Historical Understanding and Ethics in Social Science

Can social scientific description capture the historically individual? Is the idea of an ethically committed social science morally defensible? This book offers a critical, historically-grounded perspective on these perennial methodological and ethical problems, in their current forms. It provides a series of in-depth examinations of recent work by prominent authors in sociology and philosophy. The book draws on the thought of Peter Winch to provide a coherent response to the core issues that underlie past and present debate in social science and to provide a solid basis for future inquiry. It will be of particular interest to social scientists, philosophers, and historians, and to anyone seeking a clear grasp of the demands made by historical understanding and ethics on the study of society.

Leonidas Tsilipakos is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) at the University of Bristol, UK. He has edited and translated Winch’s The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy into Greek. He is the author of Clarity and Confusion in Social Theory: Taking Concepts Seriously, also published in this series, and of Η Δυνατότητα Επιστημονικής Κατανόησης της Κοινωνίας.