Peter Winch a idea socialni vedy

• Authors: Dvorak Tomas

Title variants

EN

PETER WINCH AND THE IDEA OF A SOCIAL SCIENCE

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

Firstly, this article outlines the main points made by Peter Winch in his breakthrough book The Idea of a Social Science. Its Fundamentals thesis, inspired by Wittgenstein and his accounts on the relation between language and reality, is the assumption that social sciences engage in philosophical endeavor, because the problems they deal with are not empirical, but conceptual. Following Wittgensteinian line of thought he comes up with the idea that all social action can be explained as rule following and therefore it should be approached by conceptual means other than those used by natural sciences. Secondly, this article explores the impact that The Idea of a Social Science had on the discussion about the nature of social sciences. It outlines it's main critiques which deal with (1) Winch's conception of philosophy (2) the notion of rule following and (3) descriptive nature of Winch's approach. Finally, Winch's critique of positivism in social sciences is identified as his main and lasting contribution to social thought.

Keywords

EN

CRITIQUE OF POSITIVISM; RULE FOLLOWING; SOCIAL ACTION; SOCIAL SCIENCE

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Teorie vědy (Theory of Science)
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 16/29
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 157-168
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Dvorak Tomas

• Tomas Dvorak, ISS FSV UK, U Krize 8, 158 00 Praha 5 - Jinonice, Czech Republic, http://dlib.lib.cas.cz/4193/

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09CZAAAA061722