Robert C. Bishop - Böcker

Science, philosophy of science, and metaphysics have long been concerned with the question of how order, stability, and novelty are possible and how they happen. How can order come out of disorder? This book introduces a new account, contextual emergence, seeking to answer these questions. The authors offer an alternative picture of the world with an alternative account of how novelty and order arise, and how both are possible.Contextual emergence is grounded primarily in the sciences as opposed to logic or metaphysics. It is both an explanatory and ontological account of emergence that gets beyond the impasse between “weak” and “strong” emergence in the emergence debates. It challenges the “foundationalist” or hierarchical picture of reality and emphasizes the ontological and explanatory fundamentality of multiscale stability conditions and their contextual constraints, often operating globally over interconnected, interdependent, and interacting entities and their multiscale relations. It also focuses on the conditions that make the existence, stability, and persistence of emergent systems and their states and observables possible. These conditions and constraints are irreducibly multiscale relations, so it is not surprising that scientific explanation is often multiscale. Such multiscale conditions act as gatekeepers for systems to access modal possibilities (e.g., reducing or enhancing a system's degrees of freedom). Using examples from across the sciences, ranging from physics to biology to neuroscience and beyond, this book demonstrates that there is an empirically well-grounded, viable alternative to ontological reductionism coupled with explanatory anti-reductionism (weak emergence) and ontological disunity coupled with the impossibility of robust scientific explanation (strong emergence). Central metaphysics of science concerns are also addressed. Emergence in Context: A Treatise in Twenty-First Century Natural Philosophy is written primarily for philosophers of science, but also professional scientists from multiple disciplines who are interested in emergence and particularly in the metaphysics of science.

This is the definitive companion to the study of the philosophy of the social sciences. It provides the student with an accessible, comprehensive and philosophically rigorous introduction to all the major philosophical concepts, issues and debates raised by the social sciences. Ideal for use in undergraduate courses, the structure and content of this textbook - the most thorough, clearly argued and up-to-date available - closely reflect the way the philosophy of the social sciences is studied and taught. The text examines key conceptual and methodological questions in the social sciences and illustrates how these shape the practice of research, the interpretation of findings and theory formulation in such disciplines as economics, political science and psychology. The book not only offers lucid and incisive coverage of the philosophy of the social sciences, but also extends the major debates and considers the latest directions in this growing area of philosophical interest. Robert C.Bishop's cogent and rigorous analysis is supplemented by useful pedagogical features, including key examples from philosophical writing; summaries of core debates; sample questions and exercises; and guides for further reading.

Understanding the deepest issues in the philosophy of social science means understanding the personal and cultural biases social scientists cannot help but bring to their research.This introduction is essential for students of philosophy and the social sciences, who are interested in the foundations of their disciplines. It focuses on conceptual and methodological questions in a way that identifies the often unexamined assumptions underlying the practice of social science.These personal and cultural biases are critically analyzed along with the key ways they shape research and the interpretation of findings in different disciplines including psychology, the behavioural sciences and economics. Chapters are thoroughly updated and do not presume a substantial background in philosophy. They cover new topics including:§ Problems in the collection and sorting of data, free will–determinism dilemmas and scientific explanations in social science§ Questions raised by post-truth “positional” epistemologies of the social, led by feminist and race-oriented studies§ Disguised ideologies including white superiority— the systematic assumption that white people matter more than non-whites and the parallel ideology that men and their contributions to society are more valuable than women.What makes this introduction unique is the emphasis throughout on how cultural ideals remain hidden away in social-science research, yet colour every aspect of social inquiry: material rarely discussed in the philosophical and professional literature on social science.

Understanding the deepest issues in the philosophy of social science means understanding the personal and cultural biases social scientists cannot help but bring to their research.This introduction is essential for students of philosophy and the social sciences, who are interested in the foundations of their disciplines. It focuses on conceptual and methodological questions in a way that identifies the often unexamined assumptions underlying the practice of social science.These personal and cultural biases are critically analyzed along with the key ways they shape research and the interpretation of findings in different disciplines including psychology, the behavioural sciences and economics. Chapters are thoroughly updated and do not presume a substantial background in philosophy. They cover new topics including:§ Problems in the collection and sorting of data, free will–determinism dilemmas and scientific explanations in social science§ Questions raised by post-truth “positional” epistemologies of the social, led by feminist and race-oriented studies§ Disguised ideologies including white superiority— the systematic assumption that white people matter more than non-whites and the parallel ideology that men and their contributions to society are more valuable than women.What makes this introduction unique is the emphasis throughout on how cultural ideals remain hidden away in social-science research, yet colour every aspect of social inquiry: material rarely discussed in the philosophical and professional literature on social science.