| Description |
xvi, 283 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Ch. 1. Issues and arguments. 1.1. The naturalist and holist traditions and their detractors. 1.2. An outline of the argument -- Ch. 2. Challenges to scientific rationality. 2.1. Quine and the demise of positivism. 2.2. Varieties of rationality. 2.3. Kuhn and shifting standards. 2.4. Social constructivism and post-modernist rhetoric. 2.5. The subtle invasion of values. 2.6. The symptoms of good science -- Ch. 3. Causes, confirmation, and explanation. 3.1. Some a priori objections. 3.2. Confirmation and qualifications. 3.3. Inferring causes from non-experimental data. 3.4. Lawless explanations -- Ch. 4. Functionalism defended. 4.1. Functionalism and its critics. 4.2. What is functionalism? 4.3. Confirming functional explanations. 4.4. Functionalist failures and successes. 4.5. The critics answered -- Ch. 5. The failures of individualism. 5.1. The prospects for reduction. 5.2. Claims about explanation and confirmation. 5.3. A question of ontology? 5.4. The truth in individualism |
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Ch. 6. A science of interpretation? 6.1. Issues and presuppositions. 6.2. The right-wing attack. 6.3. Skeptical hermeneuts. 6.4. Interpretive successes. 6.5. Norms and symbols -- Ch. 7. Economics: a test case. 7.1. How to think about economics. 7.2. The supply-and-demand core. 7.3. Assessing neo-classical models. 7.4. Reduction and microfoundations -- Ch. 8. Problems and prospects |
| Analysis |
Social sciences Philosophy |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 266-278) and index |
| Subject |
Social sciences -- Philosophy.
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Social sciences -- Research.
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| LC no. |
95013774 |
| ISBN |
0521482682 (hbk.) |
|
0521558913 (paperback) |
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