A follow-up to "The Nature of Social and Educational Inquiry," this volume explores the problem of criteria for distinguishing knowledge from false claims to knowledge and good research from bad research. The author focuses on how the advocates of different perspectives on the nature of inquiry-postempiricists, critical theorists, and interpretivists-have attempted to resolve this criteria problem.

Totem and Taboo is work employing the application of psychoanalysis to the fields of archaeology, anthropology, and the study of religion. The four chapters are entitled: The Horror of Incest; Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence; Animism, Magic and the Omnipotence of Thoughts; and The Return of Totemism in Childhood.

In a clear, concise fashion, this book describes the underlying issues involved in the current discussion over different approaches (empiricist vs. interpretive, quantitative vs. qualitative, scientific vs. naturalist) to social and educational inquiry. The author shows why the issues are currently of interest, briefly describes the standard empiricist perspective on inquiry, and examines the historical origins of the issues. Additionally, there is a discussion of the relationship of the researcher to the subject matter, the relationship of facts and values, the goal of inquiry, and the role of procedures in the inquiry process. In the final chapter there is a summary of these points in terms of the major question of objectivism versus relativism.