Social Science under Debate: A Philosophical Perspective

by Mario Bunge

Mario Bunge, author of the monumental Treatise on Basic Philosophy, is widely renowned as a philosopher of science. In this new and ambitious work he shifts his attention to the social sciences and the social technologies. He considers a number of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, law, history, and management science. Bunge contends that social science research has fallen prey to a postmodern fascination with irrationalism and relativism. He urges social scientists to re-examine the philosophy and the methodology at the base of their discipline. Bunge calls for objective and relevant fact-finding, rigorous theorizing, and empirical testing, as well as morally sensitive and socially responsible policy design.

Genres: Philosophy

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Mario Augusto Bunge fue un físico, filósofo, epistemólogo y humanista argentino; Bunge por encima de todo fue un filósofo materialista, defensor del realismo científico y de la filosofía exacta. Fue conocido por expresar públicamente su postura contraria a las pseudociencias, entre las que incluye al psicoanálisis, la praxeología, la homeopatía, la microeconomía neoclásica (u ortodoxa) entre otras, además de sus críticas contra corrientes filosóficas como el existencialismo (y, especialmente, la obra de Martin Heidegger), la fenomenología, el posmodernismo, la hermenéutica, y el feminismo filosófico.

Reviews

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars. An amazing amount of ground is covered in this work. All the major social sciences are touched upon, both basic and applied. Bunge is universally critical of just about everything in the social sciences, but always constructively so. He repeatedly exposes faulty presuppositions vital to entire perspectives, ideological dogmas falsely presented as scientifically well-founded truths, and empty pseudo-quantification attempting to beget legitimacy (most notably in economics). To put it briefly, his reoccurring advice is to make the social sciences more scientific and get rid of the irrational and "postmodern" social studies.

I found the first half to be much more interesting, and Bunge seems to have had more of substance to say regarding basic social science, but there's still some worthwhile points to be considered in the applied social science section. And, as I'm finding typical of Bunge, he presents his views in a very matter-of-fact kind of way, and he tends to brush over some controversial points without giving due consideration to the opposition. Still, if social scientists took to heart what this work has to say, the discipline as a whole could only get better.

[JOSE AGUSTIN · Rating 5 out of 5]

buenas tardes, en primer lugar agradecer por permitirme ser miembro de ustedes como lector, gracias, mis resumenes serán para impartir en mis clases de la Universidad