Exploring Humans Revised Edition: Philosophy of Science for the Social Sciences - A Historical Introduction

by Hans Dooremalen, Herman de Regt, Maurice Schouten

Science is the most powerful generator of knowledge. No one seems to doubt that scientists steadily reveal the secrets of the world and human behaviour. But what exactly is the scientific method? Does science really off er insight into the nature of the world and the interactions of humans?

Exploring Humans examines how philosophers have struggled with these questions. The book highlights their influence on thinking about social sciences such as economics, psychology and sociology. By presenting cases and reassessing the traditions of pragmatism and naturalism, it explores and defends the idea that science does indeed off er the most accurate account of humans and the world.

Updates in the revised edition of Exploring humans
In this revised edition, the reader not only finds numerous updates, further clarifications, and additional topics, but also four philosophy of science cases in the domain of law, and a new final chapter which explicitly defends the claim that, across the board, science is the only reliable source of information for ‘exploring humans’.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychology, Nonfiction, Sociology

656 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Herman de Regt en Hans Dooremalen zijn als wetenschapsfilosofen verbonden aan Tilburg University. Ze schreven onder meer het wetenschapsfilosofisch handboek Exploring Humans en Het snapgevoel. Hoe de illusie van begrip ons denken gijzelt, dat een vervolg is op Wat een onzin!

Reviews

[Bastiaan K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek is een uitgebreide introductie in de geschiedenis van epistemologie en philosophy of science. Het begint vanzelfsprekend bij Socrates, Plato en Aristoteles en legt heel duidelijk de rationele en empirische stroming uit vervolgens bespreekt het vrijwel alle grote filosofen die over dit onderwerp hebben geschreven zoals Descartes, Hume en Kant. Het eindigt met de twintigste eeuw en de demarcatiediscussie tussen o.a. Popper, Kuhn en Lakatos.

Dit boek heb ik moeten lezen voor mijn studie filosofie, maar raad het iedereen aan die geïnteresseerd is in dit onderwerp. Het is toegankelijk geschreven en gebruikt veel duidelijke voorbeelden om ingewikkelde kwesties te duiden. Hierdoor heb ik in korte tijd zo onvoorstelbaar veel informatie opgenomen en begrepen.

[Kyrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent, latter half of the book was not that interesting to me so half assed it but the first part was written really clearly and inspired me to read philosophy from the enlightenment

[Lenka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read this book for a "Thinking about Science" course at the Universiteit van Tilburg - one of the authors was our lecturer!
I really dislike philosophy, it's my least favorite subject ever. I have to admit though that this book is so well written that even I could somehow enjoy reading it!
I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who is interested in Philosophy and would like to have a book that nicely summarizes everything you need to know, in details!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read like a Game of Thrones in Philosophy of Science. It provides a clear and insightful overview in the continuum of scientific progress and thought about science and knowledge from Plato and Aristotle to the modern day. The book has good further reading tips, provides examples and cases and also short biographies of relevant philosophers.
I read it as part of a Philosophy of Science course given by one of the book's authors.

[Chimène Gommans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for my philosophy of science course at the UvA, and whereas it seemed as such a big book at first, I must say I enjoyed it. Clear definitions, good and plenty of examples, suggestions for further reading, clear index. It was a lot, but in the end I'm happy I bought the book and finished it (:

[Bram Medelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains a history of epistemology very clearly and can be read by academic and casually interested philosophers alike! It helped me to put many thinkers within context and introduced new ones to me too.

[Geert Bremmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ik vind het bijna knap hoor de auteurs deze droge stof nog droger weten te maken. Het boek staat daarbij vol irrelevante informatie. Door het verhalend proberen te schrijven ontbreekt de structuur die een studieboek ook zou moeten hebben. Zodra er een definitie gegeven moet worden, wordt een citaat gebruikt, die voor mij niet altijd even duidelijk zijn.

[Reti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally would not add books I read for school but I read this entire brick of a book and it was a struggle so I'm counting it

Ily Karl Popper!

[Michiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super interesting. Hard to read, a study book. But useful if you want to know more on what science is.

[Mirjam Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Studieboek. Erg interessant!

[Cezary Dziółko]

that was a brick that i would read anyways, therefore it belongs on my goodreads.
it made me lose my shit quite a few times

[Zuzia Różyc · Rating 3 out of 5]

to actually całkiem spoko, 3,5/5

[zoezoezoezoez · Rating 3 out of 5]

im so schlick of pss

[Lex Krishnadath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is remarkably concise for a book on philosophy. In addition, the narrative makes you read this book as if it were fiction. I love the short biographies of each discussed philosopher.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear and easy to understand. I can definitely recommend this if you want to have some basic knowledge of the history of philosophy of science until now.