Relativism and the Social Sciences - Brossura

Gellner, Ernest

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0521337984 ISBN 13: 9780521337984

Casa editrice: Cambridge University Press, 1987

Riassunto

This volume of essays deals with the problem of relativism, in particular cultural relativism. If our society knows better than other societies, how do we know that it knows better? There is a profound irony in the fact that this self-doubt has become most acute in the one civilisation that has persuaded the rest of the world to emulate it. The claim to cognitive superiority is often restricted, of course, to the limited sphere of natural science and technology; and that immediately raises the second main theme of this volume - the differences between the human and natural sciences. These essays reach towards a new style and mode of enquiry - a mixture of philosophy, history and anthropology - that promises to prove more revealing and fruitful.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'Gellner writes with a razor. His first essay on positivism and hegelianism ... is simply brilliant.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

' ... one of the pleasures of reading Gellner is just that he always finds a more apt phrase, a sharper comment, a better example than most of us could make up for ourselves.' New Society

Descrizione del libro:

These essays deal with the problem of relativism and, in particular, cultural relativism. If our society knows better than other societies, how do we know that it knows better? The claim to cognitive superiority is often restricted to the sciences - raising the second theme of the volume: the difference between human and natural sciences.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0521337984
• ISBN 13: 9780521337984
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 212