The Content of Social Explanation

by Susan James

2021-01-01 02:31:55

This is a study of the central questions of explanation in the social sciences, and a defence of ''holism'' against ''individualism''. In the first half of the book Susan James sets out very clearly the philosophical background to this controversy. S... Read more
This is a study of the central questions of explanation in the social sciences, and a defence of ''holism'' against ''individualism''. In the first half of the book Susan James sets out very clearly the philosophical background to this controversy. She locates its source not at the analytical level at which most of the debate is usually conducted but at a more fundamental, moral level, in different conceptions of the human individual. In the second half of the book she examines critically three case studies of holistic approaches - Althusser, Poulantzas and the Annales historians - and progressively refines our sense of the strengths and deficiencies of their programmes. She ends by arguing for a form of concessive holism, which offers some accommodation to liberal conceptions of individual autonomy but continues to emphasise the explanatory importance of social regularities and environments. Less

Book Details

File size8.5 X 5.51 X 0.47 in
Print pages204
PublisherCambridge University Press
Publication date December 11, 2008
LanguageEnglish
ISBN9780521103527
Author
Susan James is a professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College London. Her main areas of interest are early-modern philosophy, feminist philosophy, political philosophy, and the philosophy of art. She i...

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