Academic literature on the topic 'Social sciences -> philosophy -> social'

The thesis is a collection of six stand-alone chapters aimed at setting the foundations for the philosophy of computational social science. Agent-based modelling has been used for social research since the nineties. While at the beginning it was simply conceived as a methodological alternative, recently, the notion of ‘computational social science’ has started to be used to denote a separate disciplinary field. There are important differences with mainstream social science and traditional social research. Yet, the literature in the field has not accounted for these differences. Computational social science is a strongly practice-oriented field, where theoretical and philosophical concerns have been pushed into the background. This thesis presents an initial analysis of the methodology, epistemology and ontology of computational social science, by examining the following topics: 1) verification and validation and 2) modelling and theorising, 3) mechanisms 4) explanation 5) agency, action and interaction and 6) entities and process philosophy. Five general conclusions are drawn from the thesis. It is first argued that the wider ontological base in agent-based modelling allows for a new approach to traditional social dualisms, moving away from the methodological individualism that dominates computational social science. Second, the need to place a distinction between explanation and understanding and to make explanatory goals explicit is highlighted. Third, it is claimed that computational social science needs to pay attention to the social epistemology of the field, for this could provide important insights regarding values, ideologies and interests that underlie the practice of agent-based modelling. Fourth, it is suggested that a more robust theorisation regarding the experimental and model-based character of agent-based modelling should be developed. Finally, it is argued that the method can greatly contribute to the development of a processual account of social life.

The historical success of sciences and their tendency to extendt hemselves universally to all of realityis a fact. In order to understand their sense, they should be referred to acultural (rational) project, whose presuppositions ought to be judged in accordance with a reason conceived both as practical (ethical-political) and speculative (philosophical). E. Weil's rigorous thought is here compared in all of these points with high-ranging positions: only after going through Hegelian, Marxian and Weberian positions he intends an original reappropiation of Kantian insights.<br>El éxito histórico de la(s) ciencia(s)y su extensión tendencialmente universal a toda realidad es un hecho. Comprender su sentido exige que se le refiera a un proyecto cultural (racional) cuyos supuestos han de ser juzgados conforme a una razón inseparablemente práctica (ético-política) y especulativa (filosofía). Sobre todos estos puntos, el pensamiento riguroso de E. Weil se compara y se contrasta aquí con posiciones de alto vuelo: solamente después de atravesar los planteamientos hegelianos, marxianos y weberianos, es como intenta retomar,de manera original, orientaciones kantianas.

This thesis is a contribution to the contemporary reassessment of Karl Barth's social philosophy. A close reading of the English translation of the text of a series of posthumously published lectures on ethics which Barth gave in the universities of Münster and Bonn between 1929 and 1933 is the basis of the work. Previous literature includes no discussion of the lectures. The thesis argues that the lectures show the foundation of Barth's thinking both of theology as a science and of ethics as a part of dogmatics, and that his subsequent work developed these ideas. Barth's intellectual debt to Hegel is recognised by showing that he returns to the fundamental theological questions of the relationship between faith and reason, and truth and method in the form in which Hegel discussed them at the end of the nineteenth century. The thesis acknowledges the influence of Barth's helper, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, and contrary to other opinions claims that the impact of Wilhelm Herrmann's thinking on Barth remained until 1933. Although principally about material from the period 1918 to 1933, later work by Barth is included in the study to give evidence for the proposals that his ethical thinking helped shape his dogmatics, and that his later ethics show development, not stages and breaks. A discussion of criticisms of his ethics highlights the problem of choosing a method of enquiry that is appropriate to the object studied. A dialogue with two other ethical projects helps focus attention on his insistence on a proper foundation for Christian social ethics. The thesis argues that Barth's work is a theological ethic, because his social philosophy gives a method for asking appropriate questions and creates a way of considering these questions from a Christian perspective.

In this thesis I investigate causal inquiry in the social sciences, drawing on examples from various disciplines and in particular from conflict studies. In a backlash against the pervasiveness of statistical methods, in the last decade certain social scientists have focused on finding the causal mechanisms behind observed correlations. To provide evidence for such mechanisms, researchers increasingly rely on ‘process tracing’, a method which attempts to give evidence for causal relations by specifying the chain of events connecting a putative cause and effect of interest. I will ask whether the causal claims process tracers make are defensible, and where they are not defensible I will ask how we can improve the method. Throughout these investigations, I show that the conclusions of process tracing (and indeed ofthe social sciences more generally) are constrained both by the causal structure ofthe social world and by social scientists’ aims and values. My central argument is this: all instances of social phenomena have causally relevant differences, which implies that any research design that requires some comparison between cases (like process tracing) is limited by how we systematize these phenomena. Moreover, such research cannot rely on stable regularities. Nevertheless, to forego causal conclusions altogether is not the right response to these limitations; by carefully outlining our epistemic assumptions we can make progress in causal inquiry. While I use philosophical theories of causation to comment on the feasibility of a social scientific method, I also do the reverse: by investigating a popular contemporary method in the social sciences, I show to what extent our philosophical theories of causation are workable in practice. Thus, this thesis is both a methodological and a philosophical work. Every chapter discusses both a fundamental philosophical position on the social sciences and a relevant case study from the social sciences.

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.<br>Nationalism is quite easy to understand, but somewhat difficult to explain. In terms of understanding nationalism, we do not need to know anything more about society and sentiment than what is taken for granted in everyday life. An individual who ‘drops’ into a foreign culture may know absolutely nothing about its people’s songs, rituals, amusements and traditions: why some customs evoke tears, and others, bravado. This person would feel no sense of collective awe or inspiration when touring historic battlefields and monuments of an unfamiliar country. Nevertheless, he or she would likely understand and appreciate that all of these things are steeped in meaning and identity. These instances of meaning and identity may not be felt, shared or even fully known, but their role as expressions of nationalism can be readily appreciated. The global spread of nations entails an array of mutually unfamiliar national identities, but the actual phenomenon nationalism is rarely foreign to anyone. From an outsider’s perspective we do not know how certain expressions are significant to a particular group, but we do understand that they are expressions of national belonging. Explaining nationalism is more difficult for the simple reason that experiencing and recognizing a phenomenon is not sufficient to account for its existence. Customs and rituals are two suggested properties of nationalism, but what is the causal relationship between such properties and the end phenomenon (how does custom actually lead to nationalism, if at all)? The answers to these questions are still a matter of debate. The situation is only made worse by the fact that most theories explaining nationalism seem to rest on a tower of abstractions. For instance, it may seem uncontroversial for some to argue that nationalism is an outgrowth of ethnic identity. However, this just begs the question. What is ethnicity? The potential for regress to abstraction is a major impediment to theory. This thesis will examine the problem of explanation: the reasons why theories of nationalism have struggled with explaining nationalism, and a discussion on how to overcome these difficulties. Specifically, this thesis will show that: 1) The problem of explaining nationalism is due in part to the ‘classical’ problem found in the literature: whether nationalism is an ‘ancient’ social phenomenon, or a ‘modern’ phenomenon which can be dated (roughly) to the late eighteenth century. 2) Debates regarding the classical problem are closely affected by philosophical issues in the social sciences. 3) The incorporation of a consilient methodology (i.e. a research program that unifies theories of social science with theories of natural science) can provide a new strategy for future theories of nationalism and work to solve the classical problem.

Questions about knowledge flows between different fields of science are important from a policy perspective. This thesis focuses on knowledge transfer between physical sciences and life sciences. Science and technology are increasingly intertwined in a complex continuum. This complexity of the science and technology today asks for a concerted, articulated and comprehensive understanding of the process of science and technology. The approach that this research has taken is to analyse the process of science and technology. The thesis asks: What is the trade of science and technology? In order to answer this question we developed an anatomy of knowledge and we analysed the internal developments in science via the analysis of the role of the researchers as carriers and producers of knowledge. Secondly the thesis asks: What are the mechanisms and directions on which scientfic knowledge migrates? This research postulates that the analysis of the process of science and technology translates to the analysis of the production and transfer of scientific and technological knowledge. What is obvious and essential for science and technology is the difference between the specific mechanisms of knowledge production. This thesis suggests that the modem mode of knowledge production is characterized by an increasing density of communication on three levels: between science and technology - on one hand - and society on the other-; between scientific practitioners; and with the entities of the physical and social world. Central to our research is the concept of 'mode of knowledge production ' with mode 1 and mode 2 being defined by Gibbons. The four case studies employed emphasise on how collaboration across disciplines is highly important for the production of new knowledge. The main characteristic of newly emerging fields in an increasing synergy between disciplines, which leads to several types of communication between them. With the increasing of the interdisciplinary intensity the border between the production of knowledge and the transfer of knowledge begins to be blurred. The transfer of knowledge occurs today at a more conceptual level. It follows that the production of knowledge has a large component of knowledge transfer. To study it, this thesis proposes a quasiquantitative model. In this unified framework for the knowledge transfer mechanisms, transfer is seen as a process with a number of stages and forms. We tested our framework on four case studies. The third part of the thesis proposes a taxonomy of interdisciplinarity. and deals with the social engineering of knowledge transfer that is the design of adequate guidelines for policies aiming at maximization of knowledge transfer. In this way the thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of processes of development of new emerging scientific fields.