Philosophy of the Social Sciences Blackwell Philosophy Guides Series Editor: Steven M
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The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences Blackwell Philosophy Guides Series Editor: Steven M. Cahn, City University of New York Graduate School Written by an international assembly of distinguished philosophers, the Blackwell Philosophy Guides create a groundbreaking student resource – a complete critical survey of the central themes and issues of philosophy today. Focusing and advancing key arguments throughout, each essay incorporates essential background material serving to clarify the history and logic of the relevant topic. Accordingly, these volumes will be a valuable resource for a broad range of students and readers, including professional philosophers. 1 The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology Edited by John Greco and Ernest Sosa 2 The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory Edited by Hugh LaFollette 3 The Blackwell Guide to the Modern Philosophers Edited by Steven M. Emmanuel 4 The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic Edited by Lou Goble 5 The Blackwell Guide to Social and Political Philosophy Edited by Robert L. Simon 6 The Blackwell Guide to Business Ethics Edited by Norman E. Bowie 7 The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science Edited by Peter Machamer and Michael Silberstein 8 The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics Edited by Richard M. Gale 9 The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education Edited by Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith, and Paul Standish 10 The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind Edited by Stephen P. Stich and Ted A. Warfield 11 The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences Edited by Stephen P. Turner and Paul A. Roth 12 The Blackwell Guide to Continental Philosophy Edited by Robert C. Solomon and David Sherman 13 The Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy Edited by Christopher Shields The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences Edited by Stephen P. Turner and Paul A. Roth © 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5018, USA 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton South, Melbourne, Victoria 3053, Australia Kurfürstendamm 57, 10707 Berlin, Germany The right of Stephen P. Turner and Paul A. Roth to be identified as the Authors of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of the social sciences / edited by Stephen Turner and Paul A. Roth. p. cm. – (Blackwell philosophy guides) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-21537-9 (alk. paper) – ISBN 0-631-21538-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Social sciences – Philosophy. I. Turner, Stephen P., 1951– II. Roth, Paul Andrew, 1948– III. Series. H61 .B4774 2003 300′.1 – dc21 2002004263 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/13pt Galliard by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com Contents Notes on Contributors vii Introduction. Ghosts and the Machine: Issues of Agency, Rationality, and Scientific Methodology in Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science 1 Stephen P. Turner and Paul A. Roth Part I Pasts 19 1 Cause, the Persistence of Teleology, and the Origins of the Philosophy of Social Science 21 Stephen P. Turner 2 Phenomenology and Social Inquiry: From Consciousness to Culture and Critique 42 Brian Fay 3 Twentieth-century Philosophy of Social Science in the Analytic Tradition 64 Thomas Uebel Part II Programs 89 4 Critical Theory as Practical Knowledge: Participants, Observers, and Critics 91 James Bohman 5 Decision Theory and Degree of Belief 110 Piers Rawling v Contents 6 The Methodology of Rational Choice 143 Lars Udehn 7 Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences 166 Paul Humphreys 8 The Practical Turn 185 David G. Stern 9 Science & Technology Studies and the Philosophy of Social Sciences 207 Steve Fuller Part III Problematics 235 10 “See Also Literary Criticism”: Social Science Between Fact and Figures 237 Hans Kellner 11 The Descent of Evolutionary Explanations: Darwinian Vestiges in the Social Sciences 258 Lynn Hankinson Nelson 12 How Standpoint Methodology Informs Philosophy of Social Science 291 Sandra Harding 13 Beyond Understanding: The Career of the Concept of Understanding in the Human Sciences 311 Paul A. Roth Bibliography 334 Index 368 vi Notes on Contributors James Bohman is Danforth Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, Missouri. He is author of Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity and Democracy (1996) and New Philosophy of Social Science: Problems of Indeterminacy (1991). He has also recently coedited books on Deliberative Democracy (with William Rehg) and Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant’s Cosmopolitan Ideal (with Matthias Lutz-Bachmann). He is currently writing on the epistemology of interpretation and on globalization and democracy. Brian Fay is the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University. His publications include Social Theory and Political Practice (1976), Critical Social Science (1987), and Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science. A Multicultural Approach (Blackwell 1997). He is also editor of the journal History and Theory. Steve Fuller is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. He is best known for the research program of “social epistemology,” which he has developed in a journal and seven books. He is currently working on two books: The Philosophy of Science and Technology Studies and Reimagining Sociology. Lynn Hankinson Nelson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. She is the author of Who Knows: From Quine to a Feminist Empiricism (1990), coauthor with Jack Nelson of On Quine (2000), and co- editor with Jack Nelson of Feminism, Science, and the Philosophy of Science (1996) and Feminist Interpretations of Quine (forthcoming). Sandra Harding is a philosopher in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and in Women’s Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also is coeditor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. She is the author or editor of 10 books on issues in epistemology, philosophy of science, methodology, feminist theory, and postcolonial theory, including The Science Question in Feminism (1986), Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? vii Notes on Contributors Thinking From Women’s Lives (1991), and Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies (1998). Paul Humphreys is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. His current research interests include explanation, causation, probability, emergence, and computer models of cultural evolution. His books include Extending Our- selves: Computational Science, Empiricism, and Scientific Method (2003) and The Chances of Explanation (1989). Hans Kellner is Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Texas, Arlington. He is the author of Language and Historical Representation: Getting the Story Crooked (1989), coeditor (with F. R. Ankersmit) of A New Philosophy of History, and author of many articles on historical and rhetorical theory. Piers Rawling is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri at St. Louis (currently visiting at Florida State University). He has published articles on decision theory, ethics, logic, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. Paul A. Roth is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He is the author of Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences (1979) and a member of the editorial board of Philosophy of the Social Sciences. He has pub- lished extensively on problems of explanation. David G. Stern is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Wittgenstein on Mind and Language (1995) and Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: An Introduction (CUP forthcoming) and the co- editor of The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein (1996) and Wittgenstein Reads Weininger (forthcoming). Stephen P. Turner is Graduate Research Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department, University of South Florida. His books in the area of history and philosophy of social science include Sociological Explanation as Translation (1980), The Search for a Methodology of Social Science: Durkheim, Weber, and the Nine- teenth Century Problem of Cause, Probability, and Action (1994), The Social Theory of Practices: Tradition, Tacit Knowledge, and Presuppositions (1994), and most recently, Brains/Practices/Relativism: Social Theory after Cognitive Science (2002). In addition, he has written extensively on methodological and philosophy of law issues in relation to Max Weber. Thomas Uebel is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at University of Manchester, UK. His publications include Overcoming Logical Positivism From Within (1992) and Vernunftkritik und Wissenschaft (2000). He is the editor of Rediscovering the Forgotten Vienna Circle (1991) and coauthor with Nancy Cartwright et al. of Otto Neurath: Philosophy Between Science and Politics (1996). Lars Udehn is Professor