Philosophy of Social Science

This is a fully revised and updated edition of this accessible introduction to the fundamental connections between social science and philosophy. "Philosophy of Social Science" provides a tightly argued yet accessible introduction to the philosophical foundations of the human sciences, including economics, anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, history and the disciplines emerging at the intersections of these subjects with biology. Philosophy is unavoidable for social scientists because the choices they make in answering questions in their disciplines force them to take sides on philosophical matters. Conversely, the philosophy of social science is equally necessary for philosophers since the social and behaviour sciences must inform their understanding of human action, norms and social institutions. The third edition retains from previous an illuminating interpretation of the enduring relations between the conduct of inquiry in the social sciences and the fundamental problems of philosophy, with accessible considerations of positivism, European philosophy of history, causation, statistical laws, quantitative models, and post-empiricist social science. Features new to this edition include: overview of the eclipse of behaviourism in psychology and the rise of game theory in economics; consideration of problems for functionalism in social science that must be addressed by an appeal to biology and especially Darwinian thinking; analysis of the debate between "nativists" and exponents of the "standard social science model" that emphasizes nurture over nature as the source of significant human traits; and expanded discussion of feminism in the human sciences.