Dlittle30

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I am a philosopher of social science with a strong interest in China and Southeast Asia. Paying attention to the logical and conceptual issues raised by the social sciences is key to better understanding the modern world. I think philosophers need to interact seriously and extensively with working social scientists and historians if they are going to be able to make a useful contribution.


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LATEST ARTICLES ( 866 )

  • Morphogenesis and Realist Meta-theory

    Morphogenesis Realist Meta-theory

    Margaret Archer's contribution to critical realism has been an important part of the recent progress of the field, and her theory of morphogenesis is key to thi... Read more

    Posted on 02 May 2014 SOCIETY

  • The Big Ideas

    Ideas

    image: Luten Baher, MusicianThe deluge of changes that shook Europe around 1800 -- the making of the modern world -- brought with them an explosion of big new... Read more

    Posted on 29 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • The Social World

    Social World

    image: Tuileries, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Toledo Museum of Art exibitionIt seems self evident, barely worth remarking, that social outcomes are the result of... Read more

    Posted on 26 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • Social Upheaval

    Social Upheaval

    image: Monte Carlo simulation of portfolio valueWe sometimes think that there is fundamental stability in the social world, or at least an orderly pattern of... Read more

    Posted on 24 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • The Near Future

    Near Future

    There is a lot going on in America and the world today: climate change, increasing separation between the rich and the non-rich, entrenched poverty in cities,... Read more

    Posted on 19 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • Historical Sociologists on Critical Realism

    Historical Sociologists Critical Realism

    Critical realism took its origin within the philosophy discipline, arising at the time that there was profound debate over the adequacy of logical positivism... Read more

    Posted on 15 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • Naturalizing Causal Powers

    Naturalizing Causal Powers

    Several earlier posts have considered Tuukka Kaidesoja's very interesting recent book, Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology (NCR). Read more

    Posted on 10 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • Entrenched Poverty

    Entrenched Poverty

    A quick review of Peter Edelman's So Rich, So Poor: Why it’s So Hard to End Poverty in America posted on svbtle.com ...http://dlittle30.svbtle. Read more

    Posted on 05 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • Quantitative and Qualitative Social Science

    Quantitative Qualitative Social Science

    The social world is one reality, but the methodologies associated with quantitative and qualitative research are quite different. Read more

    Posted on 02 April 2014 SOCIETY

  • War and Calculation

    Calculation

    The Crimea is now securely within the grasp of Russia. This shift occurred as the result of the use of military force seemingly unconcerned about international... Read more

    Posted on 29 March 2014 SOCIETY

  • Causal Necessity?

    Causal Necessity?

    Do causes make their effects “necessary” in any useful sense? This is the claim that Hume rejected — the notion that there is any “necessary” connection... Read more

    Posted on 23 March 2014 SOCIETY

  • Social Contingency?

    Social Contingency?

    Image: Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (link)Image: organization chart of General MotorsWhat does it mean to say that the social world is contingent? Several things. Read more

    Posted on 17 March 2014 SOCIETY

  • Why Emergence?

    Emergence?

    It is a fair question to ask, whether the concept of emergence is perhaps less important than it initially appears to be. Part of the interest in emergence seem... Read more

    Posted on 09 March 2014 SOCIETY

  • Kaidesoja on Emergence

    Kaidesoja Emergence

    Tuukka Kaidesoja's recent book Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology devotes a chapter to the topic of emergence as it is treated within critical... Read more

    Posted on 08 March 2014 SOCIETY

  • Social Plasticity and Ontology

    Social Plasticity Ontology

    Ruth Groff has created a valuable blog and Facebook page on "Powers, Capacities, Dispositions"aimed at creating a community of scholars interested in the... Read more

    Posted on 04 March 2014 SOCIETY

  • New Thinking About Metaphysics

    Thinking About Metaphysics

    It seems that there is a lot happening in metaphysics these days. There is of course the return to Aristotle that has occurred within the resurgent field of... Read more

    Posted on 02 March 2014 SOCIETY

  • Social Powers?

    I am one of those people who think that causal claims are the foundation of almost all explanations. When we ask for an explanation of something, we generally... Read more

    Posted on 28 February 2014 SOCIETY

  • A Causal Narrative?

    Causal Narrative?

    source: Edward Tufte, edwardtufte.comIn a recent post I referred to the idea of a causal narrative (link). Here I would like to sketch out what I had in mind... Read more

    Posted on 21 February 2014 SOCIETY

  • Lincoln and Marx

    Lincoln Marx

    Robin Blackburn has assembled a fascinating book drawing out some surprising connections between Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx, An Unfinished Revolution: Karl... Read more

    Posted on 18 February 2014 SOCIETY

  • Causal Narratives, Mechanisms, and Powers

    Causal Narratives, Mechanisms, Powers

    A million termites move around industriously without supervisors or external coordination. Some months later, a great structure has arisen — a termite... Read more

    Posted on 16 February 2014 SOCIETY