A Realist Philosophy of Social Science: Explanation and Understanding

✍ Scribed by Peter T. Manicas

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 237
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This introduction to the philosophy of social science provides an original conception of the task and nature of social inquiry. Peter Manicas discusses the role of causality seen in the physical sciences and offers a reassessment of the problem of explanation from a realist perspective. He argues that the fundamental goal of theory in both the natural and social sciences is not, contrary to widespread opinion, prediction and control, or the explanation of events (including behaviour). Instead, theory aims to provide an understanding of the processes which, together, produce the contingent outcomes of experience. Offering a host of concrete illustrations and examples of critical ideas and issues, this accessible book will be of interest to students of the philosophy of social science, and social scientists from a range of disciplines.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction......Page 13
Introduction......Page 19
The covering law model of explanation......Page 20
Clarifying “understanding” and “explanation”......Page 24
Understanding and causality......Page 28
What a theory is......Page 38
Realist versus instrumentalist conceptions
of theoretical terms......Page 39
Post-Kuhnian grounds for establishing
scientific consensus......Page 41
Experiment and the concept of closure......Page 45
Explanation and prediction are not symmetrical......Page 48
The world is not Laplacean......Page 49
Introduction......Page 54
Explaining human powers......Page 55
Biology, race and disease......Page 58
Consciousness and collective intentionality......Page 61
Science and the explanation of the actions of persons......Page 64
Society......Page 69
The concept of social structure......Page 70
The double hermeneutic......Page 74
Ethnographic skepticism?......Page 76
Problems and objections......Page 79
Introduction......Page 87
Social mechanisms......Page 88
Learning to labor: an example......Page 89
The structure of social mechanisms......Page 93
Abstraction, representation and realism......Page 96
Promissory notes......Page 100
Mechanisms as providing the micro-foundations
of the macro......Page 104
Generalization, abduction and assessing theories
of social mechanisms......Page 109
Introduction......Page 115
The recent past......Page 117
Modes of comparison: individualizing, universalizing
and variation finding......Page 119
A taxonomy of explanation types......Page 123
A realist historical sociology......Page 127
History and sociology......Page 133
Introduction......Page 138
The neo-classical model of the market......Page 141
Starting from scratch......Page 142
Defining a market......Page 144
“Free exchange”......Page 145
Voluntary exchange......Page 146
Prices and money......Page 149
Neo-classical price theory......Page 152
The labor market: an example......Page 154
Market as process......Page 156
Better markets?......Page 160
Appendix A The limits of multiple
regression......Page 163
Appendix B Comparison, Mill’s methods
and narrative......Page 169
Nominal comparison......Page 170
Ordinal comparison......Page 176
Causal narrative......Page 177
The role of comparison......Page 181
The AJS debate: realism and causality......Page 183
General theory?......Page 186
Assessing the debate......Page 189
“Theoretical realism” and “relational realism”......Page 190
The metaphysics of history......Page 194
“General laws” and mechanisms......Page 195
Appendix D The neo-classical model......Page 198
Imperfect competition......Page 201
Micro- and macro-theory......Page 203
Market efficiency according to the model......Page 206
References......Page 212
Index......Page 229