Overview
- Discusses topics in biology, economics, psychology, political science and nonjustificational philosophy
- Contrasts evolutionary epistemology in human and life sciences to the physical sciences
- Replaces traditional philosophy of the social sciences with evolutionary epistemology
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism (PASTCL)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (18 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Knowledge as Classification, Judgment, and Mensuration
-
Front Matter
-
-
What can be Known, and What is Real
-
Front Matter
-
-
There are Inescapable Dualisms
-
Front Matter
-
-
Complexity and Ambiguity
-
Front Matter
-
-
The Corruption of Knowledge: Politics and the Deflection of Science
-
Front Matter
-
Keywords
About this book
Reviews
Weimer is a polymath. His writings range over disparate domains including induction, psychology, epistemology, economics, and mensuration theory. His views have proven to be not only trenchant but prescient. For example, Donald Hoffman’s position regarding “The Case Against Reality, and the constructivist nature of perception was presaged by Weimer over forty-five years ago. Similarly, those confronting the replication crisis in today’s psychotherapy research, would do well take seriously his admonitions regarding measurement theory. This volume should be essential reading for anyone involved in or concerned about the nature of the sciences.
Neil P. Young, Ph.D Clinical and experimental psychologist.
Minds/brains are complex systems within complex systems (living organisms) within complex systems (human societies) within complex systems (ecosystems). Consequently, knowing the mind is infinitely more challenging than knowing the objects studied bythe physical sciences. Weimer's book rises to the challenge, thoroughly reviewing the strengths and shortcomings of both famous and forgotten thinkers such as Bühler, Hayek, Popper, and von Neumann to identify key issues for an evolutionary epistemology: consciousness, duality, determination, description, explanation, mensuration, semiotics, and rationality. The result is a guidebook that points the human sciences in the right direction.
--John A. Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Penn State University
"Having researched and written on the neglected problems surrounding measurement and experimentation in the social sciences, I am encouraged to find those topics highlighted and emphasized as of central importance in this book on epistemology. Social scientists need to realize their fields cannot simply borrow the tools and techniques of physical science without understanding the limitations and differences involved."
Günter Trendler, Industrial Services Project Manager, Ludwigshafen a. R., Germany
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Walter B. Weimer is Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. His other books in the Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism series are the two volumes of Retrieving Liberalism from Rationalist Constructivism.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Epistemology of the Human Sciences
Book Subtitle: Restoring an Evolutionary Approach to Biology, Economics, Psychology and Philosophy
Authors: Walter B. Weimer
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17173-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-17172-7Published: 17 November 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-17175-8Published: 18 November 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-17173-4Published: 16 November 2022
Series ISSN: 2662-6470
Series E-ISSN: 2662-6489
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 410
Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations
Topics: Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Economic Psychology, Epistemology, Cognitive Psychology