Book ID: CBB717899470

The Ant Trap: Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences (2015)

unapi

Epstein, Brian (Author)


Oxford University Press


Publication Date: 2015
Physical Details: 312
Language: English

Winner of the 2016 Lakatos Award for outstanding contribution to the philosophy of scienceWinner of the 2016 Joseph B. Gittler Award for outstanding contribution to the philosophy of social scienceWe live in a world of crowds and corporations, artworks and artifacts, legislatures and languages, money and markets. These are all social objects - they are made, at least in part, by people and by communities. But what exactly are these things? How are they made, and what is the role of people in making them? In The Ant Trap, Brian Epstein rewrites our understanding of the nature of the social world and the foundations of the social sciences. Epstein explains and challenges the three prevailing traditions about how the social world is made. One tradition takes the social world to be built out of people, much as traffic is built out of cars. A second tradition also takes people to be the building blocks of the social world, but focuses on thoughts and attitudes we have toward one another. And a third tradition takes the social world to be a collective projection onto the physical world. Epstein shows that these share critical flaws. Most fundamentally, all three traditions overestimate the role of people in building the social world: they are overly anthropocentric. Epstein starts from scratch, bringing the resources of contemporary metaphysics to bear. In the place of traditional theories, he introduces a model based on a new distinction between the grounds and the anchors of social facts. Epstein illustrates the model with a study of the nature of law, and shows how to interpret the prevailing traditions about the social world. Then he turns to social groups, and to what it means for a group to take an action or have an intention. Contrary to the overwhelming consensus, these often depend on more than the actions and intentions of group members.

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Reviewed By

Review Mark Risjord (2016) Review of "The Ant Trap: Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 135-137). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB717899470/

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Authors & Contributors
Riordan, D. Vincent
J. Laurence Hare
Alacevich, Michele
Scott W. Schwartz
Boldyrev, Ivan
Schlicht, Laurens
Concepts
Social relations; social groups
Social sciences
Philosophy of science
Discipline formation
Human sciences
Science and politics
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
21st century
20th century, late
18th century
Places
United States
France
Great Britain
Germany
Europe
Soviet Union
Institutions
World Bank
Vienna Circle
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