Description
Book SynopsisEngaging the work of thinkers such as Rorty, Taylor, Bourdieu, Bhaskar, and Arendt, and literature in political science and history and philosophy of science, Topper proposes a pluralist, normative, and broadly pragmatist conception of political inquiry, one alive to the notorious vagaries, idiosyncrasies, and uncertainties of political life.
Trade ReviewThis thoughtful and well-informed book casts a great deal of light on the ‘social science wars’: an often fierce struggle over methods and techniques which also reflects profound differences in philosophy among social scientists. Topper shows how close argument and imaginative sympathy can carry the debate forward. This is a lucid and engaging book, full of important insights about the ways in which we try to study society. -- Charles Taylor, author of
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern IdentityThis book addresses the persisting ‘crisis’ in political and social science and charts a way out of it. In the context of the latest round of debates about method, it revisits such abiding general questions as the unity or disunity between the natural and social sciences; the peculiar character of social scientific inquiry; the relationship between social science and political practice; and the entanglement of method and power. Topper negotiates his way through this thicket of issues with intelligence and clarity, and in doing so he provides us with many valuable insights into the contemporary situation of political inquiry. -- Thomas A. McCarthy, Northwestern University
This is a much-needed book that negotiates its way with great intelligence through a variety of difficult issues in the philosophy of the social sciences. -- Stephen White, University of Virginia
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Social Science Wars Social Science Wars I Social Science Wars II Debating the Foundations of Political Science Sciences of Uncertainty I: Science Turned Upside Down Philosophy, Foundationalism, and Linguistic Pragmatism Rorty's View of Natural Science Conclusion II: In Defense of Disunity Pragmatic Naturalism and the Social Sciences Hermeneutics Revisited Conclusion III: The Politics of Redescription Redescription Applied Contingency, Self-Creation, and Change Redescription and Politics Conclusion IV: Reclaiming the Language of Emancipation Roy Bhaskar's Critical Realism Critical Realism as a Philosophy for the Sciences Critical Naturalism, and the Stakes of Social Inquiry Ontology, Causation, and Social Criticism, and Social Criticism Conclusion V: Sciences that Disturb Pierre Bourdieu's 'Fieldwork in Philosophy' From the Practice of Theory to the Theory of Practice Ordinary Violences Conclusion Conclusion: Pluralism, Power, Perestroika, and Political Inquiry Perestroika and Methodological Pluralism Hegemonic Political Science and Methodological Monism The Contest of Methodological Disunity Revitalizing Political Inquiry Notes Index
