Socializing Metaphysics
The Nature of Social Reality
By (author) Frederick F. Schmitt University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Contributions by Gary Ebbs, Margaret Gilbert University of Connecticut, Sally Haslanger Ford Professor of Philoso, Kevin Kimble, Ron Mallon, Seumas Miller, Philip Pettit Princeton University, Abraham Sesshu Roth, John Searle, Raimo Tuomela University of Helsinki, T, Edward Witherspoon
Publication date:
11 June 2003Length of book:
400 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
231x157mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780742514287
Human life is conducted within a network of social relations, social groups, and societies. Grasping the implications of that fact starts with understanding social metaphysics. Social metaphysics provides a foundation for social theory, as well as for social epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, action theory, ethics, and political philosophy. This volume will interest anyone concerned with mind, action, or the foundations of social theory.
Socializing Metaphysics supplies diverse answers, from a broad array of voices, to the basic questions of social metaphysics. What is it for human beings to stand in social relations or form social groups? Do these relations and groups bring about something above and beyond the individuals involved? Is there any sense to the notion of a human being apart from social relations? How can an individual achieve autonomy within a society? In what sense are human kinds like race and gender socially constructed? The answers are found within.
Socializing Metaphysics supplies diverse answers, from a broad array of voices, to the basic questions of social metaphysics. What is it for human beings to stand in social relations or form social groups? Do these relations and groups bring about something above and beyond the individuals involved? Is there any sense to the notion of a human being apart from social relations? How can an individual achieve autonomy within a society? In what sense are human kinds like race and gender socially constructed? The answers are found within.
Anyone interested in the subject of the metaphysics of the social should own this anthology and study it with care. It contains the latest developments in the thinking of some of the main contributors to the field, and the admirable introduction sets the context for these contributions in a way that allows even the uninitiated to find them accessible.