Stephen P. Turner

If you have arrived at this page you will see a lot of books, These range from the history of social science to contemporary cognitive science, with a lot in between. As a philosopher of social science, I focus on issues of explanation, the nature of morality, rationality, and so forth. But my abiding interest had been with the foundations of social life than cannot be discussed in common sense “folk psychological” language, and which are distorted by extensions of this language. Much of what makes us tick falls in this category. Most, and perhaps all, of the ways we have of talking about it, such as the concept of "values," are misleading. Read and be disturbed. Read my memoir, Mad Hazard, to learn more about the genesis of these books.

A separate theme of many of these books has been politics: problems of contemporary democracy, such as the role of experts, and issues over the philosophical foundations of ideas about democracy and the rule of law. One can see much more of this on my academia.edu and researchgate pages.

Most of my life has been lived in Florida-- it is my strongest identity and a deep love. But my intellectual community is European social theory. I live on European time. All of these books are infused with the background and sensibility of the kind of philosophically oriented social theory that flourishes there, and if I am not in Florida, I am happiest sitting in an outdoor cafe on a square in some European city, chatting with colleagues.