Social Science History. Six essays for budding theorists

by Andrew Roberts

Originally published in 1997 by All Saints Bookshop, Enfield Campus, Middlesex University. Enfield Campus and the bookshop are now closed. The book is now free, in various formats, from this website.

Essays that argue the importance of imagination for science and show the consequences of social science on our everyday lives. From the imagination of 17th century pioneers to the imagination of modern theorists, and from the ideas of Aristotle on women and slavery to those of the French revolutionaries, the essays show how sociology, psychology, economics and other social sciences are rooted in our common culture. Plus a section of extracts from Aristotle, Filmer, Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Wollstonecraft, Olympe de Gouges, Weber and Durkheim - plus others added since.

Chapters as web pages with links to sources Chapters for printing Print Introduction    1. EMPIRICISM, THEORY AND THE IMAGINATION John Stuart Mill and his problems with Francis Bacon Print chapter one    2. HOBBES, FILMER AND LOCKE 17th Century Models for a Science of Society Print chapter two    3. WHAT IS SCIENCE? The Ideas of Locke, Hume and Wollstonecraft: Print chapter three    4. CAN THEORY REDESIGN SOCIETY? Rousseau, the French Revolution, Women and Slaves: Print chapter four    5. SOCIAL SCIENCE AND THE 1834 POOR LAW The Theories that Smith, Bentham, Malthus and Owen made: Print chapter five    6. DURKHEIM AND WEBER'S CONTRASTING IMAGINATIONS Who is the Sociologist? Print chapter six    See also: The Durkheim and Merton Page    SCIENCE AND SOCIETY BOOKLIST Print bibliography    CHRONOLOGY: SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY TIMELINE Index to names, concepts and theories provided in the printed book (now out of print) IN THEIR OWN WORDS Plato Aristotle on the state, slavery and women Robert Filmer on the rule of fathers Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan John Locke's on constitutional Government Freedom and Slavery in Rousseau's Social Contract Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Declaration of the Rights of Man 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Woman by Olympe de Gouges 1791 Mary Wollstonecraft on the rights and duties of men and women Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - The Communist Manifesto Max Weber Emile Durkheim Sigmund Freud George Herbert Mead Talcott Parsons Erich Fromm Herbert Marcuse Simone De Beauvoir Robert Merton Erving Goffman Michel Foucault Julie Ford Frank Pearce

Middlesex University, London, England - A mission to put students first