ENGLISH

Relativism and the Social Sciences

By Ernest Gellner

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
1987
ISBN
0521337984, 9780521337984
Language
english
Format
DJVU
Filesize
1 MB (1248703 bytes)
Edition
Reprint
Pages
212\209
DPI
300
Time added
2024-08-22 00:32:27

Description

This volume of essays deals with the problem of relativism, in particular cultural relativism. If our society knows better than other societies, how do we know that it knows better? There is a profound irony in the fact that this self-doubt has become most acute in the one civilisation that has persuaded the rest of the world to emulate it. The claim to cognitive superiority is often restricted, of course, to the limited sphere of natural science and technology; and that immediately raises the second main theme of this volume - the differences between the human and natural sciences. These essays reach towards a new style and mode of enquiry - a mixture of philosophy, history and anthropology - that promises to prove more revealing and fruitful.

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