LitArk » Books » Politics

Robert Brown - Explanation and Experience in Social Science

Here you can read online Robert Brown - Explanation and Experience in Social Science full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2008, publisher: Routledge, genre: Politics. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Book:
Explanation and Experience in Social Science
Author:
Robert Brown
Publisher:
Routledge
Genre:
Books / Politics
Year:
2008
Rating:
4 / 5
Favourites:
Add to favourites
Your mark:
- 80
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5

Description
Author's other books
Similar books

Explanation and Experience in Social Science: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Explanation and Experience in Social Science" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

According to their critics, social scientists rarely ask the right questions and cannot provide satisfactory answers even to the questions they ask themselves. Social scientists often discuss the nature of knowledge in their fields with a notable lack of clarity. Explanation and Experience in Social Science by Robert Brown dispels the confusion with cogency and wit; it is a systematic, sensible, and lucid analysis of the nature of the explanations put forward by social scientists.

Explanation-making is first distinguished from describing and reporting, and then classified into different types, based on different kinds of information used. The greater part of the book consists in discussion and examination of these types of explanation and their relationships, in which the usefulness and limitations of each are assessed. An extraordinary variety of examples from contemporary work in all the social sciences is used, including the fields of sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, demography, political science. and economics. The author makes it clear that good social explanation is possible and that it conforms to the requirements of all good scientific explanation.

Explanation and Experience in Social Science is of interest to the practicing scientist--in fact--it is a must-have for any personal or public library with collections in the social sciences. Most studies in the philosophy of the sciences, natural and social, fall into two distinct groups: those written by philosophers for other philosophers and those produced by scientists for their fellow-scientists. The aim of this book is to discuss questions of philosophical interest as they come to be imbedded in the work of social scientists.

Robert Brown: author's other books

Who wrote Explanation and Experience in Social Science? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Explanation and Experience in Social Science — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Explanation and Experience in Social Science" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

EXPLANATION AND EXPERIENCE IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

EXPLANATION AND EXPERIENCE IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

ROBERT BROWN

First published 1963 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2008002923

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Robert, 1920-

Explanation and experience in social science / Robert Brown.

p. cm.

Reprint. Originally published in 1963 as : Explanation in social science.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-202-36234-2

1. Social sciencesMethodology. 2. Social sciencesResearch. I. Brown, Robert, 1920- Explanation in social science. II. Title.

H61.B68 2008

300.72dc22

2008002923

ISBN 13: 978-0202-36234-2 (pbk)

A POLOGETIG disclaimers are often written and seldom read. This is probably as it should be, since excuses addressed to the reader can benefit only their author. The obvious exception arises when, as in the present case, the author takes the opportunity to point out how quickly some important topics have been dismissed. Each reader may compile his own list from this essay, but at the head of my own list stands the logical features of scientific laws and theories. It is some consolation, of course, that the errors I might have fallen into will now be made by someone else. It is more useful, however, to remind the reader that there is now an extensive literature devoted to the philosophical problems raised by scientific laws and theories. Many of these are discussed, for example, in Ernest Nagels The Structure of Science, a book which arrived too late to save me from mistakes that I might otherwise have learned to avoid.

The labour of reading the first draft of this book was undertaken by Mr D. M. Armstrong; drawing his attention to it once again is poor recompense, I am afraid, for his help and advice. Professor P. H. Partridge read an early version of some chapters, and I am grateful for his comments on them. I am deeply indebted to Professor J. C. Harsanyi for much criticism, for the wording of certain passages, and for several examples. Mr F. H. G. Gruens reading of two chapters brought out their weaknesses, but in thanking him I cannot claim to have fully met his criticism. Professor I. F. Pearce and Drs F. Stacey and E. K. Inall have generously supplied me with examples. I recall the time and effort they have spent on my education with gratitude. But above all, I should like to thank Professor John Passmore. It is on his resources that I have drawn most heavily, and I have done so with no acknowledgement other than this.

For permission to quote I thank the following: from an article by D. Braybrooke in American Political Science Review, the Executive Director, The American Political Science Association; from an article by N. R. Hanson in The Philosophical Review, the author, and the managing editor; from an article by P. C. Dodwell in Mind, the author, and the editor; from an article in Africa, the Director of the International African Institute; from an article of mine in Philosophical Studies, the editor; from her book Studies in Applied Anthropology, the author, L. P. Mair; from his book The Great Crash, 1929, the author, J. K. Galbraith; from Street Corner Society by W. Whyte, the publisher, the University of Chicago Press, copyright 1943 by the University of Chicago; from G. Homans and D. Schneider: Marriage, Authority and Final Causes, the publisher, The Free Press; from Risk, Uncertainty and Profit by F. Knight, the holders of the copyright, Hart, Schaffner and Marx; from E. E. Evans-Pritchard: Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande the author, and the publisher, The Clarendon Press; from E. Krige and J. Krige: The Realm of a Rain Queen, the co-author, E. Krige: from J. Barnes: Politics in a Changing Society, the author, and the Director of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute; from his book Wildcat Strike, the author, A. W. Gouldner.

I thank Mrs. F. Dadd for reading the proofs of this book.

Contents

PART ONE
DESCRIPTION, OBSERVATION AND EXPLANATION

PART TWO
METHODS OF EXPLANATION

T HERE is a sense in which the question What is this book about? is best answered by an examination of the volumes table of contents. What is not given in the list of chapter headings, however, is an indication why some topics are listed there and why others with an apparently equal claim to recognition are not. The present study has as its aim the discussion of certain questions of philosophical interest as they come to be imbedded in the work of social scientists. It is intended to be an essay which might be of interest to the practising scientist. For most studies in the philosophy of the sciences, natural and social, fall into two distinct groups: those written by philosophers for other philosophers and those produced by scientists for their fellow-scientists. And since many writers on these subjects at least imagine that they have a catholic audience, it is a constant disappointment on both sides that the works submitted are usually unsuccessful in this respect. Yet the reasons for this are obvious.

Consider the case of a demographer who is investigating the social origins of recent immigrants to Australia. He may wish to predict how rapidly the various national groups will be assimilated. If, on the basis of the social adjustment of a sample population, he makes predictions about the behaviour of a future population his inference may be challenged. It may be said that he is merely assuming that the future will be like the past; he is mistaking trends which depend on temporary and obscure conditions for laws based upon known factors. In short, he is misusing a description as an explanation. Now he may be disturbed enough by this criticism to become interested in the general question how social description differs from social explanation. But if he does so he will not receive much help from the writings of social scientists. Their writings tend to consist, on the one hand, of instruction in research techniques, and on the other, of some remarks on induction as viewed by John Stuart Mill. There are, of course, studies which fall into neither of these two categories. Robbins Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Theory and Nadels The Foundations of Social Anthropology are familiar examples. They would give little aid to anyone interested in the demographers question, however. The first does not deal with it, and the second deals only with such related questions as the connection between facts and theory or between observation and interpretation. Thus the demographer might well turn to the writings of philosophers for assistance. There he would find a rich literature on problems of the physical sciences and psychology. In contrast, the literature concerned with social science would, if confined to modern work, hardly fill a small shelf. Kaufmanns

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Explanation and Experience in Social Science»

Look at similar books to Explanation and Experience in Social Science. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Martyn Hammersley

The Limits of Social Science: Causal Explanation and Value Relevance

Heinz-Jurgen Niedenzu

New Evolutionary Social Science: Human Nature, Social Behavior, and Social Change

Garry Potter

The Philosophy of Social Science: New Perspectives

S.I. Benn

Rationality and the Social Sciences (RLE Social Theory): Contributions to the Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences

Robert Ackland

Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age

William H. Michelson

Time Use: Expanding Explanation in the Social Sciences

Alexander Rosenberg

Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science

David Rubinstein

Marx and Wittgenstein: Social Praxis and Social Explanation

Alexander Rosenberg

Philosophy of Social Science

Epstein

Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling

Joshua M. Epstein

Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling

Daniel Little

Varieties of Social Explanation: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Science

Reviews about «Explanation and Experience in Social Science»

Discussion, reviews of the book Explanation and Experience in Social Science and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.