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Table of Contents:

• Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction
• 1.1. What is the Philosophy of Social Science?
• Democratic Peace
• Azande Witchcraft
• Freedom Riders and Free Riders
• Philosophy in the Social Sciences
• 1.2. Tour of the Philosophical Neighborhood
• Normativity
• Naturalism
• Reductionism
• Excelsior!
• 2. Objectivity, Values, and the Possibility of a Social Science
• 2.1. Ideal of Value Freedom
• United States Census
• Dimensions of Value Freedom
• Moderate Thesis of Value Freedom
• 2.2. Impartiality and Theory Choice
• Risk and Error
• What About Objectivity?
• 2.3. Essentially Contested Ideas

• Value-Neutrality and Emancipatory Research
• Objection: Values and the Logic of Discovery
• Value Presuppositions and Implicatures
• 2.4. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading
• 3. Theories, Interpretations, and Concepts
• 3.1. Aggression, Violence, and Video Games
• 3.2. Defining Theoretical Concepts
• Empiricist View of Concepts and Theory Structure
• Realism, Instrumentalism, and the Problem of Construct Validity
• 3.3. Interpretivism
• Ideal Types and Verstehen
• Hermeneutics and Meaning
• Thick Description and its Challenges
• 3.4. Realism and Social Concepts
• Social Constructions
• Realism about Social Kinds
• Looping Effects
• 3.5. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading
• 4. Interpretive Methodology
• 4.1. Evidence for Interpretation
• Qualitative Research Methods and Their Presuppositions
• Authority and Authenticity
• Reflexivity
• 4.2. Rationality, Explanation, and Interpretive Charity
• Problem of Apparent Irrationality
• Relativism and Rationality
• Principle of Charity
• 4.3. Cognition, Evolution, and Interpretation
• Bounded and Unbounded Rationality
• Cognitive Roots of Culture
• Interpretation and Cognitive Explanation
• New Questions of Naturalism
• 4.4. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading
• 5. Action and Agency
• 5.1. Explaining Action
• Admiral Tryon and Instrumental Rationality
• Function of General Laws in History
• Reasons and Causes
• Re-enactment: Verstehen Revisited
• 5.2. Games People Play
• Rationality and Utility
• Games and Strategies
• Equilibria
• Nash Equilibria and the Battle of the Bismarck Sea
• Multiple Equilibria and Coordination Problems
• 5.3. Agency
• Psychological Plausibility of Rational Choice Theory
• Rational Fools?
• Game Theory in the Laboratory
• Instrumentalism and Structuralism
• 5.4. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading
• 6. Reductionism: Structures, Agents, and Evolution
• 6.1. Explaining Revolutions
• 6.2. Social Theory and Social Ontology
• Individualism-Holism Debate
• Definition and Theoretical Reduction
• Supervenience
• Methodological Localism
• 6.3. Agents and Social Explanations
• Methodological Individualism
• Microfoundations and Moderate Explanatory Individualism
• Agency and Mechanistic Explanation
• 6.4. Evolutionary Explanations
• Functions in Evolutionary Perspective
• Selectionist Explanations of Cooperation and the Evolution of Norms
• Consequences of Selectionism for the Social Sciences
• 6.5. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading
• 7. Social Norms
• 7.1. Disenchanting the Social World
• Is and Ought
• Normativism
• Good Bad Theories
• 7.2. Norms and Rational Choices
• Convention
• Conventionality and Normativity
• Social Norms
• 7.3. Normativity and Practice
• Norms and Practices
• Problems for Practice Theory
• Practices Without Regularities
• 7.4. Reductionism and Naturalized Normativity
• Normativism and Holism
• Norms, Naturalism, and Supervenience
• Prospects for Naturalized Normativity
• 7.5. Chapter Summary
• Discusson Questions
• Further Reading
• 8. Intentions, Institutions, and Collective Action
• 8.1. Agency and Collective Intentionality
• Team Reasoning
• Joint Commitment
• Group Agency
• 8.2. Joint Intentionality
• Cooperation Again: Ontogeny and Development
• Plans and Joint Intentions
• We-intentions and the We-mode
• Acting as a Group Member
• 8.3. Intentions and Institutions
• Strange Tale of the Druid Penny
• Function and Rules in Institutions
• Explaining Social Institutions
• 8.4. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading
• 9. Causality and Law in the Social World
• 9.1. Democratic Peace Hypothesis
• 9.2. Are There Social Scientific Laws?
• Characteristics of Natural Laws
• Creativity and Complexity
• 9.3. Conceptualizing Causation
• Constant Conjunction
• Linear Equation Modeling and Causal Regularities
• Interventionism
• Capacities and Nomological Engines
• 9.4. Models and Mechanisms
• Secret Springs and Principles
• Correlations, Black Boxes, and Processes
• Middle Range Theory and Agent-Based Models
• 9.5. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading
• 10. Methodologies of Causal Inference
• 10.1. Bayesian Networks and Causal Modeling
• Confounds and Common Causes
• Bayesian Inference
• Challenges to Causal Modeling
• 10.2. Case Studies and Causal Structure
• Apparent Value of Case Studies
• Epistemological Challenges of Case Studies
• Justification and Discovery
• 10.3. Experimentation
• What Can We Learn From Social Scientific Experimentation?
• Quasi-Experiments and Randomized Controlled Trials
• 10.4. Extrapolation and Social Engineering
• Evidence-Based Policy
• FCC Auction
• Breaking the Extrapolator's Circle
• Performativity and Social Engineering
• 10.5. Chapter Summary
• Discussion Questions
• Further Reading.

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Author/Creator:

Risjord, Mark W., 1960- , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Philosophy of social science: a contemporary introduction [by Risjord, M.W.]

Related Series:

Routledge contemporary introductions to philosophy

Subjects:

Social sciences — Philosophy

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Electronic reproduction. Ipswich, MA Available via World Wide Web.
Description based on print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Call Numbers:

H61 .R567 2014

ISBNs:

1136627529 (electronic bk.)
9781136627521 (electronic bk.)
9780415898249 (hbk) [Invalid]
0415898242 (hbk) [Invalid]
9780415898256 (pbk) [Invalid]
0415898250 (pbk) [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

880409566

Other Control Numbers:

780409 (source: EbpS)
[Unknown Type]: ybp11819508