Theoretical Logic in Sociology

Theoretical Logic in Sociology
Author: Jeffrey C. Alexander
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1669
Release: 2021-03-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317807057

This four volume work, originally published in the 1980s and out of print for some years, represents a major attempt to redirect the course of contemporary sociological thought. Jeffrey Alexander analyses the most general and fundamental elements of sociological thinking about action and order and their ramifications for empirical study. He insists that sociological thought need not choose between voluntary action and social constraint. The four volumes can be read independently of one another as each presents a distinctive theoretical argument in its own right. The first volume is directed at contemporary problems and controversies, not only in ‘theory’ but in the philosophy and sociology of science. The last three volumes make interpretations, confronting the individual theorists, and the secondary literature, on their own terms.

A Philosophy of War

A Philosophy of War
Author: Alexander Moseley
Publisher: Algora Publishing
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 0875861830

"War's origins are complex: they are found in the nebulous systems of thoughts generated in cultures over time. But while reason and explication can unravel those origins - and explain why man wages war - the task of abolishing war can never be completed.

Anthony Giddens and Modern Social Theory

Anthony Giddens and Modern Social Theory
Author: Kenneth Tucker
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 233
Release: 1998-09-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0857022873

Anthony Giddens is widely recognized as one of the most important sociologists of the post-war period. This is the first full-length work to examine Giddens′ social theory. It guides the reader through Giddens′ early attempt to overcome the duality of structure and agency. He saw this duality as a major failing of social theories of modernity. His attempt to resolve the problem can be regarded as the key to the development of his brandmark `structuration theory′. The book is the most complete and thorough assessment of Giddens′ work currently available. It incorporates insights from many different perspectives into his theory of structuration, his work on the formation of cultural identities and the fate of the nation-state. This far-reaching work also touches on issues such as the transformation of modern intimacy and sexuality, and the fate of politics in late modern society.

Darwin's Conjecture

Darwin's Conjecture
Author: Geoffrey M. Hodgson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2010-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226346900

A theoretical study dealing chiefly with matters of definition and clarification of terms and concepts involved in using Darwinian notions to model social phenomena.

Functions and Uses of Disciplinary Histories

Functions and Uses of Disciplinary Histories
Author: Loren Graham
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9400970358

Edward Gibbon's allegation at the beginning of his Essay on the Study of Literature (1764) that the history of empires is that of the miseries of humankind whereas the history of the sciences is that of their splendour and happiness has for a long time been accepted by professional scientists and by historians of science alike. For its practitioner, the history of a discipline displayed above all the always difficult but fmally rewarding approach to a truth which was incorporated in the discipline in its actual fonn. Looking back, it was only too easy to distinguish those who erred and heretics in the field from the few forerunners of true science. On the one hand, the traditional history of science was told as a story of hero and hero worship, on the other hand it was, paradoxically enough, the constant attempt to remind the scientist whom he should better forget. It is not surprising at all therefore that the traditional history of science was a field of only minor interest for the practitioner of a distinct scientific diSCipline or specialty and at the same time a hardly challenging task for the professional historian. Nietzsche had already described the historian of science as someone who arrives late after harvest-time: it is somebody who is only a tolerated guest at the thanksgiving dinner of the scientific community .

Constructing the World

Constructing the World
Author: David J. Chalmers
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2012-10-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191654949

David Chalmers develops a picture of reality on which all truths can be derived from a limited class of basic truths. The picture is inspired by Rudolf Carnap's construction of the world in Der Logische Aufbau Der Welt. Carnap's Aufbau is often seen as a noble failure, but Chalmers argues that a version of the project can succeed. With the right basic elements and the right derivation relation, we can indeed construct the world. The focal point of Chalmers' project is scrutability: the thesis that ideal reasoning from a limited class of basic truths yields all truths about the world. Chalmers first argues for the scrutability thesis and then considers how small the base can be. The result is a framework in "metaphysical epistemology": epistemology in service of a global picture of the world. The scrutability framework has ramifications throughout philosophy. Using it, Chalmers defends a broadly Fregean approach to meaning, argues for an internalist approach to the contents of thought, and rebuts W.V. Quine's arguments against the analytic and the a priori. He also uses scrutability to analyze the unity of science, to defend a sort of conceptual metaphysics, and to mount a structuralist response to skepticism. Based on Chalmers's 2010 John Locke lectures, Constructing the World opens up debate on central philosophical issues concerning knowledge, language, mind, and reality.

Poststructural Policy Analysis

Poststructural Policy Analysis
Author: Carol Bacchi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2016-10-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137525460

This book offers a novel, refreshing and politically engaged way to think about public policy. Instead of treating policy as simply the government’s best efforts to address problems, it offers a way to question critically how policies produce “problems” as particular sorts of problems, with important political implications. Governing, it is argued, takes place through these problematizations. According to the authors, interrogating policies and policy proposals as problematizations involves asking questions about the assumptions they rely upon, how they have been made, what their effects are, as well as how they could be unmade. To enable this form of critical analysis, this book introduces an analytic strategy, the “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach. It features examples of applications of the approach with topics as diverse as obesity, economic policy, migration, drug and alcohol policy, and gender equality to illustrate the growing popularity of this way of thinking and to provide clear and useful examples of poststructural policy analysis in practice.

The Panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781-1832)

The Panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781-1832)
Author: Benedikt Paul Göcke
Publisher: Berliner Bibliothek
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Panentheism
ISBN: 9783631746899

Life of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause - Panentheism of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause - Importance of Krause's philosophy for recent debates in philosophy, theology and science - Krause and German idealism