Science of Science and Reflexivity by Pierre Bourdieu

Science of Science and Reflexivity by Pierre Bourdieu

Science of Science and Reflexivity One of the world's leading social thinkers, Bourdieu's work has become increasingly influential throughout the social sciences and humanities. In this new book he embarks on a sociological analysis of science and its legitimacy. Bourdieu argues that that emergence of the social sciences has had the effect of calling in to question the objectivity and validity of scientific activity, by relating it to its historic conditions. It is this relativistic and at times nihilistic interpretation of science that Bourdieu sets out to challenge, in an attempt to combine an accurate vision of the scientific arena with a realist theory of knowledge. The book also offers an elaboration of Bourdieu's notion of the scientific field and uses it to address a range of issues and debates in the natural and social sciences. This is a clear and accessible introduction to Bourdieu's views on science that will appeal to students of sociology, philosophy and the social sciences.

'Bourdieu's ideas are more accessible in his lectures and interviews, and this book, consisting as it does of the final lecture course given by the author at the College de France, is relatively easy goingIt is made livelier still by the asides inserted by the author whilst preparing the lectures for publication - they serve, rather like Goffman's footnotes, to draw one's attention to unlikely and therefore stimulating comparisons.'

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

'It is a book that embodies well both the very apparant strengths and some of the more hidden weaknesses of the sociological, ethical and political positions he developed and advocated in the last decade of his life. (T)he book is a valuable record of mature ideas of a major intellectual. It is an invigorating and sometimes even amusing read.'

European Journal of Social Theory

Pierre Bourdieu was Professor of Sociology at the Collège de France.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780745630601
ISBN 10	074563060X
Title	Science of Science and Reflexivity
Author	Pierre Bourdieu
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Year published	2004-09-16
Number of pages	168
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.