Introduction

The status of social science is seriously in doubt. Outsiders’ attitudes towards it are often suspicious or even hostile, and social scientists themselves are deeply divided over what constitutes a proper approach to social research. The uncertainty has been heightened by increasing doubts in philosophy about traditional views of scientific objectivity and progress. Arguments about whether social science should be like natural science no longer take place on the basis of agreement about the nature and methods of the latter. However, recent developments in realist philosophy have offered new and productive perspectives in both areas that change the whole basis of discussion. In this book I shall try to explain these and show how they can resolve some of the problems that have troubled social scientists.