This book departs from approaches to truth in social science and ideas in philosophy that connect truth to the ability of language to fulfil certain 'real-world' conditions of objectivity. Pointing to an extra-linguistic level in our cognition at which scientific creativity occurs, it highlights the manner in which epistemic communities share, work on and modify not only the world-imaginaries that they endorse, but also those world-views that they reject or which partially overlap with their own. Through the concept of the social imaginary, the author explores the theoretical interrelations among various metaphysical world-imageries by which we organise our scientific understanding of the world and our expectations of experience, thus shedding light on the manner in which social ontology can inform our practices of sharing belief. A study at the intersection of metaphysics and social theory, The Fundamental Predicament of Contemporary Philosophy and the Social Sciences will appeal to scholars of sociology and philosophy with interests in questions of ontology and epistemology.

About the Author

Christoforos Bouzanis is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol. His main research interest lies in the interrelations between philosophy and the social sciences. He has published in journals of social science such as Sociological Theory, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, History of the Human Sciences and Human Studies.

Book Information
ISBN 9780367192532
Author Christoforos Bouzanis
Format Hardback
Page Count 200
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 420g