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COLLECTIVE GOODS, NEGLECTED GOODS: DEALING WITH METHODOLOGICAL FAILURE IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Author(s): Herbert J Kiesling (Author)
- Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
- Publication Date: January 24, 2000
- Language: English
- Print length: 280 pages
- ISBN-10: 9810238460
- ISBN-13: 9789810238469
Book Description
This book argues that mainstream social scientists have failed to be useful because of misguided efforts to use objectivist methods employed in the natural sciences — of treating humans as “things”. It argues that the attempt to imitate the objectivism of natural scientists has caused social scientists to both neglect human collective goals and to overlook a virtual gold mine of empirical data which exists because humans can communicate their feelings, beliefs, and personal histories. This wealth of data exists because of the extraordinary amount of information humans possess due to their ability to interpret and remember their own experiences.Part 1 of the book discusses the ways in which objectivism has led to the undue neglect of human social goals across the social sciences. Part 2 deals with objectivist failures by using models where motivation depends equally upon all important social goals. Cooperative efforts are suggested, perhaps by using alternative organizational and institutional arrangements where universities would reorganize the social sciences into single divisions of human sciences.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Must read for anyone concerned with the methodology, reach, and rhetoric of social science and moral philosophy.” — William Gorham
President, The Urban Institute
Emeritus Professor of Economics
University of Maryland
President, The Urban Institute
“This provocative book raises important questions that should be addressed by economists and other social scientists.” —
Christopher ClagueEmeritus Professor of Economics
University of Maryland
