Description
Book SynopsisIn Knowledge and Social Construction Andrew Koch asks: how can we know the absolute best path through politics toward a better society? We can't. However, if our claims to social knowledge are more hypothetical in nature than absolute the resultant society will be more open.
Trade ReviewI think it is well conceptualized, has a high degree of originality, offers good summaries of a variety of social and political thinkers and theories, and would be relevant reading in upper level undergraduate and graduate level courses in social and political theory, the sociology of knowledge, epistemology, and philosophy of the social sciences. -- Wayne Gabardi, Idaho State University
This book is a deft and intelligent attempt to reconceive how truth claims were validated within the major epistemological models throughout the history of Western thought. . . . The manuscript is excellent in its discussion of the moderns. . . . -- Horst Hutter, Professor of Political Science, Concordia University
. . . compelling and valuable. * Perspectives on Politics *
Andrew Koch's Knowledge and Social Construction provides an insightful examination of competing conceptions of subjectivity and knowledge in the Western intellectual tradition. . . . Combining philosophical interrogation with political and social critique Koch provides original and engaging perspectives on the politics of knowledge. -- Douglas Kellner, UCLA; author of Media Culture and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy
Table of ContentsChapter 1 History, Knowledge, and Politics: Four Competing Epistemological Models in a Non-Linear Context Chapter 2 Textual Exclusivity in Medieval Epistemology Chapter 3 Textual Universalism and the Treatise on the Self Chapter 4 Inductive Universalism and the Science of the Self Chapter 5 Inductive Relativism and the Deconstruction of Foundational Truths Chapter 6 The End of Certainty and the Open Society
