Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Nature of Philosophy and of Social Science
- 1 Is There Such a Thing as a Social Science?
- 2 Wittgenstein and Relativism
- Part 2 Does Wittgenstein's Work Have Ideological Implications?
- 3 Was Wittgenstein a Conservative Philosopher?
- 4 Was Wittgenstein a Liberal Philosopher?
- 5 Leave Everything as It Is
- 6 Eagleton's Wittgenstein
- Part 3 Applying Wittgenstein's Work to Problems in Social Philosophy
- 7 Wittgenstein and Freedom of the Will
- 8 Wittgenstein and Justice
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Is There Such a Thing as a Social Science?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Nature of Philosophy and of Social Science
- 1 Is There Such a Thing as a Social Science?
- 2 Wittgenstein and Relativism
- Part 2 Does Wittgenstein's Work Have Ideological Implications?
- 3 Was Wittgenstein a Conservative Philosopher?
- 4 Was Wittgenstein a Liberal Philosopher?
- 5 Leave Everything as It Is
- 6 Eagleton's Wittgenstein
- Part 3 Applying Wittgenstein's Work to Problems in Social Philosophy
- 7 Wittgenstein and Freedom of the Will
- 8 Wittgenstein and Justice
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I am not interested in constructing a building, so much as in having a perspicuous view of the foundations of possible buildings. So I am not aiming at the same target as the scientists and my way of thinking is different from theirs.
Introduction
Action is significant in Wittgenstein's later work and Wittgenstein's work is significant in terms of the development of the philosophy of action. In the very first of the numbered remarks in his Philosophical Investigations Wittgenstein highlights the way a shopkeeper acts in delivering goods to a customer as a way of contrasting his understanding of language with the ‘Augustinian’ picture of language. In discussing one sense of the expression ‘language game’ Wittgenstein describes a language game as consisting of ‘language and the activities into which it is woven’. In other remarks Wittgenstein discusses the relationships between action and ostensive definition,the action of a machine (in connection with his discussion of rule following/ the relationship between a rule and action in accordance with it), action and reasons, action/ behaviour and language, acting and thinking, acting on orders, and action and the will.
In his book The Idea of a Social Science Peter Winch developed Wittgenstein’s ideas about action, behaviour, language, and rules into a critique of the idea that the disciplines known as the social sciences are scientific in the manner of the natural sciences. Action appears in The Idea of a Social Science as a way of distinguishing natural sciences, which feature causal explanations prominently, from social sciences, which focus upon human actions and feature explanations in terms of reasons and motives more conspicuously. Winch distinguishes actions from habitual behaviour and distinguishes actions in terms of motives from causal explanations. Wittgenstein was notoriously opposed to scientism, that is, the attempt to bring the methods of science to bear in areas where they are not appropriate, especially in philosophy. Winch, following Wittgenstein, detailed ways in which social investigations differ from investigations in the natural sciences.
Phil Hutchinson, Rupert Read, and Wes Sharrock have recently defended Winch's account of differences between natural sciences and social disciplines. In their book There is No Such Thing as a Social Science they come to the conclusion that calling social disciplines ‘sciences’ is likely to lead to confusion.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Wittgenstein and the Social SciencesAction, Ideology and Justice, pp. 25 - 48Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020