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Intro -- Contents -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Introduction to the Second Edition -- 1 The Democratic Concept -- 2 The State of Democracy -- 3 The Discovery of American Pluralism -- 4 The Theory of Democratic Pluralism -- 5 From Pluralism to Liberalism -- 6 Pluralism Redux -- Appendix: Telling the Story of Political Science -- Index.

Representational Philosophy and Conventional Realism -- Mentalism and the Problem of Concepts -- The Realistic Imagination in Political Inquiry: The Case of International Relations -- The Challenge to Representational Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Ryle, and Austin -- Contemporary Anti-representationalism: Sellars, Davidson, Putnam, McDowell, and Dennett -- Presentation and Representation in Social Inquiry -- Conventional Realism -- The Quest for the Real and the Fear of Relativism.

John G. Gunnell argues that a distinctive feature of Ludwig Wittgenstein's work after 1930 was his turn to a conception of philosophy as a form of social inquiry and that Thomas Kuhn's approach to the philosophy of science exemplified this conception. He further contends that their work addresses foundational issues in the social and human sciences and particularly the vision of social inquiry as an interpretive endeavor, as well as the distinctive cognitive and practical relationship between social inquiry and its subject matter. Gunnell speaks directly to philosophers and practitioners of t

This work is devoted to a critical analytical examination of the history, character, and conduct of contemporary academic political theory and to a reconsideration of significant elements of this field of inquiry from the perspective of the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

In this insightful book, distinguished political scientist John G. Gunnell explores the relationship between social science and philosophy, and the range of problems that have attended this relationship. Gunnell argues that social science has turned to philosophy, especially to areas such as the philosophy of science and other sites of philosophical foundationalism, in search of cognitive identity and the grounds for normative and empirical judgment. Gunnell's emphasis is on political and social theory and the theoretical constitution of social phenomena

Although social scientists have been devoted to discovering specific realities of social life, many theorists devoted to critical judgment have turned to philosophy in search of universal grounds of truth and reality. They have, however, worried about the problem of relativism. Although Wittgenstein has often been characterized as a relativist, Cora Diamond, inspired by G. E. M Anscombe, argues that his work, despite internal tensions, provides rational grounds for external criticism of social practices. Her argument and her critique of the work of Peter Winch and Ilham Dilman are, however, neither adequately supported by Wittgenstein's texts nor sufficiently developed on their own terms.