New Directions in the Philosophy of Social Science


Book Description

An accessible introduction to the latest developments and debates in the philosophy of social science.




New Directions in the Philosophy of Science


Book Description

This volume sheds light on still unexplored issues and raises new questions in the main areas addressed by the philosophy of science. Bringing together selected papers from three main events, the book presents the most advanced scientific results in the field and suggests innovative lines for further investigation. It explores how discussions on several notions of the philosophy of science can help different scientific disciplines in learning from each other. Finally, it focuses on the relationship between Cambridge and Vienna in twentieth century philosophy of science. The areas examined in the book are: formal methods, the philosophy of the natural and life sciences, the cultural and social sciences, the physical sciences and the history of the philosophy of science.




New Directions in Social Education Research


Book Description

Through rapid developments in commerce, transportation and communication, people once separated by space, language and politics are now interwoven into a complex global system (Friedman, 2005). With the rise of new technology, local populations, businesses and states are better equipped to participate and act in a thriving international environment. Rising instability in the Middle East is immediately reported to oil and gas brokers in the U.S. Within seconds cable channels, iPods, social networking sites, and cell phones are relaying how protests in Egypt and Libya give hope to citizens around the world yearning for freedom. As events like 9/11 and the 2008 Financial Crisis have demonstrated, there is no retreating from the interconnectedness of the global system. As societies strive to empower citizens with the skills, understandings and dispositions needed to operate in an interconnected global age, teachers are being encouraged to help students use technologies to develop new knowledge and foster cross cultural understandings. As pressures mount for society to equip today’s youth with both the global and digital understandings necessary to confront the challenges of the 21st century, a more thorough analysis must be undertaken to examine the role of technology on student learning (Peters, 2009). This work will highlight the complex, contested, and contingent ways new technologies are being used by today’s youth in a digital and global age. This text will present audiences with in-demand research that investigates the ways in which student use of technology mediates and complicates their learning about the world, its people, and global issues.




New Directions in the Philosophy of Technology


Book Description

In this collection we finally find the philosophy of technology, a young and rapidly developing area of scholarly interest, making contact with history of science and technology, and mainstream epistemological and metaphysical issues. The sophistication of these papers indicates the maturity of the field as it moves away from the advocacy of anti-technology ideological posturing toward a deeper understanding of the options and restraints technological developments provide. The papers presented here take us over a threshold into the real world of complicated social and technological interactions where science and art are shown to be integral to our understanding of technological change, and technological innovations are seen as configuring our knowledge of the world and opening up new possibilities for human development. With its rich historical base, this volume will be of interest to all students concerned about the interactions among technology, society, and philosophy.




New Directions in the Philosophy of Memory


Book Description

Although philosophers have explored memory since antiquity, recent years have seen the birth of philosophy of memory as a distinct field. This book—the first of its kind—charts emerging directions of research in the field. The book’s seventeen newly commissioned chapters develop novel theories of remembering and forgetting, analyze the phenomenology and content of memory, debate issues in the ethics and epistemology of remembering, and explore the relationship between memory and affectivity. Written by leading researchers in the philosophy of memory, the chapters collectively present an exciting vision of the future of this dynamic area of research.




A Realist Philosophy of Social Science


Book Description

This introduction to the philosophy of social science provides an original conception of the task and nature of social inquiry. Peter Manicas discusses the role of causality seen in the physical sciences and offers a reassessment of the problem of explanation from a realist perspective. He argues that the fundamental goal of theory in both the natural and social sciences is not, contrary to widespread opinion, prediction and control, or the explanation of events (including behaviour). Instead, theory aims to provide an understanding of the processes which, together, produce the contingent outcomes of experience. Offering a host of concrete illustrations and examples of critical ideas and issues, this accessible book will be of interest to students of the philosophy of social science, and social scientists from a range of disciplines.




Social Philosophy of Science for the Social Sciences


Book Description

This is an international and interdisciplinary volume that provides a new look at the general background of the social sciences from a philosophical perspective and provides directions for methodology. It seeks to overcome the limitations of the traditional treatises of a philosophy of science rooted in the physical sciences, as well as extend the coverage of basic science to intentional and socially normative features of the social sciences. The discussions included in this book are divided into four thematic sections: Social and cognitive roots for reflexivity upon the research process Philosophies of explanation in the social sciences Social normativity in social sciences Social processes in particular sciences Social Philosophy of Science for the Social Sciences will find an interested audience in students of the philosophy of science and social sciences. It is also relevant for researchers and students in the fields of psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, education, and political science.




The Philosophy of Affordances


Book Description

This book is the first monograph fully devoted to analyzing the philosophical aspects of affordances. The concept of affordance, coined and developed in the field of ecological psychology, describes the possibilities for action available in the environment. This work offers a systematic approach to the key philosophical features of affordances, such as their ontological characterization, their relation to normative practices, and the idea of agency that follows from viewing affordances as key objects of perception, while also proposing an innovative philosophical characterization of affordances as dispositional properties. The Philosophy of Affordances analyzes the implications that a proper understanding of affordances has for the philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences, and aims to intensify the dialogue between philosophy and ecological psychology in which each discipline benefits from the tools and insights of the other.




The Philosophy of Social Science


Book Description

This textbook by Martin Hollis offers an exceptionally clear and concise introduction to the philosophy of social science. It examines questions which give rise to fundamental philosophical issues. Are social structures better conceived of as systems of laws and forces, or as webs of meanings and practices? Is social action better viewed as rational behaviour, or as self-expression? By exploring such questions, the reader is led to reflect upon the nature of scientific method in social science. Is the aim to explain the social world after a manner worked out for the natural world, or to understand the social world from within?




New Directions in Social Theory, Education and Embodiment


Book Description

This book exemplifies the nurturing spirit of inter-discursive debate with a view to opening up new theoretical and empirical insights, understanding, and engagement, with debates on issues relating to pedagogy, policy, equity and embodiment. From a variety of social science perspectives, an international force of contributors apply a multitude of concepts to research agendas which illustrate the multiple ways in which ‘the body’ both impacts culture and is simultaneously and seamlessly positioned and shaped by it, maintaining social reproduction of class and cultural hierarchies and social regulation and control. They attest that once we begin to trace the flow of knowledge and discourses across continents, countries, regions and communities by registering their re-contextualisation, both within various popular pedagogies (e.g., newspapers, film, TV, web pages, IT) and the formal and informal practices of schools, families and peers, we are compelled to appreciate the bewildering complexity of subjectivity and the ways in which it is embodied. Indeed, the chapters suggest that no matter how hegemonic or ubiquitous discursive practices may be, they inevitably tend to generate both intended and unexpected ‘affects’ and ‘effects’: people and populations cannot easily be ‘determined’, suppressed or controlled. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport, Education and Society.