Is Rational Choice Theory All of Social Science?
Advocates of rational choice theory in political science have been perceived by their critics as attempting to establish an intellectual hegemony in contemporary social science, to the detriment of alternative methods of research. The debate has gained a nonacademic audience, hitting the pages of th...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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University of Michigan Press
2009
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| Local Note: | ProQuest Ebook Central |
Table of Contents:
- Preface; Acknowledgments; Part I. Foils and Stories; 1. Three Approaches to Foils; 1.1. Rational Choice Theory and Its Foils; 1.2. Social Scientific Theories and Their Foils; 1.3. Foils in the Academy; 1.4. My Hope for This Book; 2. Three Types of Stories; 2.1. Deep Stories; 2.2. Exemplar Theorists; 2.3. Ideal Types; 2.4. The Rational Reconstruction of Research Programs; 2.5. The Trouble with Stories: Thin and Thick Research Communities; 2.6. Typologies and Genealogies; Part II. The Rationalist Challenge; 3. Rational/Social Choice Theory; 3.1. Thin and Thick Rationalists.
- 3.2. Rationalist Ontology3.3. Rationalist Methodology; 4. Rationalism and Hegemony; 4.1. Why Rationalist Social Science Tends toward Hegemony; 4.2. The Result: Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Conciliation; 4.3. Countertendencies: How Rationalist Social Science Defines Its Baselines and Boundaries; 4.4. Countertendencies: Why Rationalist Social Science Lowers Its Positivistic Pretensions; 4.5. Modest Rational Choice Theory; Part III. The Alternatives to Rationalist Hegemony; 5. Cultural/Interpretive Theory; 5.1. Thin and Thick Culturalists; 5.2. Culturalist Ontology.
- 5.3. Culturalist Methodology5.4. Culturalist Lacunae; 6. Structural/Institutional Theory; 6.1. Thin and Thick Structuralists; 6.2. Structuralist Ontology; 6.3. Structuralist Methodology; 6.4. Structuralist Lacunae; Part IV. The Debate about the Debate; 7. The Need for Synthesis: Structure and Action; 7.1. For Synthesis; 7.2. Types of Syntheses; 7.3. Structure/Institution and Action/Process; 7.4. Methodological Synthesis: The Causal and the Interpretive; 7.5. The Importance of Synthesis; 8. The Need for Analysis: Models and Foils; 8.1. For Models and Foils; 8.2. Against Synthesis.
- 8.3. Conclusion: Synthesis and AnalysisPart V. The Philosophy of Science; 9. The General and the Particular; 9.1. The Research Programs; 9.2. Weber's Approach; 9.3. The General and the Particular in the Social Sciences; 10. Models and Foils: A Modest Philosophy of Science for Social Science; 10.1. Theory; 10.2. Evidence; 10.3. Theory and Evidence; 10.4. Evaluation; 10.5. How a Modest Rationalist Evaluates Theory and Evidence; Notes; References; Index.
