Words and Distinctions for the Common Good : Practical Reason in the Logic of Social Science / Gabriel Abend.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abend, Gabriel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Terminology.

Social sciences.

Genre:

Terminology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (465 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Prince­ton, New Jersey : Prince­ton University Press, [2023]

Summary:

How social scientists' disagreements about their key words and distinctions have been misconceived, and what to do about itSocial scientists do research on a variety of topics-gender, capitalism, populism, and race and ethnicity, among others. They make descriptive and explanatory claims about empathy, intelligence, neoliberalism, and power. They advise policymakers on diversity, digitalization, work, and religion. And yet, as Gabriel Abend points out in this provocative book, they can't agree on what these things are and how to identify them. How to tell if something is a religion or a cult or a sect? What is empathy? What makes this society a capitalist one? Disputes of this sort arise again and again in the social sciences.Abend argues that these disagreements have been doubly misconceived. First, they conflate two questions: how a social science community should use its most important words, and what distinctions it should accept and work with. Second, there's no fact of the matter about either. Instead, they're practical reason questions for a community, which aim at epistemically and morally good outcomes. Abend calls on social science communities to work together on their words, distinctions, and classifications. They must make collective decisions about the uses of words, the acceptability of distinctions, and the criteria for assessing both. These decisions aren't up to individual scholars; the community gets the last word. According to Abend, the common good, justice, and equality should play a significant role in the logic of scientific research.Gabriel Abend is professor of sociology at University of Lucerne and the author of The Moral Background: An Inquiry into the History of Business Ethics (Princeton).

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Abbreviations and typographic conventions

Prologue (or, will social scientists' never-ending disputes over words ever end?)

First Act

1. Sandwichness wars

1.1 A sandwich is a sandwich is a sandwich

1.2 Criteria

1.3 A burrito is a burrito is a burrito

1.4 Bread

1.5 Meat and dairy

1.6 Law and social science

2. The problem

2.1 What's the problem?

2.2 Objects

2.3 Characters

2.4 Levels

2.5 Human

2.6 What we talk about when we talk about 'bread,' 'planet,' and 'religion'

3. Nine ways to decline

3.1 What's your problem?

3.2 Nine arguments and nine responses

3.3 Envoi

4. Technical FAQs

4.1 Introductory FAQs

4.2 FAQs about definitions and concepts

4.3 FAQs about words and meaning

4.4 FAQs about other words and expressions

4.5 FAQs about sources

4.6 Concluding FAQs

5. Two activities

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Words and distinctions

5.3 The catch

5.4 Moving forward: pragmatically

6. Practical reason activities

6.1 The basic idea

6.2 Dinnertime

6.3 Collective

6.4 The good and the true

6.5 Deliberative democracy and constructivism

6.6 'Practical'

6.7 The plan

Second Act

7. Word first

7.1 Words

7.2 Words, words, words

7.3 Dump ontology

7.4 Descriptively and normatively

8. Activity WF and its discontents

8.1 Trouble

8.2 Merely

8.3 Verbal and merely verbal

8.4 Struggles

8.5 Social science

8.6 Against

8.7 For

8.8 How words matter

9. Distinction first

9.1 Distinctions and classifications

9.2 Research on classification

9.3 Good news and bad news

9.4 Desiderata

9.5 Individuation

9.6 How to choose

9.7 A Chinese encyclopedia

10. Conversation starters (fragments, sketches, suggestions, doubts)

10.1 Hey!

10.2 Are some animals more equal than others?

10.3 Moral goodness

10.4 Conditional

10.5 Natural language

10.6 Differences and diversities

10.7 Levels

10.8 Envoi

11. As a matter of fact

11.1 Dude!

11.2 Real life

11.3 Here and now

11.4 Critical FAQs

11.5 Coda

Epilogue (so, will social scientists' never-ending disputes over words ever end?)

Appendix: Make Pluto Great Again

A.1 Planethood wars

A.2 Pluto killers

A.3 Criteria

A.4 Prejudice

Acknowledgments

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691247076

0691247072

OCLC:

1375294230