Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason: Text and Documents
Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason: Text and Documents
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Abstract
This book presents a study of social phenomena. How to best and most accurately study social interactions has long been debated intensely, and there are two main approaches: the positivists, who ignore intent and belief and draw on methods based in the sciences; and the nonpositivists, who argue that opinions and ideas drive action and are central to understanding social behavior. The author's opposition to the positivists and their claims to scientific rigor and certainty in the study of human behavior is a running theme of the book, which argues that the vast number of elements whose interactions create social structures and institutions make it unlikely that social science can predict precise outcomes. Instead, it contends, we should strive to simply understand the principles by which phenomena are produced. For this text, this modesty of aspirations went hand in hand with the author's concern over widespread enthusiasm for economic planning. As a result, these chapters are relevant to ongoing debates within the social sciences, and to discussion about the role government can and should play in the economy.
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Front Matter
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Introduction
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Prelude Individualism: True And False
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Part I Scientism and the Study of Society
- One The Influence of the Natural Sciences on the Social Sciences
- Two The Problem and the Method of the Natural Sciences
- Three The Subjective Character of the Data of the Social Sciences
- Four The Individualist and ‘Compositive’ Method of the Social Sciences
- Five The Objectivism of the Scientistic Approach
- Six The Collectivism of the Scientistic Approach
- Seven The Historicism of the Scientistic Approach
- Eight ‘Purposive’ Social Formations
- Nine ‘Conscious’ Direction and the Growth of Reason
- Ten Engineers and Planners
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Part II The Counter-Revolution of Science
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Eleven
The Source of the Scientistic Hubris: L̓Ecole Polytechnique
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Twelve
The “Accoucheur D̓idées”: Henri De Saint-Simon
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Thirteen
Social Physics: Saint-Simon and Comte
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Fourteen
The Religion of the Engineers: Enfantin and the Saint-Simonians
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Fifteen
Saint-Simonian Influence
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Sixteen
Sociology: Comte and His Successors
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Eleven
The Source of the Scientistic Hubris: L̓Ecole Polytechnique
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Part III Comte and Hegel
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End Matter
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