There is No Such Thing as a Social Science: In Defence of Peter Winch

by Phil Hutchinson, Rupert Read, Wes Sharrock, Dave Francis, Stephen Hester

Overview

The revived interest in Peter Winch’s work since his death in 1997 provoked this exciting new volume. A focus on the misrepresentation he suffered through a failure to understand central social and philosophical themes in his writing, encouraged the authors to re-establish a Winchian voice and examine how his central claim is both more significant and more difficult to transcend than sociologists and philosophers have hitherto imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409491415
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	12/28/2012
Series:	Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Phil Hutchinson, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Rupert Read, Reader in Philosophy, University of East Anglia, UK and Wes Sharrock, Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester, UK.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface; Introduction: the legendary Peter Winch and the myth of 'social science'; Beyond pluralism, monism, relativism, realism etc: reassessing Peter Winch; Winch and linguistic idealism; Seeing for themselves: Winch, ethnography, ethnomethodology and social studies; Winch and conservatism: the question of philosophical quietism; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'The authors perform the invaluable service of reminding us of the continuing relevance of Peter Winch's groundbreaking book The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy. Correcting many of the persistent misunderstandings of Winch's work, they make a powerful case for the claim that there is as much need for its lessons today as there was when it was first published 50 years ago.' David Cockburn, University of Wales Lampeter,UK 'There is No Such Thing as a Social Science is far more than an interpretation and appraisal of Peter Winch’s Idea of a Social Science, fifty years after its initial publication. Hutchinson, Read and Sharrock offer a bold and a forceful reminder that the implications of Winch’s arguments are no less devastating for social and cultural theory today than they were for deterministic and ethnocentric social science a half-century ago.' Michael Lynch, Cornell University, USA

From the Publisher