Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences contains a series of explorations of the different ways in which the social sciences have interacted with the natural sciences. Usually, such interactions are considered to go only `one way': from the natural to the social sciences. But there are several important essays in this volume which show how developments in the social sciences have affected the natural sciences - even the `hard' science of physics. Other essays deal with various types of interaction since the Scientific Revolution. In his general introductory chapter, Cohen sets some general themes concerning analogies and homologies and the use of metaphors, drawing specific examples from the use of concepts of physics by marginalist economists and of developments in the life sciences by organismic sociologists. The remaining chapters, which explore the different ways in which the social sciences and the natural sciences have actually interacted, are written by leaders in the field of history of science, drawn from a wide range of countries and disciplines. The book will be of great interest to all historians of science, philosophers interested in questions of methodology, economists and sociologists, and all social scientists concerned with the history of their subject and its foundations.

One of the fruits of the scientific revolution was the idea of a social science that would operate in ways comparable to the newly triumphant natural sciences. This text offers a historical perspective on the interactions between the social and natural sciences.

In this wide-ranging work, now available in paperback, Habermas presents his views on the nature of the social sciences and their distinctive methodology and concerns. He examines, among other things, the traditional division between the natural sciences and the social sciences; the characteristics of social action and the implications of theories of language for social enquiry; and the nature, tasks and limitations of hermeneutics. Habermas' analysis of these and other themes is, as always, rigorous, perceptive and constructive. This brilliant study succeeds in highlighting the distinctive characteristics of the social sciences and in outlining the nature of, and prospects for, critical theory today.

The methodology of science is of a crucial importance for the building of science as a whole as well as for the forming of the different scientific branches. That is, it seeks (among other things) to find out what is the nature of the “scientific image of the world,” what is the substance of the “scientific law,” what methods and procedures could and should be used within scientific research. In the field of social sciences, these issues are also associated with the question of the nature of clarifying statements that social sciences provide. Are the statements of social sciences similar to the explanations from natural sciences, or is it rather a revelation of the meaning and understanding of social phenomena based on a clarification of the system of rules? Is social cognition by its nature a causal explanation and is it rather an interpretation? All these are questions of the methodological nature that show the way towards the answer with respect to the character of the resulting scientific statement based on the examined issues, and based on what the given scientific statement provides evidence. This publication attempts to look for the answers to these questions and to establish possible grounds for their solutions.

Is social science really a science at all, and if so in what sense? This is the first question that any course on the philosophy of the social sciences must tackle. In this brief introduction, Malcolm Williams gives students the grounding that will enable them to discuss the issues involved with confidence. He looks at: * The historical development of natural science and its distinctive methodology * the case in favour of an objective science of the social which follows the same rules * The arguments of social constructionists, interpretative sociologists and others against objectivity and even science itself * recent developments in natural science - for instance the rise of complexity theory and the increased questioning of positivism - which bring it closer to some of the key arguments of social science. Throughout, the book is illustrated with short clear examples taken from the actual practice of social science research and from popular works of natural science which will illuminate the debate for all students whatever their background.

This 1996 book argues that behind the diverse methods of the natural sciences lies a common core of scientific rationality.