| Description |
1 online resource (x, 357 pages) |
| Series |
Boston studies in the philosophy and history of science ; 303 |
|
Boston studies in the philosophy and history of science ; v. 303
|
| Contents |
Felix Kaufmann in perspective : an introductory essay (pages 1-101) / Ingeborg K. Helling -- Theory and method in the social sciences : an English translation (pages 103-353 ) / Felix Kaufmann ; Preface -- Introduction : on the problematic and structure of the book -- Part one. Elements of the general theory of science ; Basic philosophical considerations -- Logical-mathematical thought -- Fact and law -- Life and consciousness -- The concept of value -- Metaphysics and the theory of science -- Proposal for a universal methodological schema -- Part two. The dispute of method in the social sciences (Methodenstreit) ; Preparatory remarks -- The social sciences and the natural sciences -- The social sciences and psychology -- Value problems in the social sciences -- The 'historical' in the social sciences -- Fundamental concepts of the social sciences -- Social laws and ideal types -- The way to overcome the Methodenstreit -- Remarks on the methodological controversy [Methodenstreit] on the theory of marginal utility -- The concept of positive law, and the pure theory of law |
| Summary |
This volume contains the English translation of Felix Kaufmann's (1895-1945) main work "Methodenlehre der Sozialwissenschaften" (1936). In this book, Kaufmann develops a general theory of knowledge of the social sciences in his role as a cross-border commuter between Husserl's phenomenology, Kelsen's pure theory of law and the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle. This multilayered inquiry connects the value-oriented reflections of a general philosophy of science with the specificity of the methods and theories of the social sciences, as opposed to abstract natural science and psychology. The core focus of the study is the attempt to elucidate how and under what conditions scientific knowledge about social facts, empirically justified and theoretically embedded, can be obtained. The empirical basis of knowledge within the social sciences forms a phenomenological concept of experience. According to Kaufmann, this concept of experience exhibits a complex structure. Within the meaning-interpretation of human action as the core of knowledge in the social sciences, this structure reaches out across the isolated act of verification toward the synthesis of external and internal experiences. The book opens with a detailed and useful introduction by Ingeborg K. Helling, which introduces the historical and theoretical background of Kaufmann's study and specifically illuminates his relation to Alfred Schütz and John Dewey. Finally, it contains interviews with and letters to members of his family, colleagues and students |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references at the end of introduction (pages 96-101), footnotes with bibliographical references in "Theory and Method in the Social Sciences", and index |
| Notes |
Translated from the German |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
Social sciences -- Methodology.
|
|
Methodology.
|
|
methodology.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Essays.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Reference.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Methodology.
|
|
Social sciences -- Methodology
|
| Genre/Form |
Instructional and educational works.
|
|
Matériel d'éducation et de formation.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| Author |
Cohen, R. S. (Robert Sonné), editor
|
|
Helling, Ingeborg K., editor
|
| ISBN |
9783319028453 |
|
3319028456 |
|
