Michael E. Brown: The Concept of the Social in Uniting the Humanities and Social Sciences

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#CC0000" alink="#CC0000"><center><hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade>How to reunify the humanities and social sciences<hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade><p><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9781439910153&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><img src="2268_reg.gif" height=200 border=1 vspace=4></p></center><h1>The Concept of the Social in Uniting the Humanities and Social Sciences</h1> <h3>Michael E. Brown</h3> <P>cloth 1-4399-1015-4 $64.50, Jun 14, <FONT COLOR=#990033>Available</FONT> <br>paper 1-4399-1016-2 $29.95, Jan 15, <FONT COLOR=#990033>Available</FONT> <br>Electronic Book 1-4399-1017-0 $29.95 <FONT COLOR=#990033>Available</FONT> <BR> 538 pp 6x9 </P><BLOCKQUOTE><I>"Brown�s book is an ambitious and profound rethinking of the foundational underpinnings that run through and orient the social sciences and the humanities. With a philosophical rigor rare in the social sciences and a grasp of the complexity of society uncommon in the humanities, he discloses what is at stake in reclaiming the social as their common object. Brown applies a meticulous and attentive erudition across an incredible range of literatures, disciplines and conversations. This is the masterwork of a searingly original and learned voice."</i> <br>&#151<b>Randy Martin</b>, Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Public Policy at New York University, and author of <i>Financialization of Daily Life and Under New Management: Universities, Administrative Labor, and the Professional Turn</i></I></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>In this book, Michael Brown provides original and critical analysis of the state of the social sciences and the humanities. He examines the different disciplines that address human affairs--from sociology, philosophy, political science, and anthropology to the humanities in general--to understand their common ground. He probes the ways in which we investigate the meaning of individuality in a society for which individuals are not the agents of the activities in which they participate, and he develops a critical method for studying the relations among activities, objects, and situations. <P><I>The Concept of the Social in Uniting the Humanities and Social Sciences</I> restores the centrality of sociality to all disciplines that provide for and depend on the social dimension of human life. Ultimately, he establishes a theory of the unity of the human sciences that will surely make readers rethink the current state and future of theory in those fields for years to come. <BR> <h2>Excerpt</h2><P>Excerpt available at <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress">www.temple.edu/tempress</a></p> <BR> <h2>Reviews</h2> <p><i>"The argument advanced in this book is that the social is a fundamental, irreducible given that should be the central object of inquiry in the social sciences and humanities. Brown makes this case in what he surely views as a major corrective to these broad scholarly fields."</i><br>&#151<b><i>Choice</i></b> <p><i> �[A]n ambitious project that essentially attempts to bridge major and disparate discourses within Western thought including sociological, ontological, epistemological, political, and theories of action. The work encourages the reader to carefully consider the nature of inquiry, in those fields, and raises some important questions about their methodological assumptions�. There are several valuable insights that can be gleaned from Brown�s work�. [H]is commentary on diverse sources is illuminating� Overall, the book raises a few thought-provoking points about social inquiry.�</i><br>&#151<b><i>Marx and Philosophy</i></b> <p><i>"I was...impressed by his erudition.... Brown advocates the unification of different disciplines within the humanities and social sciences; furthermore, he intimates that different disciplines have more in common than practitioners are aware. An adventitious packaging of these discrete arguments enables Brown to suggest how unification can be achieved.... [His] arguments are given wide scope, using a large range of disparate sources."</i><br>&#151<b><i>Contemporary Sociology</i></b> <BR> <h2>Contents</h2><P> <p>Introduction: What Is Human about Human Affairs? <p><b>I SocialIty: The Problem of Definition</b> <br>1. The Urgency of Defining the Social <br>2. Society as a Basic Fact <br>3. Dependence and Autonomy <br>4. The Certainty of the Social as the Basic Fact <br>5. The Sociality of Agency <br>6. Models, Theory, and Theorizing <br>7. Theorizing <br>8. Historicism and Its Alternative <br>9. Social Facts, Situations, and Moral Stakes <p><b>II Social Action</b> <br>10. Can �the Social� Be a Proper Object of Theory? <br>11. Further Problems in Theorizing the Social <br>12. Social Action as Action <br>13. The Self of the Actor <br>14. Self and Situation <br>15. Self and Agency <br>16. Social Action Reconsidered <p><b>III Subjects and Situations</b> <br>17. Overview <br>18. Causes of Failure in the Social Sciences <br>19. Objects and Their Subjects <br>20. The Positive Sense of �Situation� <br>21. Practices, Situations, and Inter-subjectivity <br>22. Criticism, Inter-subjectivity, and Collective Enunciation <br>23. Criticism and Human Affairs <br>24. Collective Enunciation <br>25. Subjectivity and Objectivity <br>26. Summary, Reprise, and Transition <p>Acknowledgments <br>Notes <br>References <br>Index </P><BR> <H2>About the Author(s)</H2> <P><b>Michael E. Brown</b> is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University and former Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He is author of <i><a href="1997_reg.html" target="_top">The Historiography of Communism</a>, Collective Behavior</i>, and <i>The Production of Society</i> as well as <i>New Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Communism</i>.</P> <BR><H2>Subject Categories</H2> <p><A HREF="/tempress/sociology.html" TARGET="_top">Sociology</a> <BR><A HREF="/tempress/philosophy.html" TARGET="_top">Philosophy and Ethics</a> <BR><A HREF="/tempress/political.html" TARGET="_top">Political Science and Public Policy</a> </p> <p align="center"><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9781439910153&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><font face="Arial" size="1"><a href="copyright.html" onMouseOver="window.status='Web Copyright Policy';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Web Copyright Policy">©</a> 2017 <a href="http://www.temple.edu" target="new" onMouseOver="window.status='Link to Temple University home page';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Link to Temple University home page">Temple University</a>. 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