Description:
Can social scientific description capture the historically individual? Is the idea of an ethically committed social science morally defensible? This book offers a critical, historically-grounded perspective on these perennial methodological and ethical problems, in their current forms.
Review Quotes:
"Leonidas Tsilipakos has provided a much needed historically and technically sophisticated overview of the key philosophical problems of sociology and historical interpretation as they now exist, and especially the challenge posed by the normative idea of an emancipatory social science."
Stephen Turner, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida, USA
"In this wide-ranging and highly instructive critique, Tsilipakos challenges key assumptions underpinning much social and historical research today."
Martyn Hammersley, The Open University, UK
"Inspired by the work of philosopher Peter Winch, Tsilipakos offers an incisive and erudite critique of prevalent conceptions of history and the social sciences, among them the idea that the social sciences may lay claim to normative authority on social issues."
Lars Hertzberg, Åbo Akademi University, Finland