Das englischsprachige Buch zieht eine Bilanz der widersprüchlichen intellektuellen Entwicklung der Soziologie über ein halbes Jahrhundert. Die Disziplin braucht diese Aufarbeitung der eigenen Erfahrung, um mit den neuen sozialen und kognitiven Herausforderungen fertig zu werden.

Without of course adopting a Platonic metaphysics, the eighteenth-century philosophes were Grecophiles who regarded the Athenian philosophers as their intellectual forbearers and mentors. So powerful was their identification with c1assification that ancient ideas were taken as keys to the design of the modem world, but usually the ideas were taken separately and as divided from their systematic context. The power of number was an idea the En lightenment thinkers deployed with their legendary passion and vigor, particularly as an instrument for social reconstruction. It is no exaggemtion to say that the role of quantities in contemporary social scientific theorizing cannot be understood with any depth absent a recollection of the philosophes' axial development of the notion of quantification. It is a commonplace that for the philosophes progress required releasing human abilities to have power over nature. Aprerequisite for this power was knowledge of the underlying causes of natural events, knowledge that required quantitative precision. Enlightenment thinkers were sufficiently aware of themselves as products of their time to appreciate the importance of a liberal social environment to the knowledge enterprise; the supposition that the reverse is also the case, that enhanced knowledge could advance social conditions, came easily.

In this proceedings, authoritative experts and policy makers examine the current state and status of the social sciences and present their views on what needs to be done.

The social psychology of science is a compelling new area of study whose shape is still emerging. This erudite and innovative book outlines a theoretical and methodological agenda for this new field, and bridges the gap between the individually focused aspects of psychology and the sociological elements of science studies. Presenting a side of social psychology that, until now, has received almost no attention in the social sciences literature, this volume offers the first detailed and comprehensive study of the social psychology of science, complete with a large number of empirical and theoretical examples. The volume's introductory section provides a detailed analysis of how modern social psychology might apply to the study of science. Chapters show how to analyze science in terms of social cognition, attribution theory, attitudes and attitude change, social motivation, social influence and social conformity, and intergroup relations, weaving extensive illustrations from the science studies literature into the theoretical analysis. The nature and role of experimentation are discussed, as are metaanalytic methods for summarizing the results of multiple studies. Ways to facilitate the generalization of causal inferences from experimental work are also examined. The book focuses on such topics as interactions among small groups of scientists, and the impact of social motivation, influence, and conformity on scientific work. Also covered are scientists' responses to ethical issues in research, differences in cognitive style distribution, creativity in research and development, and the sociologists's view of the social psychology of science and technology. In addition, the book provides two annotated bibliographies, one on the philosophy of science and the other on social psychology, to guide readers in both disciplines to salient recent works. Valuable to the entire science studies community, this text will be of special interest to philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and historians of science interested in the nature of knowledge development in science. Because of its novel application of social psychological theories and methods, this book will be useful as a primary text or a secondary text in courses on science studies in psychology, sociology, or philosophy departments.

Selections from the work of an influential contributor to the methodology of the social sciences. He treats: measurement, experimental design, epistemology, and sociology of science each section introduced by the editor, Samuel Overman. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Development of Social Sciences A Librarian’s Companion The present book entitled, “Development of Social Sciences: A Librarian’s Companion” is an attempt to study the fundamental concept of the umbrella term `Social Science' which normally consist of four basic disciplines namely Political Science, Economics, Sociology and History though at a later stage the multidisciplinary approaches have widened the scope of social science thereby resulted into the inclusion of several disciplines which in one context or the other are directly related to the study of human beings. The present effort intends to study the role of social science contributors, organizations, institutions, documentation centers and the social science information sources available in the context of the development of social science disciplines. The book is divided into five chapters namely (i) Social Science: An Overview (ii) Social Science Contributors (iii) Social Science organizations and institutions (iv) National Documentation Centers in Social Sciences and (v) Information Sources in Social Science. The book will be useful to the students pursuing the studies in the field of library and information science, teachers involved in teaching the course which involves the teaching of multidisciplinary content especially the social science vis-à-vis libraries as well as by all those who wants to study and do research the role of libraries and their contribution in the growth and development of social science disciplines.