##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##

Dale DeWild

Abstract

Sociology has been crippled by a philosophy of social science that denies the relevance of important features of reality. Charles Taylor and Christian Smith have each articulated a searching evaluation of the current deficiencies of social science, and proposed a better philosophy. Their proposal adds legitimacy, breadth, and depth to an understanding of human nature. Taylor and Smith have each also created a vigorous and profound philosophy of human nature, and each of their views of human nature has incorporated a creative philosophy of morality. Along the way they have offered radically new conceptions of human agency, social causation, culture, selfhood, truth, and reality. Their philosophies of knowledge and their philosophies of human nature are largely in agreement, but their ideas about morality are incompatible. Sociologists typically avoid thinking about philosophical differences because past attempts to resolve them have only produced inconclusive debates. Perhaps Taylor and Smith offer a more secure foundation upon which a more solid sociology can be built. This paper is an invitation to explore these possibilities.  

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##

Keywords

critical realism, empiricism, human nature, knowledge, morality, reality

##article.references##
Abbey, Ruth. 2000. Charles Taylor. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bhaskar, Roy. 1979. The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Science. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.

Gorski, Philip S. 2013. “What is Critical Realism? And Why Should You Care?” Contemporary Sociology, 42(5):658-670.

Kuhn, Thomas S. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Porpora, Douglas. 2015. Reconstructing Sociology: A Critical Realist Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sayer, Andrew. 2000. Realism and Social Science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Smith, Christian. 2003. Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Smith, Christian. 2010. What Is a Person? Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Smith, Christian. 2014. The Sacred Project of American Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Smith, Christian. 2015. To Flourish or Destruct: A Personalist Theory of Human Goods, Motivations, Failure, and Evil. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Taylor, Charles. 1985. Human Agency and Language, Philosophical Papers 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Taylor, Charles. 2007. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Section
Research Articles