For the past fifty years anxiety over the problem of naturalism has
driven debates in social theory. One side pursues the idea of
social science as another kind of natural science, while the other
radically rejects the possibility of objective and explanatory
knowledge. All of the various developments in social scientific
theory since then have reflected this dichotomy between naturalism
and post-modernism. "Interpretation and Social Knowledge" suggests
a third way, reframing this debate and offering a synthetic vision
that sets out a new understanding of sociological interpretation.
Analyzing the work of writers such as Theda Skocpol, Clifford
Geertz, Leela Gandhi, Roy Bhaskar, Foucault, and Habermas, Isaac
Ariail Reed delineates three epistemic modes of social research:
realism, normativism, and interpretivism. Reed argues that the last
mode provides a way forward for an anti-naturalist sociology that
overcomes the opposition between interpretation and explanation and
uses theory to build concrete, historically specific causal
explanations of social phenomena. Both an examination of and a
theoretical meditation on how social investigators do their work,
"Interpretation and Social Knowledge" is an ingenious and fruitful
exploration of what makes the human sciences uniquely capable of
revealing and explaining our world.
General
Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
September 2011 |
First published: |
September 2011 |
Authors: |
Isaac Ariail Reed
|
Dimensions: |
217 x 144 x 13mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
216 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-70674-0 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Sociology, social studies >
Social theory
|
LSN: |
0-226-70674-5 |
Barcode: |
9780226706740 |
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