New Philosophies of Social Science

Abstract

Thesocialsciencesin the English-speaking world have been through some dramatic changes in the last twenty years in their understanding of their own nature and methods. I shall call this area the philosophy of social science, though it includes the work, not just of philosophers but of very many sociologists and a smaller number of representatives of the other social science disciplines. In describing realism, hermeneutics and critical theory as ‘new’ philosophies of social science I do not mean todeny that these three movements have a much longer history.