Social Reality (Problems of Philosophy) - Softcover

Collin, Finn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415147972 ISBN 13: 9780415147972

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

Social reality is currently a hotly debated topic not only in social science, but also in philosophy and the other humanities. Finn Collin, in this concise guide, asks if social reality is created by the way social agents conceive of it? Is there a difference between the kind of existence attributed to social and to physical facts - do physical facts enjoy a more independent existence? To what extent is social reality a matter of social convention. Finn Collin considers a number of traditional doctrines which support the constructivist position that social reality is generated by our 'interpretation' of it. He also examines the way social facts are contingent upon the meaning invested in them by social agents; the nature of social convention; the status of social facts as symbolic; the ways in which socially shared language is claimed to generate the reality described, as well as the limitations of some of the over-ambitious popular arguments for social constructivism.

About this title

About the Author

Finn Collin is Senior Lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. He holds doctorates in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Copenhagen. Dr Collin is the author of Theory and Understanding: A Critique of Interpretive Social Science (1985).

From the Back Cover

The nature of social reality is currently a hotly debated topic not only in social science, but also in philosophy and the other humanities. Finn Collin, in this concise guide, asks if social reality is created by the way social agents conceive it. Is there a difference between the kind of existence attributed to social and to physical facts? Do physical facts enjoy a more independent existence? To what extent is social reality a matter of social convention?

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415147972
• ISBN 13: 9780415147972
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 266