Individualism and the Unity of Science: Essays on Reduction, Explanation, and the Special Sciences (The Worldly Philosophy, Studies at the Intersection of Philosophy and Economics)

Kincaid Harold

ISBN 10: 0847686639 / ISBN 13: 9780847686636

Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated, 1997

About this Item

pp. 172.

Seller Inventory # 94845769

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Individualism and the Unity of Science: Essays on Reduction, Explanation, and the Special Sciences (The Worldly Philosophy, Studies at the Intersection of Philosophy and Economics)
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0847686639
• ISBN 13: 9780847686636
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In this original and important book, Harold Kincaid defends a view of the special sciences-all sciences outside physics-as autonomous and nonreducible. He argues that the biological and social sciences provide explanations that cannot be captured by explanations at the level of their constituent parts, and yet that this does not commit us to mysterious, nonphysical entitites like vital forces or group minds. A look at real scientific practice shows that the many different sciences can be unified in a way that leaves them each an autonomous explanatory role. This book will be of great interest to philosophers of science and social scientists.

About the Author

Harold Kincaid is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the author of Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences: Analyzing Controversies in Social Research (Cambridge University Press).