Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology, 1st Edition

Key Features

· Comprehensive survey of philosophical issues in anthropology and sociology
· Historical discussion of important debates
· Applications to current research in anthropology and sociology

Description

This volume concerns philosophical issues that arise from the practice of anthropology and sociology. The essays cover a wide range of issues, including traditional questions in the philosophy of social science as well as those specific to these disciplines. Authors attend to the historical development of the current debates and set the stage for future work.

Readership

Philosophers and Social Scientists

Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology, 1st Edition

General Preface (Dov Gabbay, Paul Thagard and John Woods)
Preface
List of Contributors
I. Sociology and Quanitification
Defining a Discipline: Sociology and its Philosophical Problems, from Its Classics to 1945
(Stephen Turner)
Measurement (Joel Michell)
The Intersection of Philosophy and Theory Construction: The Problem of the Origin of Elements in a Theory (Jerald Hage)
Causal Models in the Social Sciences (James Woodward)
II Individualism and Holism
Functional Explanation and Evolutionary Social Science (Harold Kinaid)
Evolutionary Explanations (Valerie Haines)
Holism and Supervenience (Julie Zahle)
Levels of the Social (Daniel Little)
Rational Choice (Alessandro Pizzorno)
III. Anthropology, Culture and Interpretation
Ethnography and Culture (Mark Risjord)
Categories and Classification in the Social Sciences (Warren Schmaus)
Hermeneutic and Phenomenological Approaches (William Outhwaite)
The Origins of Ethnomethodology (Michael Lynch)
Philosophy of Archaeology: Philosophy in Archaeology (Alison Wylie)
IV. Rationality and Normativity
Relativism and Historicism (Ian Jarvie)
The Problem of Apparently Irrational Beliefs (Steven Lukes)
Language and Translation (David Henderson)
Practice Theory (Joe Rouse)
Naturalism without Fears (Paul Roth)
V. Critical Approaches
We, Heirs of Enlightenment: Critical Theory, Democracy and Social Science (James Bohman)
Race in the Social Sciences (Michael Root)
Feminist Anthropology and Sociology: Issues for Social Science (Sharon Crasnow)
What's "New" in the Sociology of Knowledge? (John Zammito)
Index