Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science

This is the first comprehensive anthology in the philosophy of social science to appear since the late 1960s. Covering all of the major areas in the discipline, it will serve as the standard source for scholarship in the field and could be used as the basis for an entire course.

The anthology offers one complete, convenient, and well-chosen selection of readings, plus three specially commissioned articles that encompass the entire range of topics in the field and cover both sides of currently hot debates about explanation, methodological individualism, and the special sciences. The introductions to each section provide a map through the discipline.

Michael Martin is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. Lee C. McIntyre is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colgate University.

Sections cover: Explanation, Prediction, and Laws. Interpretation and Meaning. Rationality. Functional Explanation. Reductionism, Individualism, and Holism. Objectivity and Values. Problems of the Special Sciences.

Commissioned articles:

Taylor on Interpretation and the Sciences of Mani Michael Martin. Microfoundations of Marxism, D. Little. Evidential Constraints: Pragmatic Empiricism in Archaeology, A. Wylie.