, critical realism, instrumentalism, functionalism, structuralism, interpretivism, phenomenology, and post-structuralism.

Though essentially all major social scientists since the late 19th century have accepted that the discipline faces challenges that are different from those of the natural sciences, the ability to determine causal relationships invokes the same discussions held in science meta-theory. Positivism has sometimes met with caricature as a breed of naive empiricism, yet the word has a rich history of applications stretching from Comte to the work of the Vienna Circle and beyond. By the same token, if positivism is able to identify causality, then it is open to the same critical rationalist non-justificationism presented by Karl Popper, which may itself be disputed through Thomas Kuhn's conception of epistemic paradigm shift.

Early German hermeneuticians such as Wilhelm Dilthey pioneered the distinction between natural and social science ('Geisteswissenschaft'). This tradition greatly informed Max Weber and Georg Simmel's antipositivism, and continued with critical theory.[10] Since the 1960s, a general weakening of deductivist accounts of science has grown side-by-side with critiques of "scientism", or 'science as ideology'.[11] Jürgen Habermas argues, in his On the Logic of the Social Sciences (1967), that "the positivist thesis of unified science, which assimilates all the sciences to a natural-scientific model, fails because of the intimate relationship between the social sciences and history, and the fact that they are based on a situation-specific understanding of meaning that can be explicated only hermeneutically … access to a symbolically prestructured reality cannot be gained by observation alone."[10] Verstehende social theory has been the concern of phenomenological works, such as Alfred Schütz Phenomenology of the Social World (1932) and Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960).[12] Phenomenology would later prove influential in the subject-centred theory of the post-structuralists.

The mid-20th-century linguistic turn led to a rise in highly philosophical sociology, as well as so-called "postmodern" perspectives on the social acquisition of knowledge.[13] One notable critique of social science is found in Peter Winch's Wittgensteinian text The Idea of Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy (1958). Michel Foucault provides a potent critique in his archaeology of the human sciences, though Habermas and Richard Rorty have both argued that Foucault merely replaces one such system of thought with another.[14][15]

One underlying problem for the social psychologist is whether studies can or should ultimately be understood in terms of the meaning and consciousness behind social action, as with folk psychology, or whether more objective, natural, materialist, and behavioral facts are to be given exclusive study. This problem is especially important for those within the social sciences who study qualitative mental phenomena, such as consciousness, associative meanings, and mental representations, because a rejection of the study of meanings would lead to the reclassification of such research as non-scientific. Influential traditions like psychodynamic theory and symbolic interactionism may be the first victims of such a paradigm shift. The philosophical issues lying in wait behind these different positions have led to commitments to certain kinds of methodology which have sometimes bordered on the partisan. Still, many researchers have indicated a lack of patience for overly dogmatic proponents of one method or another.[16]

Social research remains extremely common and effective in practise with respect to political institutions and businesses. Michael Burawoy has marked the difference between public sociology, which is focused firmly on practical applications, and academic or professional sociology, which involves dialogue amongst other social scientists and philosophers.

Ontology

[edit]

Structure and agency forms an enduring debate in social theory: "Do social structures determine an individual's behaviour or does human agency?" In this context 'agency' refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices, whereas 'structure' refers to factors which limit or affect the choices and actions of individuals (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, and so on). Discussions over the primacy of structure or agency relate to the very core of social ontology ("What is the social world made of?", "What is a cause in the social world, and what is an effect?"). One attempt to reconcile postmodern critiques with the overarching project of social science has been the development, particularly in Britain, of critical realism. For critical realists such as Roy Bhaskar, traditional positivism commits an 'epistemic fallacy' by failing to address the ontological conditions which make science possible: that is, structure and agency itself.

See also

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy-of-science/article/abs/scientific-rationality-and-human-reasoning/60CE3B35001928F7088A3588A14202C7 Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022: Scientific Rationality and Human Reasoning]
  2. ^ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/ Stanford Encyclopaedia: Auguste Comte
  3. ^ Wacquant, Loic. 1992. "Positivism." In Bottomore, Tom and William Outhwaite, ed., The Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Social Thought
  4. ^ Gianfranco Poggi (2000). Durkheim. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  5. ^ Durkheim, Emile. 1895. The Rules of Sociological Method. Cited in Wacquant (1992).
  6. ^ Schunk, Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective, 5th, 315
  7. ^ Outhwaite, William, 1988 Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers, Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1 p.68
  8. ^ Cote, James E. and Levine, Charles G. (2002). Identity formation, Agency, and Culture, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  9. ^ Robert Audi, ed. (1999). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 704. ISBN 0-521-63722-8.
  10. ^ a b Outhwaite, William, 1988 Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers, Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1 p.22
  11. ^ Outhwaite, William, 1988 Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers, Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1 p.19
  12. ^ Outhwaite, William, 1988 Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers, Polity Press (Second Edition 2009), ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1 p.23
  13. ^ Giddens, A (2006). Sociology. Oxford, UK: Polity. pp. 714. ISBN 0-7456-3379-X.
  14. ^ Jürgen Habermas. Taking Aim at the Heart of the Present in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.
  15. ^ Richard Rorty. Foucault and Epistemology in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.
  16. ^ Slife, B.D. and Gantt, E.E. (1999) Methodological pluralism: a framework for psychotherapy research. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55(12), pp1453–1465.

Bibliography

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  • Braybrooke, David (1986). Philosophy of Social Science. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-663394-3.
  • Bunge, Mario. 1996. Finding Philosophy in Social Science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  • Hollis, Martin (1994). The Philosophy of Social Science: An Introduction. Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-44780-1.
  • Little, Daniel (1991). Varieties of Social Explanation : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Science. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-0566-7.
  • Rosenberg, Alexander (1995). Philosophy of Social Science. Westview Harper Collins.
  • Kaldis, Byron (ed.) (2013) Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, Sage

Journals

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Conferences

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Books

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