Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

The culmination of a lifetime spent in a variety of fields - sociology, anthropology, economics, psychology, and philosophy of science - How Does Social Science Work? takes an innovative, sometimes iconoclastic look at social scientists at work in many disciplines. It describes how they investigate and the kinds of truth they produce, illuminating the weaknesses and dangers inherent in their research.At once an analysis, a critique, and a synthesis, this major study begins by surveying philosophical approaches to hermeneutics, to examine the question of how social science ought to work. It illustrates many of its arguments with untraditional examples, such as the reception of the work of the political biographer Robert Caro to show the hermeneutical problems of ethnographers. The major part of the book surveys sociological, political, and psychological studies of social science to get a rounded picture of how social science works,Paul Diesling warns that "social science exists between two opposite kinds of degeneration, a value-free professionalism that lives only for publications that show off the latest techniques, and a deep social concern that uses science for propaganda." He argues for greater self-awareness and humility among social scientists, although he notes that "some social scientists . . . will angrily reject the thought that their personality affects their research in any way."This profound and sometimes witty book will appeal to students and practitioners in the social sciences who are ready to take a fresh look at their field. An extensive bibliography provides a wealth of references across an array of social science disciplines.

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Written to promote greater self-awareness among practicing and/or aspiring social scientists this book reveals actual practices and influences that lie behind official procedures practitioners are taught to follow. Diesing asks what are the goals of various research methodologies and what kind of "truth" or "knowledge" does social science produce. He begins with an analysis of several traditions in the philosophy of science, including logical empiricism or positivism, pragmatism, and hermeneutics, and continues with a survey of social scientific studies of science and analyses of how social science actually works socially, politically, cognitively, and personally. Though intended to be accessible and informative, these first two sections will be difficult for those unfamiliar with the literature. Those practitioners who wade through them, however, will be rewarded in the final section with several stimulating insights and challenging conclusions. Diesing argues that, contrary to the positivist assumptions that have dominated social scientific practice, theory produces the data that test it, rather than being confirmed or refuted by such data. He asserts there is no rational reason for choosing one research community or tradition over another, and that social science can produce only multiple, contradictory truths that live in the practices and understandings of their respective research communities, not in particular laws, and will pass into history as do the communities that sponsored such research. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-M. F. Keen, Indiana University at South Bend

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Paul Diesing is Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Buffalo.