Beyond Sociology's Tower of Babel: Reconstructing the Scientific MethodTransaction Publishers - 245 Seiten To look outside the discipline of sociology is to find little credibility given to the field as science. Bernard Phillips argues that we are learning to see ever more clearly the contradiction between scientific standards and what in fact has been achieved by sociology. Instead of knowledge based on the full range of our findings, we have separate pieces of knowledge located within the diverse areas of the discipline, and fads and fashions in the ideas and terms we use with relatively little cumulative development. This has led many to question whether any "scientific method" can be applied to human behavior. If the arguments and alternative interpretations in this book on the problematic nature of sociology's use of scientific method prove to be credible and fruitful, then the implications are profound. For example, the conclusions drawn for every single social science study that has ever been conducted would be open to reinterpretation, because they fail to take into account systematically the enormous complexity involved within any given instance of human behavior. Our present approach assumes implicitly that the pieces of the human jigsaw puzzle can at some point be put together so as to yield a coherent picture. Yet, as Phillips shows, if each piece is itself deficient, then no coherent picture emerges when we attempt to put the pieces together. Refusing to take the current fragmentation of sociology as inevitable, Phillips offers a clear vision, through a series of heuristic "web" images, of how sociologists might achieve the cumulative development and credibility that are the hallmarks of any science. His research draws heavily on the works of classical and contemporary theorists, philosophers, and historians of science, as well as on postmodernist critiques and responses to postmodernism. This reconstruction will be useful for courses in method in the study of the classical tradition of sociology. Bernard Phillips was introduced to sociology at Columbia University by C. Wright Mills. A former professor of sociology at Boston University, cofounder of the ASA Section on Sociological Practice and founder of the Sociological Imagination Group, his publications emphasize methodology and theory. |
Inhalt
Sociology and the Scientific Method | 3 |
Cultural and Sociological Paradigms | 41 |
Scientific Method | 73 |
Reflexivity | 161 |
Language and Emotions | 195 |
Glossary | 229 |
241 | |
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Beyond Sociology's Tower of Babel: Reconstructing the Scientific Method Bernard S. Phillips Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2001 |
Beyond Sociology's Tower of Babel: Reconstructing the Scientific Method Bernard S. Phillips Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2001 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
abstract concepts achieve addiction alienation analysis anomie approach aspirations and fulfillment basic behavior biological sciences bureaucratic worldview causal-loop diagrams centers Chapter cial complexity contradictions contrast cultural paradigm cultural values Dewey direction discipline emotions emphasize everyday example feelings Figure focus forces fundamental further Gandhi gap between aspirations given Gouldner's human idea illustrated importance individual individual's interactive worldview invisible crisis involved knowledge Kuhn Kuhn's ladder of abstraction language language's ladder Languages of Pao level of abstraction linked loop metaphor microsociology Mills modern society momentary scene move Newspeak orientation Paonese paradigm and worldview patterns of social perspective phenomena physical and biological present problems procedures reflexive sociology reinforcement relative deprivation revolutions salt satyagraha satyagraha Scheff scientific method scientific paradigm shame situation social interaction social organization social sciences social stratification social structure sociological concepts sociological imagination sociological paradigm sociologists sociology's Springdalers studies suggests theory tion understanding Wright Mills yield
Verweise auf dieses Buch
Cumulative Social Inquiry: Transforming Novelty Into Innovation Robert Benjamin Smith Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2008 |
A Comparative Sociological Analysis of the Japanese and American Corporation Steven L. Rosen Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2007 |