Readings in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Bibliography of Philosophy

av May Brodbeck, ed.,

Inbunden bok. Macmillan. Sixth printing uppl. 1971. 789 sidor.

Mycket gott skick. This book contains 41 selections arranged under eight topics, a general introduction and eight topical introductions, and a selected bibliography of 667 entries arranged under the eight topics. All selections have appeared in print elsewhere, all but nine after 1950. Topics include «The Nature of Human Action », « Values and Social Science », « Purpose and Function », « Social Facts, Social Laws, and Reduction », « Explanation, Prediction, and imperfect Knowledge, « Theory Construction », « Models and Measurement », « Freedom, Determinism, and Morality».

Through her selection, organization, and introductory comments, the editor has succeeded in setting various issues as themes to be treated by the contributors. Some of these are:
the possibility of a rigorous social science, the relation between theoretical concepts of social science and common sense concepts, Behaviorism versus Verstehen as methodological programs, the alleged uniqueness of the laws of social science attributed to the role of values in endowing social situations with significance, the nature of psychological, sociological, and historical explanation, the effects of predictions in social science, the place of quantification in social sciences. The volume thus constitutes an important contribution to, as well as a handy reference source for, major meta-theoretical and methodological issues of the social sciences.