Torbjørn L. Knutsen – författare

The third edition of this popular, innovative and engaging textbook introduces students to the various methods of modern social science, explaining how these have emerged, their strengths and limitations for understanding the world in which we live, and how it is possible to combine methodological pluralism with intellectual rigour. Focussing on the debate between positivist and constructivist approaches, this new edition features contemporary research examples, expanded discussion of experimental methods, and a new emphasis on methods that have recently grown in popularity, such as process tracing and controlled randomized trials.This is the perfect textbook for students studying the philosophy of science in the context of political science or the social sciences more broadly, and it is essential reading for all those seeking to understand how different ways of knowing affect the methods we choose to study social phenomena.New to this Edition:- Contemporary research examples- A new emphasis on methods that have recently grown in popularity, such as random controlled trials, field experiments, big data and within-case and process tracing studies

Building on the works of these thinkers, Scottish philosophers including David Hume and Adam Smith, and American revolutionaries including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison advanced arguments defending human reason, individual freedom, including religious freedom, and democracy.

This book summarizes and explains the way in which political thinkers in England, Scotland, and North America reshaped Western thinking about government and citizens.  Although the ideas of the Anglo-American Enlightenment can be traced back, in embryo, to the Italian Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, it was responses to wars – the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and the English Civil War (1642-1651) which were fought above all over religion – that defined it. Algernon Sidney demanded an end to royal absolutism. John Locke called for a government based on religious toleration. Benedictus de Spinoza, Samuel von Pufendorf and others elaborated on the ideas that society was composed of sovereign individuals endowed with reason and rights. Building on the works of these thinkers, Scottish philosophers including David Hume and Adam Smith, and American revolutionaries including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison advanced arguments defending human reason, individual freedom, including religious freedom, and democracy.