Social Sciences and the Old Testament

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor H. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific

The aim of social scientific criticism, as a subfield of biblical exegesis, is to study the biblical materials as a reflection of their cultural setting. The meaning and/or the social background of the text are thus more fully illumined by the exercise of sociological and anthropological methods and theories. The era of modern social-scientific research began in the late 19th century with the work of Karl Marx, Auguste Comte, and Herbert Spencer. Their social theories created an atmosphere of curiosity about the human condition and advanced the evolutionary perspective that had taken hold with the writing of Charles Darwin. As sociology and anthropology emerged as separate sciences, scholars such as W. Robertson Smith and Louis Wallis adapted their methods (at least comparative and functionalist perspectives) to Israelite history and culture. Despite this early start, there was a hiatus in the use of the social sciences (especially psychology, sociology, and anthropology) in the study of the Bible between 1930 and 1960 as literary, historical-critical, and archaeological approaches (the W. F. Albright School) predominated. However, in the last several decades, building on the earlier works of Max Weber and continuing with the study of Israelite origins by George Mendenhall and Norman Gottwald, social science methods have experienced a revival and burgeoned into a major subfield.

scholarly journals Law and social theory: problem of dialectical connection in the works of philosophers of the XIX – XX centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-75
Author(s):  
Andrei Andreevich Kovalev
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Legal Understanding

This article examines the problem of correlation and dialectical connection between the theories of social being and law in the works of the prominent philosophers of the XIX – XX centuries (Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx, Georges Gurvitch, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Niklas Luhmann, Jürgen Habermas, and others) who worked at the intersection of several fields of social sciences and made significant contribution to the theory of state and law. These scholars predicted multiple problems of modernity; therefore, reference to their theoretical heritage is valuable in the search of new legal understanding, the need for which has existed for a long time. The scientific novelty consists in the analysis of views of the leading theoreticians who dealt with the correlation between law and social sciences. Social in the social sciences was often considered from the perspective of evolution of human relations. The essence of the social was revealed in various types of cohesion of population or connectedness between the members of social groups. In such relations, an important element was morality, which emerged much earlier than law. Morality emerged with the conception of the social, while law – only with the advent of the state. The classical social theories of the late XIX – early XX centuries, identified the concept of “society” mostly with the politically organized and territorially restricted society of the modern Western national state.

The Art of Social Theory

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Swedberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Concept Formation ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Practical Guide ◽  
The Social ◽  
Context Of Discovery

In the social sciences today, students are taught theory by reading and analyzing the works of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and other foundational figures of the discipline. What they rarely learn, however, is how to actually theorize. This book is a practical guide to doing just that. This user manual for social theorists explains how theorizing occurs in what the book calls the context of discovery, a process in which the researcher gathers preliminary data and thinks creatively about it using tools such as metaphor, analogy, and typology. The book guides readers through each step of the theorist's art, from observation and naming to concept formation and explanation. To theorize well, you also need a sound knowledge of existing social theory. The book introduces readers to the most important theories and concepts, and discusses how to go about mastering them. If you can think, you can also learn to theorize. This book shows you how. The book features helpful examples throughout, and also provides practical exercises that enable readers to learn through doing.

Reconsidering American Power

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
American Power ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Sponsorship ◽  
To Come

Postcolonial studies, postmodern studies, even posthuman studies emerge, and intellectuals demand that social sciences be remade to address fundamentals of the human condition, from human rights to global environmental crises. Since these fields owe so much to American state sponsorship, is it easier to reimagine the human and the modern than to properly measure the pervasive American influence? Reconsidering American Power offers trenchant studies by renowned scholars who reassess the role of the social sciences in the construction and upkeep of the Pax Americana and the influence of Pax Americana on the social sciences. With the thematic image for this enterprise as the ‘fiery hunt’ for Ahab’s whale, the contributors pursue realities behind the theories, and reconsider the real origins and motives of their fields with an eye on what will deter or repurpose the ‘fiery hunts’ to come, by offering a critical insider’s view.

Stabilizing American Society: Kenneth Boulding and the Integration of the Social Sciences, 1943–1980

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Fontaine
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Main Determinant ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Right

ArgumentFor more than thirty years after World War II, the unconventional economist Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) was a fervent advocate of the integration of the social sciences. Building on common general principles from various fields, notably economics, political science, and sociology, Boulding claimed that an integrated social science in which mental images were recognized as the main determinant of human behavior would allow for a better understanding of society. Boulding's approach culminated in the social triangle, a view of society as comprised of three main social organizers – exchange, threat, and love – combined in varying proportions. According to this view, the problems of American society were caused by an unbalanced combination of these three organizers. The goal of integrated social scientific knowledge was therefore to help policy makers achieve the “right” proportions of exchange, threat, and love that would lead to social stabilization. Though he was hopeful that cross-disciplinary exchanges would overcome the shortcomings of too narrow specialization, Boulding found that rather than being the locus of a peaceful and mutually beneficial exchange, disciplinary boundaries were often the occasion of conflict and miscommunication.

Charisma and social phenomenology: Gerda Walther, Herman Schmalenbach and Aron Gurwitsch

2021 ◽  
pp. 1468795X2110496
Author(s):  
Dominik Zelinsky
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Emotional Dimension ◽  
The Social ◽  
Charismatic Authority ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Aron Gurwitsch ◽  
Social Phenomenology

This paper explores the contribution of early social phenomenologists working in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany to charisma theory. Specifically, I focus on the works of Gerda Walther, Herman Schmalenbach and Aron Gurwitsch, whose work is now being re-appreciated in the field of social philosophy. Living in the interbellum German-speaking space, these authors were keenly interested in the issue of charismatic authority and leadership introduced into the social sciences by Max Weber, with whom they engaged in an indirect intellectual dialogue. I argue that their phenomenological background equipped them well to understand the intricacies of the experiential and emotional dimension of charisma, and that their insights remain valid even a century after they have been first published.

Max Weber Today: Notes on the Problem of Objectivity in the Social Sciences

1971 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-24
Author(s):  
John W. Petras ◽  
James E. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Social

School Notes: Committee on Historical Studies

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-236
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
Graduate Faculty ◽  
New School ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Historical Moment

The Committee on Historical Studies was established in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in 1984. The Graduate Faculty has long emphasized the contribution of history to the social sciences. Committee on Historical Studies (CHS) courses offer students the opportunity to utilize social scientific concepts and theories in the study of the past. The program is based on the conviction that the world changes constantly but changes systematically, with each historical moment setting the opportunities and limiting the potentialities of the next. Systematic historical analysis, however, is not merely a diverting luxury. Nor is it simply a means of assembling cases for present-oriented models of human behavior. It is a prerequisite to any sound understanding of processes of change and of structures large or small.

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