The Nature of Social Science

by George Caspar

Book Overview

George C. Homans addresses a number of controversial ideas to his colleagues in the social sciences as he sets about to ask how scientific these sciences are and to discuss their problems. He believes, in fact, that they form a single science, sharing the same subject matter and employing the same body of general explanatory principles. And contrary to the opinion of most scholars, he argues that they do not differ radically from the physical and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156654253
• ISBN13: 9780156654258
• Release Date: October 1967
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 109 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Concise perspective of social science

Writing in the 1960s, the Harvard professor (who never earned his PhD) takes stock of social science methodologies and theoretical frameworks. This is based on a lecture given at the University of Washington. Homans argues for the importance of psychology and its methods as the basis or foundation of social science. En route, he assesses functionalism, makes comparisons to the natural sciences, and explores the goals of social science and natural science alike - to explain phenomena!