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Thinking about Society: Theory and Practice

  • Book
  • © 1986

Overview

Authors:
  1. I. C. Jarvie

    1. York University, Toronto, Canada

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Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 93)

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Table of contents (25 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
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  2. Problems and Theories in the Social Sciences

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Objectivism Versus Relativism

      1. The Notion of a Social Science
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 3-16
      2. Social Perception and Social Change
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 17-34
      3. Realism and the Supposed Poverty of Sociological Theories
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 35-49
      4. Rationality and relativism
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 50-69
      5. Popper on the Difference between the Natural and the Social Sciences
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 70-94

    3. Philosophy of Anthropology

      1. The Emergence of Social Anthropology from Philosophy
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 95-106
      2. On Theories of Fieldwork and the Scientific Character of Social Anthropology
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 107-126
      3. Limits to Functionalism and Alternatives to It in Anthropology
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 127-143
      4. On the Objectivity of Anthropology
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 144-151
      5. The Problem of Ethical Integrity in Participant Observation
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 152-161
      6. Anthropology as Science and the Anthropology of Science and of Anthropology
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 162-182
      7. Epistle to the Anthropologists
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 183-196
      8. On the Limits of Symbolic Interpretation in Anthropology
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 197-211
      9. The Problem of the Ethnographic Real
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 212-232
      10. Anthropologists and the Irrational
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 233-256
      11. Freeman on Mead
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 257-262

  3. Applications and Implications

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 263-263
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    2. Society and the Arts

      1. The Objectivity of Criticism of the Arts
        • I. C. Jarvie
        Pages 265-281
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Keywords

About this book

I. C. Jarvie was trained as a social anthropologist in the center of British social anthropology - the London School of Economics, where Bronislaw Malinowski was the object of ancestor worship. Jarvie's doctorate was in philosophy, however, under the guidance of Karl Popper and John Watkins. He changed his department not as a defector but as a rebel, attempting to exorcize the ancestral spirit. He criticized the method of participant obser­ vation not as useless but as not comprehensive: it is neither necessary nor sufficient for the making of certain contributions to anthropology; rather, it all depends on the problem-situation. And so Jarvie remained an anthro­ pologist at heart, who, in addition to some studies in rather conventional anthropological or sociological molds, also studied the tribe of social scien­ tists, but also critically examining their problems - especially their overall, rather philosophical problems, but not always so: a few of the studies in­ cluded in this volume exemplify his work on specific issues, whether of technology, or architecture, or nationalism in the academy, or moviemaking, or even movies exhibiting excessive sex and violence. These studies attract his attention both on account of their own merit and on account of their need for new and powerful research tools, such as those which he has forged in his own intellectual workshop over the last two decades.

Reviews

` ... this cohesively organized anthology, written in compact and clear manner, contains an abundance of provocative issues intriguingly stated and cogently argued. ... this is a conceptually opulent work both in depth and scope and one highly recommended for social philosophers, philosophers of the social sciences, sociologists and anthropologists.'
Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 29:3, 1995

Authors and Affiliations

  • York University, Toronto, Canada

    I. C. Jarvie

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Thinking about Society: Theory and Practice

  • Authors: I. C. Jarvie

  • Series Title: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5424-3

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland 1986

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-2068-9Published: 31 December 1985

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-8894-7Published: 03 October 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-5424-3Published: 06 December 2012

  • Series ISSN: 0068-0346

  • Series E-ISSN: 2214-7942

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIX, 523

  • Topics: Anthropology, Sociology, general, Philosophy, general

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