Laws And Explanation In The Social Sciences

✍ Scribed by Lee C Mcintyre

• Publisher: Westview Press
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 208
• Edition: Revised
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The first full-length defense of social scientific laws to appear in the last twenty years, this book upholds the prospect of the nomological explanation of human behavior against those who maintain that this approach is impossible, impractical, or irrelevant. By pursuing an analogy with the natural sciences, McIntyre shows that the barriers to nomological inquiry within the social sciences are not generated by factors unique to social inquiry, but arise from a largely common set of problems that face any scientific endeavor.All of the most widely supported arguments against social scientific laws have failed largely due to adherence to a highly idealized conception of nomologicality (allegedly drawn from the natural sciences themselves) and the limited doctrine of “descriptivism.” Basing his arguments upon a more realistic view of scientific theorizing that emphasizes the pivotal role of “redescription” in aiding the search for scientific laws, McIntyre is optimistic about attaining useful law-like explanations of human behavior.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 9
1 The Nomological Ideal......Page 12
Notes......Page 22
2 Fundamental Objections to Social Scientific Laws......Page 26
The Argument from Complexity......Page 28
The Argument from Openness......Page 45
Conclusion......Page 56
Notes......Page 58
3 Practical Objections to Social Scientific Laws......Page 64
The Argument from Complexity......Page 67
The Argument from Openness......Page 75
Conclusion......Page 86
Notes......Page 88
4 The Role of Laws in Scientific Understanding: The Case of Evolutionary Biology......Page 94
The Status of Laws in Evolutionary Biology......Page 95
Lessons for the Social Sciences......Page 114
Notes......Page 124
5 A Question of Relevance......Page 130
The Argument from Irrelevance......Page 132
Physicalism: Relevance Reconsidered......Page 141
Conclusion......Page 147
Notes......Page 149
6 Metaphysical Interlude......Page 154
Naturalism Without Reductionism,......Page 155
Supervenience,......Page 166
Notes......Page 172
7 Prospects and Limitations of a Nomological Social Science......Page 176
Notes......Page 184
Bibliography......Page 188
About the Book and Author......Page 200
D......Page 202
G......Page 203
L......Page 204
O......Page 205
S......Page 206
W......Page 207