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This volume, Applied Social Sciences: Philosophy and Theology, provides the reader with an important set of essays related to the two aforementioned fields of study. Aesthetics plays a key role in contemporary philosophy and several authors examine its various aspects, such as the question of identification of works of art; the concept of "social aesthetics"; the social therapeutic function that art can have; and the relationships among hermeneutics, aesthetics and communication sciences. Oth...

El objetivo de este artícues mostrar la relevancia que la filosofía de las ciencias sociales (FCS) tiene para la investigación que llevan a cabo las disciplinas sociales. Identifico qué obstáculos han impedido reconocer su importancia, al tiempo que sugiero algunas estrategias para revertirlos. Así, señalaré que, en el contexto local de las ciencias sociales, la comprensión parcial de los compromisos intelectuales de la filosofía de la ciencia (FC) ha constituido un primer obstáculo. Explicaré cómo puede corregirse esa visión parcial, señalando cuál es el valor de las preguntas de carácter filosófico y cómo complementan el trabajo epistemológico de las ciencias sociales. Un segundo obstáculo la condición de autosuficiencia que las propias ciencias sociales conciben con respecto a los debates epistemológicos de su trabajo. En la última parte expondré mediante tres ejemplos cómo la FCS hace aportaciones importantes sobre debates que son cruciales en las ciencias sociales contemporáneas: la causalidad social, el papel de la interpretación y la objetividad científica.

Foreword: varieties of relational social theory / Margaret S. Archer -- Introduction: philosophical, and social sciences -- Fundamentals of the paradigm -- The enigma of relation and the theological matrix of society -- From the person to society and vice versa : what is the use of the relational paradigm? -- Subjectivity, reflexivity, and the relational paradigm -- Trinitarian ontology and interdisciplinary research -- Applications and perspectives -- Relations and "good reasons" -- The relational paradigm and the family -- The relational paradigm and education -- The (complicated) relations between sociology and theology -- Afterword.

Discusses the nature and social functions of idealism. A cultural ideal, combining values from many spheres, underlies all purposeful collective human activity. (CP)

A philosophical analysis of the role of the ideal in a society's culture, with focus on Immanual Kant's & G. W. F. Hegel's views on the association of the ideal with contradiction & ways by which its attainment is predicated on the resolution of contradictions. Every ideal is characterized by three elements: (1) an appropriate form of consciousness in which it exists & manifests itself, (2) a certain stage in the development of social life that forms its basic objective reality, & (3) purposeful human activity. The cultural ideal is argued to be the inner image, objective requirement, social incentive, & aim of the activity of social man, & is responsible for balancing SE, political, moral, ethical, artistic, philosophic, & other values generated by social development. 1 Reference. K. Hyatt

1. The importance of science and the importance of understanding what science is -- 2. Rationalism and empiricism : science's weak foundations -- 3. Positivism and its problems : seeing is not all there is to believing -- 4. Explanations of social scientific understanding and social scientific understandings of natural scientific explanations -- 5. Hermeneutics and science : "the linguistic turn" -- 6. Feminism and science : a woman's place is the more objective space -- 7. Postmodernism : if you say there are no right or wrong answers and I say you're wrong, am I right. or wrong? -- 8. Islam and science : the stars on a common celestial globe / Noor Baig (co-author) -- 9. Pragmatism and neo-pragmatism : foundations of anti-foundationalism -- 10. Hyperreality and critical realism, simulacra and social science.

Social sciences between knowledge and ideologies: need for philosophy -- Part I. Social and cognitive roots for reflexivity upon the research process -- Social sciences, what for? On the manifold directions of social research -- Vitenskapsteori-- - what, how and why? -- Culture or Biology? If this sounds interesting, you might be confused -- Conditional Objectivism: A Strategy for Connecting the Social Sciences and Practical Decision-Making -- Towards Reflexivity in Science: Anthropological Reflections on Science and Society -- Part II. Philosophies of explanation in the social sciences -- Explanation: guidance for social scientists -- From causality to catalysis in the social sciences -- How to identify and how to conduct research that is informative and reproducible -- Explaining social phenomena: Emergence and Levels of Explanation -- Part III. Social normativity in social sciences -- Normativity in psychology and the social sciences: Questions of universality -- The crisis in psychological science, and the need for a person-oriented approach -- Open access, a remedy to the crisis in scientific inquiry? -- Part IV. Social processes in particular sciences: challenges to interdisciplinarity -- Fragmented and Critical? Some challenges for a social organization of Norwegian sociology, and implications for innovation -- How do economists think? -- Part V.General Conclusion -- What can social science practitioners learn from philosophies of science? -- Index.

Written by an eminent and original thinker in the philosophy of science, this book takes a fresh, unorthodox look at the key philosophical concepts and assumptions of the social sciences. Mario Bunge contends that social scientists (anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists, and historians) ought not to leave philosophy to philosophers who have little expertise in or knowledge of the social sciences. Bunge urges social scientists to engage in serious philosophizing and philosophers to participate in social research. The two fields are interrelated, he says, and important advances in each can supply tools for solving problems in the other.Bunge analyzes such concepts as fact, cause, and value that the fields of philosophy and social science share. He discusses assumptions and misassumptions involved in such current approaches as idealism, materialism, and subjectivism, and finds that none of the best-known philosophies helps to advance or even understand social science. In a highly critical appraisal of rational choice theories, Bunge insists that these models provide no solid substantive theory of society, nor do they help guide rational action. He offers ten criteria by which to evaluate philosophies of social science and proposes novel solutions to social science's methodological and philosophical problems. He argues forcefully that a particular union of rationalism, realism, and systemism is the logical and viable philosophical stance for social science practitioners

Cover -- Half Title -- Endorsements -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction The 'Object of Enquiry' versus the 'Knowing Subject' -- Part One Theoretical Considerations: The Concept of 'Perspectivism' -- Chapter One Nietzsche and the Origins of the Concept of 'Perspectivism' -- Chapter Two Karl Mannheim, Perspectivism and the Sociology of Knowledge -- Chapter Three Max Weber's Concept of Objectivity in the Social Sciences -- Chapter Four Pragmatism and Perspectivism -- Part Two Application of the Concept of Perspectivism to a Number of Different Concepts in the Social Sciences -- Preface to Part Two -- Chapter Five Power as a Mutually Contested Concept -- Chapter Six The Concept of Equality Reconsidered -- Chapter Seven A Three/Four-Dimensional Concept of Crime -- Chapter Eight The Social Construction of Sexual Difference: The Concepts of Sex, Gender, Intersexuality, Bisexuality, Homosexuality and Heterosexuality Reconsidered from a Perspectivist Point of View -- General Conclusion -- Appendix Perspectivism and Art -- Bibliography -- Index.

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

Philosophy of Social Science provides a tightly argued yet accessible introduction to the philosophical foundations of the human sciences, including economics, anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, history, and the disciplines emerging at the intersections of these subjects with biology. Philosophy is unavoidable for social scientists because the choices they make in answering questions in their disciplines force them to take sides on philosophical matters. Conversely, the philosophy of social science is equally necessary for philosophers since the social and behavior sciences must inform their understanding of human action, norms, and social institutions. The fifth edition retains from previous editions an illuminating interpretation of the enduring relations between the social sciences and philosophy, and reflects on developments in social research over the past two decades that have informed and renewed debate in the philosophy of social science. An expanded discussion of philosophical anthropology and modern and postmodern critical theory is new for this edition.