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 ( 893 )

  • Institutional Designs for Progressive Reform

    Institutional Designs Progressive Reform

    One place where Jon Elster's philosophical thinking intersects with empirical social science is in the field of institutional design. Read more

    Posted on 22 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Alford Young on Race and Sociology

    Alford Young Race Sociology

    Alford Young is professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and an expert on the life experience of inner-city African-American men. He is also chair o... Read more

    Posted on 20 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Causal Inference and Random Trials

    Causal Inference Random Trials

    image: Tamil Nadu nutrition study Nancy Cartwright has spent much of her career probing the assumptions scientists make about causation. Read more

    Posted on 16 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Hacking on Kuhn

    Hacking Kuhn

    The fourth edition of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions appeared in 2012, fifty years after its original appearance in 1962. Read more

    Posted on 13 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Change in Peasant China

    Change Peasant China

    Image: Shanxi countryside In 1978 China's government initiated a major change in the agricultural economy. It began a rapid transition from communal... Read more

    Posted on 10 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Total Information Awareness?

    Total Information Awareness?

    I'm finding myself increasingly distressed at this week's revelations about government surveillance of citizens' communications and Internet activity. Read more

    Posted on 07 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Lack of Character?

    Lack Character?

    image: Stanford prison experiment John Doris argues in Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior that the basic theory of action associated with virtue... Read more

    Posted on 02 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Unexpected Linkages

    One of the things that I find most interesting in social development is the discovery of unexpected linkages between innovations in one field and outcomes in... Read more

    Posted on 01 June 2013 SOCIETY

  • Forum on Rural Areas and Peasants

    Forum Rural Areas Peasants

    I've just spent an interesting several days in Wuhan at a conference on China's rural transformation. It was a genuinely productive conference, involving expert... Read more

    Posted on 29 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • Levels of the Social

    Levels Social

    We can examine social life at many levels of granularity -- from ordinary individual social behavior to small groups to cities and regions to the global system... Read more

    Posted on 20 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • Observing Character Traits

    Observing Character Traits

    The key idea of moral character is that the actions individuals choose are influenced by enduring features of their mentality. Read more

    Posted on 19 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • What About Marx?

    What About Marx?

    At various points since the death of Karl Marx in 1883 his work has been regarded as a dead issue -- no longer relevant, too ideological, methodologically... Read more

    Posted on 16 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • RFP: Research on "understanding"

    RFP: Research "understanding"

    Here is an exciting RFP for researchers in psychology, philosophy, and religious studies who are interested in "understanding". Read more

    Posted on 16 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • Hirschman on the Passions

    Hirschman Passions

    Numerous previous posts have emphasized the importance of having a theory of the actor when we do social science or history. Are people impulsive, emotional,... Read more

    Posted on 15 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • Elster on Tocqueville

    Elster Tocqueville

    Jon Elster is one of the people whose thinking about society and the social sciences has made a consistently important contribution to the philosophy of social... Read more

    Posted on 12 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • Urban Futures

    Urban Futures

    I recently spent a half day visiting Detroit with some very perceptive university colleagues. We visited the university's center on Woodward Avenue, the... Read more

    Posted on 03 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • Skilled Work

    Skilled Work

    Watch an active construction site for a few minutes and you will see some amazing examples of skilled work and deft problem solving. Read more

    Posted on 01 May 2013 SOCIETY

  • Life Quality Across Structural Change

    Life Quality Across Structural Change

    Read more

    Posted on 30 April 2013 SOCIETY

  • Urban Marginality

    Urban Marginality

    If you live within the reach of a major American city -- and most Americans do -- then you know what "marginality" is. It is the sizable sub-population of... Read more

    Posted on 24 April 2013 SOCIETY

  • Actor-centered History

    Actor-centered History

    It is easy enough to ask the question, "How can we best explain the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of German fascism, or the Industrial Revolution in... Read more

    Posted on 24 April 2013 SOCIETY