Models of Man: Philosophical Thoughts on Social Action (Cambridge Philosophy Classics) - Hardcover

Hollis, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107113768 ISBN 13: 9781107113763

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

All social theorists and philosophers who seek to explain human action have a 'model of man'; a metaphysical view of human nature that requires its own theory of scientific knowledge. In this influential book, Martin Hollis examines the tensions that arise from the differing views of sociologists, economists and psychologists. He then develops a rationalist model of his own which connects personal and social identity through a theory of rational action and a priori knowledge, allowing humans to both act freely and still be a subject for scientific explanation. Presented in a fresh series livery and including a specially commissioned preface written by Geoffrey Hawthorn, Hollis's important work is made available to a new generation of readers.

About this title

Review:

'[Hollis's] extremely clear, sharp, witty style ... makes the entire book very well worth reading. I find his central point entirely persuasive, and it may well be that his careful and courteous defence of it will be the best way to bring it home to those who still see witchcraft in any suggestion that the world must be explained in different ways for different purposes.' Philosophy

'Why do human beings behave in detail exactly as they do and not in some other way? What, if anything, causes them so to act? How can we validly explain the fact that they do in practice act this way and not differently? ... It is the distinctive merit of Martin Hollis's exceedingly clever ... little book to ram home the priority of these vertiginous metaphysical questions to any intellectually coherent attempt to understand one another, individually or by the gross. Radical interpretation is simply the stuff of human life; and the social sciences are radical interpretation on stilts.' New Society

Book Description:

Martin Hollis's influential study of human nature continues to be an important and illuminating exploration of human action and identity. Presented in a fresh twenty-first-century series livery and including a specially commissioned preface written by Geoffrey Hawthorn, this classic work is now available to a new generation of readers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1107113768
• ISBN 13: 9781107113763
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 172