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Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- 1. The Humanist Tradition -- 2. The Postulate of Humanity -- 3. Four Pillars of Humanist Science -- 4. From Social Order to Moral Order -- 5. Humanist Virtues -- 6. The Morality of Governance -- 7. Rationality and Responsibility -- 8. The Quality of Culture -- 9. Law and Justice -- 10. Moral Philosophy and Social Science -- 11. A Public Philosophy -- Notes -- Index

This handbook is a major, comprehensive look at the key ideas in the field, and is guided by several principles. The first is that the philosophy of social science should be closely connected to, and informed by, developments in the sciences themselves.

Austin Harrington's book, Hermeneutic Dialogue and Social Science: A critique of Gadamer and Habermas, intends to present an account of debates on objectivity in the social sciences, in stressing the political and epistemological responsibility, in public spheres, to those who want to create a fairer understanding of societies and history, without demonizing natural enterprises or leaving social studies out of acute critical questioning.

"How is scientific knowledge of social life possible? If there are social sciences, must they employ methods different from those of the natural sciences? In Social Knowledge, Paul Mattick argues that the well-known difficulties of the social sciences--in particular the predictive and explanatory failures of economics--are due not to an inherent resistance of social life to scientific explanation, but to the failure of social scientists to include their own categories of social explanation among the objects of scientific study. Looking at Marx as an anthropological theorist, Mattick compares his critique of political economy with Evans-Pritchard's analysis of Azande witchcraft. Just as the British anthropologist attempted to explain Azande ideas and rituals in terms of their place in native life, Marx wished to explain the continued faith in economics--despite its striking weakness as a science--in terms of the central role played by this system of ideas in the daily lives of natives of capitalist society. This comparison leads to the questions about the nature of scientific thinking and its relation to our everyday knowledge of social reality that are the subject of this book. Second edition, with a new Preface by the author. The first edition was published in 1986 by Hutchinson, ISBN 9780091654603"--

1. Science and Scientism -- 1.1. The Social Sciences and the Analytical Method -- 1.2. Hucksterism in Economics -- 1.3. The Systems Paradigm and the Re-emphasis of Interaction -- 1.4. The Status of Mathematical Research -- 1.5. General Systems Methodology and Empirical Research -- 1.6. The Influence of Cybernetics -- 1.7. Lessons from the Situation in Physics -- 2. General Systems Methodology as Language -- 2.1. Thematic Influences on Knowledge -- 2.2. Methodological and Pragmatist Emphases -- 2.3. General Systems Research as a Methodological Language -- 3. Basic Concepts -- 3.1. Categorization and Uncertainty -- 3.2. Epistemological Levels -- 3.3. Primitive Concepts -- 3.4. System Traits -- 3.5. Basic System Types -- 3.6. Higher Level Systems -- 4. Generative Systems -- 4.1. Introduction -- 4.2. Representation of Source Systems -- 4.3. Representation of Data Systems -- 4.4. Definition of Mask -- 4.5. Choice of Best Mask, Sampling Scheme and Behavior System -- 5. Structure Systems -- 5.1. General Considerations -- 5.2. Definition of Structure -- 5.3. Structural Derivations -- 5.4. Separability in Design -- 5.5. Summary of Fundamental Concepts -- 6. GSPS -- I: An Organized Methodological Framework -- II: General Systems Problem Solving and the Study of Domestic Conflict -- Appendices -- References -- Indices.

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