An introduction to sociology

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Matthias Klatt

"Legal argumentation consists in the interpretation of texts. Therefore, it has a natural connection to the philosophy of language. Central issues of this connection, however, lack a clear answer. For instance, how much freedom do judges have in applying the law? How are the literal and the purposive approaches related to one another? How can we distinguish between applying the law and making the law? This book provides answers by means of a complex and detailed theory of literal meaning. A new legal method is introduced, namely the further development of the law. It is so far unknown in Anglo-American jurisprudence, but it is shown that this new method helps in solving some of the most crucial puzzles in jurisprudence. At its centre the book addresses legal indeterminism and refutes linguistic-philosophical reasons for indeterminacy. It spells out the normative character of interpretation as emphasized by Raz and, with the help of Robert Brandom's normative pragmatics, it is shown that the relativism of interpretation from a normative perspective does not at all justify scepticism. On the contrary, it supports the claim that legal argumentation can be objective, and maintains that statements on the meaning of a statute can be right or wrong, and take on inter-subjective validity accordingly. This book breaks new ground in transferring Brandom's philosophy to legal theoretical problems and presents an original and exciting analysis of the semantic argument in legal argumentation. It was the recipient of the European Award for Legal Theory in 2002."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

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Richard Double

Why is debate over the free will problem so intractable? This question forms the starting point for Richard Double's ground-breaking account of the way metaphilosophical views - our differing conceptions of the philosophical enterprise - condition competing theories of free will. Double holds that any argument for or against a specific free will position - such as compatibilism, incompatibilism, or the author's own subjectivism - will be persuasive only if one adopts supporting meta-level views of what philosophy is. He argues further that since metaphilosophical considerations are not provable (and are not even true or false, if subjectivism is true), there can be no hope of showing one free will theory to be more reasonable than the rest. Rather, the most philosophers can do is make a desire-based case for preferring their package of metaphilosophy and substantive free will theories. These means that argument in the free will problem must be radically reinterpreted. Double begins by elaborating the connection between metaphilosophy and free will. He identifies four distinct meta-level viewpoints that drive different answers to the free will problem: Philosophy as Conversation; Philosophy as Praxis; Philosophy as Underpinnings; and Philosophy as World View Construction. From there, he discusses intermediate-level principles that work in combination with the meta-philosophies, then provides ten applications from recent free will debates that demonstrate how differences in meta-philosophy make the free will problem unsolvable. In the second half of the book Double makes the strongest case he can - consistent with his own metaphilosophical view - for accepting free will subjectivism.

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David M. Fetterman

Sifting through notepads filled with illegible scrawl, listening to hours of tape recordings, labeling and organizing piles of photographs and slides and cross-referencing disks of data are all too familiar pictures to the ethnographic researcher. How does one manage a mountain of data and make meaningful statements? By using the new, updated Ethnography that has proved so reliable to thousands of researchers. This edition takes a step into a new frontier - the Internet, which is one of the most-powerful resources available to ethnographers. The book now provides insights into the uses of the internet, including conducting searches about topics or sites, collecting census data, conducting interviews by "chatting" and video-conferencing, sharing notes and pictures about research sites, debating issues with colleagues on listservs and in online journals, and downloading useful data collection and analyses software. Maintained from the first edition is coverage of the nature of fieldwork, the equipment needed to conduct research, the analysis of data, the differences and similarities between qualitative and quantitative approaches and writing the report. Throughout the book author David M. Fettermen provides insights into putting people at ease, research ethics, and sensitivity to other cultures.

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Alister E. McGrath

In this new book, Alister McGrath explores the relation of religion and the natural sciences, focusing specifically on Christianity as a case study. The book explores the way in which religions and the natural sciences differ from each other, yet converge on matters of considerable interest in a number of areas. This book will be of great interest to those researching and studying in the areas of science and religion, Christian theology and history, and the philosophy of science.