Ian C. Jarvie – författare

The main concern of Dr Jarvie’s book is the relation of belief to action. He argues that people act in society because of beliefs, because of ‘the way they see things’. There is the world of physical and social conditioning – where fixed roles, tropisms, adaptations seem to operate; there is the world of mind – where action, alternatively, seems to originate; but then there is Karl Popper’s ‘third world’ – where dwell the objects of thought (ideals, theories, beliefs, values) which ‘directly affect how people act, and thus affect the way the world is’. Reform, change, improvement, modification, all proceed from the competitive interaction between our private beliefs about the world, and their ‘third world’ brothers. Jarvie contends that the struggle of privately held beliefs to realize themselves in the world through the actions of their believers is a fundamental force behind social change.

The main concern of Dr Jarvie’s book is the relation of belief to action. He argues that people act in society because of beliefs, because of ‘the way they see things’. There is the world of physical and social conditioning – where fixed roles, tropisms, adaptations seem to operate; there is the world of mind – where action, alternatively, seems to originate; but then there is Karl Popper’s ‘third world’ – where dwell the objects of thought (ideals, theories, beliefs, values) which ‘directly affect how people act, and thus affect the way the world is’. Reform, change, improvement, modification, all proceed from the competitive interaction between our private beliefs about the world, and their ‘third world’ brothers. Jarvie contends that the struggle of privately held beliefs to realize themselves in the world through the actions of their believers is a fundamental force behind social change.

- where do today's dominant approaches to doing social science come from?

- what are the main fissures and debates in contemporary social scientific thought?

- how are we to make sense of seemingly contrasting approaches to how social scientists find out about the world and justify their claims to have knowledge of it?

In this exciting handbook, Ian Jarvie and Jesús Zamora-Bonilla have put together a wide-ranging and authoritative overview of the main philosophical currents and traditions at work in the social sciences today.

Starting with the history of social scientific thought, this handbook sets out to explore that core fundamentals of social science practice, from issues of ontology and epistemology to issues of practical method. Along the way it investigates such notions as paradigm, empiricism, postmodernism, naturalism, language, agency, power, culture, and causality.

Bringing together in one volume leading authorities in the field from around the world, this book will be a must-have for any serious scholar or student of the social sciences.