Social Inquiry After Wittgenstein And Kuhn

Author : John G. Gunnell
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2014-11-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780231538343

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Social Inquiry After Wittgenstein and Kuhn by John G. Gunnell Pdf

A distinctive feature of Ludwig Wittgenstein's work after 1930 was his turn to a conception of philosophy as a form of social inquiry, John G. Gunnell argues, and Thomas Kuhn's approach to the philosophy of science exemplified this conception. In this book, Gunnell shows how these philosophers address foundational issues in the social and human sciences, particularly the vision of social inquiry as an interpretive endeavor and the distinctive cognitive and practical relationship between social inquiry and its subject matter. Gunnell speaks directly to philosophers and practitioners of the social and human sciences. He tackles the demarcation between natural and social science; the nature of social phenomena; the concept and method of interpretation; the relationship between language and thought; the problem of knowledge of other minds; and the character of descriptive and normative judgments about practices that are the object of inquiry. Though Wittgenstein and Kuhn are often criticized as initiating a modern descent into relativism, this book shows that the true effect of their work was to undermine the basic assumptions of contemporary social and human science practice. It also problematized the authority of philosophy and other forms of social inquiry to specify the criteria for judging such matters as truth and justice. When Wittgenstein stated that "philosophy leaves everything as it is," he did not mean that philosophy would be left as it was or that philosophy would have no impact on what it studied, but rather that the activity of inquiry did not, simply by virtue of its performance, transform the object of inquiry.

Author : John G. Gunnell
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2020-02-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780226661278

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Conventional Realism and Political Inquiry by John G. Gunnell Pdf

When social scientists and social theorists turn to the work of philosophers for intellectual and practical authority, they typically assume that truth, reality, and meaning are to be found outside rather than within our conventional discursive practices. John G. Gunnell argues for conventional realism as a theory of social phenomena and an approach to the study of politics. Drawing on Wittgenstein’s critique of “mentalism” and traditional realism, Gunnell argues that everything we designate as “real” is rendered conventionally, which entails a rejection of the widely accepted distinction between what is natural and what is conventional. The terms “reality” and “world” have no meaning outside the contexts of specific claims and assumptions about what exists and how it behaves. And rather than a mysterious source and repository of prelinguistic meaning, the “mind” is simply our linguistic capacities. Taking readers through contemporary forms of mentalism and realism in both philosophy and American political science and theory, Gunnell also analyzes the philosophical challenges to these positions mounted by Wittgenstein and those who can be construed as his successors.

Author : Mark Bevir,Andrius Gališanka
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2016-06-10
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789004324107

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Wittgenstein and Normative Inquiry by Mark Bevir,Andrius Gališanka Pdf

Wittgenstein and Normative Inquiry examines the relevance of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy for ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, and religion. It analyzes the intellectual contexts which shaped Wittgenstein's normative thought, traces his influences, and presents contemporary uses of his philosophy in normative fields.

Author : Robert Vinten
Publisher : Anthem Press
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2020-07-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781785273124

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Wittgenstein and the Social Sciences by Robert Vinten Pdf

In Wittgenstein and the Social Sciences, Robert Vinten takes a fresh look at the relationship between Wittgenstein’s philosophy and the social sciences. He argues that although social sciences are quite different to the natural sciences, they are nonetheless properly called ‘sciences’. The book looks in detail at whether Wittgenstein can be claimed by conservatives, liberals, or socialists as their own. Wittgenstein’s philosophical remarks and remarks about politics and culture are taken into account in deciding where to locate Wittgenstein in relation to various ideologies. In the final part of the book, Vinten considers how Wittgenstein’s philosophy can be of use in resolving or dissolving problems in the social sciences. Along the way, he critically assesses work from Perry Anderson, Terry Eagleton, Richard Rorty, and Chantal Mouffe in the light of Wittgenstein’s philosophical oeuvre. The book makes a compelling examination of how Wittgenstein’s work remains as relevant as ever to thinking about our cultural and political situation.

Author : Michael Smith
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-18
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781350183445

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Wittgenstein and the Problem of Metaphysics by Michael Smith Pdf

Exploring the rupture between Wittgenstein's early and late phases, Michael Smith provides an original re-assessment of the metaphysical consistencies that exist throughout his divergent texts. Smith shows how Wittgenstein's criticism of metaphysics typically invoked the very thing he was seeking to erase. Taking an alternative approach to the inherent contradiction in his work, the 'problem of metaphysics', as Smith terms it, becomes the organizing principle of Wittgenstein's thought rather than something to overcome. This metaphysical thread enables further reflection on the poetic nature of Wittgenstein's philosophy as well as his preoccupation with ethics and aesthetics as important factors mostly absent from the secondary literature. The turn to aesthetics is crucial to a re-assessment of Wittgenstein's legacy, and is done in conjunction with an innovative analysis of Nietzsche's critique of Kantian aesthetics and Kant's 'judgments of taste'. The result is a unique discussion of the limits and possibilities of metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics and the task of the philosopher more generally.

Author : Christopher C. Robinson
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2016-10-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317435815

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John G. Gunnell by Christopher C. Robinson Pdf

John Gunnell has compelled political theorists to rethink their relation to political science, the history of political thought, the philosophy of social science and political reality. His thinking has been shaped by encounters with Heidegger and Plato, Wittgenstein and Austin, the Berkeley School and émigrés such as Strauss and Arendt. His writings have challenged the idealist assumptions behind the idea of a Great Tradition of Political Thought and the philosophical claims about mind and language. Gunnell has engaged and challenged colleagues in political theory, political science and the philosophy of social science on a range of issues from political action, time, pluralism, ideology, concepts, conventions, "the political" and democracy to the roles of philosophy, science, literary theory, cognitive science, mind, and history on the enterprise of theorizing today. The book focuses on his work in three key areas: Political Theory and Political Science Gunnell’s work has often focused on the historical emergence of the study of political theory as a subdiscipline of political science, and its critical relation to and alienation from political science from the postwar era. His argument has been consistent: political theory self-identified as an interpretative social science and mode of historical reflection is an invention of political science. Political theory divorced from political science weakens both activities in their ties to, concerns with and relevance to political society and the contemporary university. Interpretation and Action Gunnell has been particularly interested in the nature of concepts and how they change. These investigations begin with analysis of theory and theorizing as they are constituted and practiced in historiography, the philosophy of social sciences, the philosophy of science, political science and metatheory. He engages with thinkers whose positions inform and oppose his own and explores concepts such as: democracy, justice, time, pluralism, science, liberalism, and action. Theorists, Philosophers, and Political Life Gunnell’s work has developed through a series of encounters with theorists and philosophers. He has rejected attempts to present politics as a stable and essential set of phenomena. There are common themes that guide conversations with the German émigrés, ordinary language philosophers, and theorists from the history of political thought. This book includes works that focus on Max Weber, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin, Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Author : J. J. Snyman
Publisher : HSRC Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0796914176

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Conceptions of Social Inquiry by J. J. Snyman Pdf

Author : Evandro Agazzi, Andreas Arndt,Hans-Peter Grosshans
Publisher : LIT Verlag Münster
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2024-06-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783643914941

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Interpretationen einer gemeinsamen Welt. Von der Antike bis zur Moderne. Festschrift für Jure Zovko by Evandro Agazzi, Andreas Arndt,Hans-Peter Grosshans Pdf

Die zweiundzwanzig Autorinnen und Autoren entfalten in ihren – dem kroatischen Philosophen Jure Zovko gewidmeten - Beiträgen zur Philosophie der Antike, des Deutschen Idealismus und des 20. Jahrhunderts, sowie zur Hermeneutik, zur Erkenntnis- und Wissenschaftstheorie, zur Metaphysik und zur Religionsphilosophie die Philosophie als Interpretation einer gemeinsamen Welt. Dabei wird deutlich: die Philosophie bleibt auch in der Vielfalt ihrer Stimmen letztlich immer Eine, wie auch die Welt als Bezugspunkt menschlichen Handelns und Denkens nur eine ist, die wir miteinander teilen und die wir zu erkennen und zu erhalten haben. In their contributions - dedicated to the Croatian philosopher Jure Zovko - on the philosophy of antiquity, German Idealism and the 20th century, as well as on hermeneutics, the theory of knowledge and science, metaphysics and the philosophy of religion, the twenty-two authors unfold philosophy as the interpretation of a common world. In the process, it becomes clear that philosophy, even in the diversity of its voices, ultimately always remains one, just as the world as a point of reference for human action and thought is only one, which we share with each other and which we have to recognise and preserve.

Author : Brian Caterino
Publisher : Springer
Page : 127 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2016-06-19
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783319324432

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The Practical Import of Political Inquiry by Brian Caterino Pdf

This book examines a basic problem in critical approaches to political and social inquiry: in what way is social inquiry animated by a practical intent? This practical intent is not external to inquiry as an add-on or a choice by the inquirer, but is inherent to the process of inquiry. The practical intent in inquiry derives from the connection between social inquiry and the participant’s perspective. The social inquirer, in order to grasp the sense of those who are the subject of inquiry, has to adopt the perspective of the participant in the social world. Caterino opposes the view that research is an autonomous activity distinct from or superior to a participant’s perspective. He argues that since the inquirer is on the same level as the participant, all inquiry should be considered mutual critique in which those who are addressed by inquiry have an equal right and an equal capacity to criticize addressors.

Author : Gerard Delanty,Stephen P. Turner
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 630 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2021-09-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000427165

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Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory by Gerard Delanty,Stephen P. Turner Pdf

The triangular relationship between the social, the political, and the cultural has opened up social and political theory to new challenges. The social can no longer be reduced to the category of society, and the political extends beyond the traditional concerns of the nature of the state and political authority. This Handbook will address a range of issues that have recently emerged from the disciplines of social and political theory, focusing on key themes as opposed to schools of thought or major theorists. It is divided into three sections which address: the most influential theoretical traditions that have emerged from the legacy of the twentieth century; the most important new and emerging frameworks of analysis today; the major theoretical problems in recent social and political theory. The Second edition is an enlarged, revised, and updated version of the first edition, which was published in 2011 and comprised 42 chapters. The new edition consists of 50 chapters, of which seventeen are entirely new chapters covering topics that have become increasingly prominent in social and political theory in recent years, such as populism, the new materialism, postcolonialism, Deleuzean theory, post-humanism, post-capitalism as well as older topics that were not covered in the first edition, such as Arendt, the gift, critical realism, anarchism. All chapters retained from the first edition have been thoroughly revised and updated. The Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory encompasses the most up-to-date developments in contemporary social and political theory, and as such is an essential research tool for both undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers working in the fields of political theory, social and political philosophy, contemporary social theory, and cultural theory.

Author : Jonathan Havercroft
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 287 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2023-08-31
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781009322553

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Stanley Cavell's Democratic Perfectionism by Jonathan Havercroft Pdf

Post-truth politics is both a result of a democratic culture in which each person is encouraged to voice their opinion, and a threat to the continuation of democracy as partisans seek to deny political standing to those with incommensurate world views. Are there resources within political theory for overcoming this tension? This book argues that Stanley Cavell's philosophy provides a conceptual framework for responding to post-truth politics. Jonathan Havercroft develops an original interpretation of Stanley Cavell as a theorist of democratic perfectionism. By placing Cavell's writings in conversation with political theorists on debates about the social contract, interpretive methods, democratic theory and political aesthetics, Stanley Cavell's Democratic Perfectionism cultivates modes of responsiveness that strengthen our democratic culture and help us resist the contemporary crisis of democratic backsliding. Each chapter diagnoses a sceptical crisis in contemporary politics and a mode of responsiveness in Cavell's thought that can respond to that crisis.

Author : Brian C. Schmidt,Nicolas Guilhot
Publisher : Springer
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2018-06-19
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783319780368

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Historiographical Investigations in International Relations by Brian C. Schmidt,Nicolas Guilhot Pdf

This book critically investigates the historiography of International Relations. For the past fifteen years, the field has witnessed the development of a strong interest in the history of the discipline. The chapters in this edited volume, written by some of the field’s preeminent disciplinary historians, all manifest the best of an innovative and exciting generation of scholarship on the history of the discipline of International Relations. One of the objectives of this volume is to take stock of the historical turn. Yet this volume is not simply a stock-taking exercise, as it also intends to identify the limitations and blind spots of the recent historiographical literature. The chapters consider a range of diverse thinkers and examine their impact on understanding various dimensions of the field’s history.

Author : Rebecca Kingston,Kiran Banerjee,James McKee,Yi-Chun Chien,Constantine C. Vassiliou
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2017-01-01
Category : POLITICAL SCIENCE
ISBN : 9781442645523

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Emotions, Community, and Citizenship by Rebecca Kingston,Kiran Banerjee,James McKee,Yi-Chun Chien,Constantine C. Vassiliou Pdf

Emotions, Community, and Citizenship is a pioneering work that brings together scholars from an array of disciplines in order to challenge and unite the disciplinary divides in the study of emotions.

Author : John G. Gunnell
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 107 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2022-11-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781527589070

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Philosophical Provocations by John G. Gunnell Pdf

This book presents a general critical assessment of both the history of philosophy and contemporary philosophical practice. Although it offers a comprehensive account of the author’s philosophical position and of matters that would be of interest to professional philosophers, the book will appeal to any educated reader, rather than only philosophers. It is inspired by the attempt to explain certain philosophical issues to individuals outside academia, and it distils some complex philosophical arguments in a manner unencumbered by much of the typical academic paraphernalia.

Author : Andreas Wenger,Ursula Jasper,Myriam Dunn Cavelty
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2020-05-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000088366

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The Politics and Science of Prevision by Andreas Wenger,Ursula Jasper,Myriam Dunn Cavelty Pdf

This book inquires into the use of prediction at the intersection of politics and academia, and reflects upon the implications of future-oriented policy-making across different fields. The volume focuses on the key intricacies and fallacies of prevision in a time of complexity, uncertainty, and unpredictability. The first part of the book discusses different academic perspectives and contributions to future-oriented policy-making. The second part discusses the role of future knowledge in decision-making across different empirical issues such as climate, health, finance, bio- and nuclear weapons, civil war, and crime. It analyses how prediction is integrated into public policy and governance, and how in return governance structures influence the making of knowledge about the future. Contributors integrate two analytical dimensions in their chapters: the epistemology of prevision and the political and ethical implications of prevision. In this way, the volume contributes to a better understanding of the complex interaction and feedback loops between the processes of creating knowledge about the future and the application of this future knowledge in public policy and governance. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, political science, sociology, technology studies, and International Relations. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.routledge.com/The-Politics-and-Science-of-Prevision-Governing-and-Probing/Wenger-Jasper-Cavelty/p/book/9780367900748, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.