""This book will certainly prove to be a useful resource and reference
point ... a good addition to anyone's bookshelf." Network
"This is a superb collection, expertly presented. The overall conception
seems splendid, giving an excellent sense of the issues... The selection
and length of the readings is admirably judged, with both the classic
texts and the few unpublished pieces making just the right points."
William Outhwaite, Professor of Sociology, University of Sussex
..". an indispensable book for all of us in philosophy and the social
sciences who teach and care about the shape of social knowledge in the
future." Steven Seidman, Professor of Sociology, State University of New
York Albany
"For a comprehensive account of the ways in which world transformations
affect claims to social scientific knowledge, one need look no further
than Gerard Delanty and Piet Strydom's "Philosophies of Social Science."
...this collection captures nicely the increasingly engaged political
nature of the philosophy of social science. Debates about pragmatism,
feminism and postmodernism are particularly well represented" The
Australian" What is social science? How does it differ from the other
sciences? What is the meaning of method in social science? What is the
nature and limits of scientific knowledge? This collection of over sixty
extracts from classic works on the philosophy of social science provides
an essential textbook and a landmark reference in the field. It
highlights the work of some of the most influential authors who have
shaped social science.
The texts explore the question of truth, the meaning of scientific
knowledge, the nature of methodology and the relation of science to
society, including edited extracts from both classic and contemporary
works by authors such as Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Alfred
Schutz, Max Horkheimer, Jurgen Habermas, Alvin Gouldner, Karl-Otto Apel,
Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Dorothy Smith, Donna
Haraway, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida and Claude Levi-Strauss.
The readings are representative of the major schools of thought,
including European and American trends in particular as well as
approaches that are often excluded from mainstream traditions. From a
teaching and learning perspective the volume is strengthened by
extensive introductions to each of the six sections, as well as a
general introduction to the reader as a whole. These introductions
contextualise the readings and offer succinct summaries of them.
This volume is the definitive companion to the study of the philosophy
of social science, taught within undergraduate or postgraduate courses
in sociology and the social sciences.
