The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences Available to Purchase

It is perfectly possible, indeed quite common, to be a practising research biochemist say, without having any interest at all in the philosophy of science – to be totally unaware of Kuhn or Popper, let alone of Aristotle or Spinoza. In fact taking an interest in such matters usually indicates the beginning of the end of the research scientist’s productive career. Social scientists, by contrast, can scarcely operate without some conscious thought as to why they are doing what they are doing. Even the most hard‐boiled mathematical economist has to be aware that the axes on his graphs are really...