On the Logic of the Social Sciences. Translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen and Jerry A. Stark.

HABERMAS, Jürgen:

ISBN 10: 0262081776 / ISBN 13: 9780262081771

Published by Cambridge: M. I. T. Press, 1988., 1988

About this Item

First Edition in English (1st ed., 1967; 1st bookform ed., 1970), first printing. xiv, 1 leaf, 220 pp. Original cloth. Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket. Review copy, with slip.

Seller Inventory # 06520

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On the Logic of the Social Sciences. Translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen and Jerry A. Stark.
• Publisher: Cambridge: M. I. T. Press, 1988.
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262081776
• ISBN 13: 9780262081771
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

For two decades the German edition of this book has been a standard reference point for students of the philosophy of the social sciences in Germany. Today it still stands as a unique and masterful guide to the major problems and possibilities in this field.

On the Logic of the Social Sciences foreshadowed the direction in which methodological discussions have traveled since it appeared and anticipated the problems they presently face. Habermas's statement of the principal issues is concise and elegant, and his own original resolution of them is of continuing relevance. He considers the main lines of thought pursued by epistemologists and methodologists of the social sciences, from neo-Kantianism to behaviorism, and from problems of measurement to those of interpretive logic, in a sustained and provocative argument that involves analysis and critique at every point and ends with his own sharply profiled position.

Beginning with the turn of the century debates on the distinction between natural and cultural sciences, Habermas discusses the relationship between sociology and history. He takes up the problem of a general theory of social action, focusing first on the nature of "interpretive understanding" and then on the scope and limits of functionalist explanation. In the concluding sections, he draws on psychoanalysis and classical social theory to sketch the outlines of his view of sociology as a critical theory of the present. Along the way he provides a great deal of material that is useful in understanding his own work.

Jurgen Habermas is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. On the Logic of the Social Sciences is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.

Review

′ On the logic of the Social Sciences is a fine tribute to the care with which Habermas prepared his [intellectual] expedition. His survey of the literature of social scientific theory is inclusive and incisive.′ Times Higher Education Supplement

′The vision of this book remains powerful and there is still much to be learned and gained from this, one of Habermas′s most accessible, practical, and relevant texts.′ Environment and Planning