Bertrand Russell: A Political Life

Ryan, Alan

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin Group Canada

On Politics

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Penguin Uk

A gathering of some of the best travel writing ever about the most intriguing hot spot in the Caribbean, this book includes work by Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Thomas Merton, Anais N•n, Frederic Remington, James Michener, Tommy Lasorda, and others. The Reader’s Companion to Cuba offers an infinitely more revealing and personal time-lapse “tour” of this complex country than could possibly be offered by any standard guidebook. Map.

The Reader's Companion to Cuba

Historical

Mariner Books

The Alaskan frontier is revealed at its most inspiring and unforgiving, through the eyes of its awestruck visitors. An enraptured John Muir first glimpses Glacier Bay; Jon Krakauer marvels at the sight of a grizzly’s footprints in the snow; Erma Bombeck comments on the “cruise from hell,” and more. Map.

The Reader's Companion to Alaska

History

Americas

Mark Twain, Jan Morris, P. J. O’Rourke, and Michael Palin are just a few of the contributors to this provocative armchair tour of South Africa, which takes us from Capetown to Soweto, from 1850 to the present. Introduction by the Editor. Map.

The Reader's Companion to South Africa

Africa

This uniquely literate guide to the land and people of Eire features choice travel writing by Jan Morris, Richard Condon, Paul Theroux, Michael Crichton, and many others, dating from 1896 to the present. Introduction by the Editor. Map.

The Reader's Companion to Ireland

Europe

A unique tour of Mexico with such writers as D. H. Lawrence, Paul Theroux, Graham Greene, Katherine Anne Porter, Langston Hughes, and John Steinbeck, among many others, as guides. A richer perspective on this complex country than that found in standard guidebooks. Introduction by the Editor.

The Reader's Companion to Mexico

Bertrand Russell was one of the greatest logicians since Aristotle, and one of the most important philosophers of the past two hundred years. In this thorough examination, Alan Ryan tells the story of Russell's "other life" as social critic, polemical journalist, antiwar activist, sage and gadfly, dissenting from Russell's insistence that there was no connection between his philosophical interests and his political allegiances. Taking readers on an entertaining journey through a career that included two spells in jail, Ryan discusses Russell's most visible campaigns--against traditional religion, against the First World War, against nuclear weapons, and against the Vietnam War, as well as his lifelong defence of liberalism in education, politics, and relations between the sexes. Throughout he emphasizes the high spirits, the aristocratic fearlessness, and the wonderful combination of wit and intelligence that Russell brought to his political writing and actions. The result is a stimulating reconsideration of one of the great intellectual radicals of our time, a remarkable man who refused to grow old, calm down, and become respectable.

Professionals & Academics

Oxford University Press

Are the Social Sciences in principle a different and more dubious undertaking than the Natural Sciences? This book is an introduction to the major problems of the philosophy of social science. It covers most of the important, and sometimes controversial, topics in the present debate but demands no previous knowledge of philosophy or the social sciences. A model of explanation is developed from current philosophical analysis of the natural sciences that can with care be made applicable to the work of the social scientist. The book begins by explaining the point of asking specifically philosophical questions - an issue on which many social scientists have come to grief. Summarising the concern of the philosopher of social science as the desire to explain rationally the scientific standing of social enquiry, it leads into an account of the nature of scientific explanation, paying special attention to the role of theories in science. The applicability of the dominant account of scientific explanation to human behaviour is shown to raise conceptual problems of an intractable kind - some of them traditional problems concerning 'free will', others contemporary problems with a bearing on social policies about crime, mental health and the enlargement of personal liberty. The intractability of these problems sets the book off on exploring the claim that social understanding is essentially non-scientific, because it involves the analysis of social meanings rather than casual regularities. This claim is seen to contain a good deal of sense - much of it well enshrined in sociological and anthropological practice - but to be misleadingly expressed. Next, the discussion turns to the argument that the proper explanation of social phenomena is 'functionalist' in character; functionalism is seen to do justice to the often-defended view that social phenomena are frequently holistically explained, but is rejected as involving anything peculiar to the explanation of social phenomena - and several self-ascribed functionalists are shown to be offering non-functionalist explanations. In the concluding chapters the role of the social sciences as ideologies is discussed, first in the context of social theorists' ambitions for a science which offers long-range predictions of social phenomena, and finally in the context of doubts about the possibility of objectivity in the description and analysis of social facts. Throughout the book every effort is made to represent conflicting views as fairly as possible; the differences within social science are emphasised in the attempt to show how no single simple account can do justice to the diversity of explanations offered by social scientists.

The philosophy of the social sciences

Philosophy

Macmillan

Are the Social Sciences in principle a different and more dubious undertaking than the Natural Sciences? This book is an introduction to the major problems of the philosophy of social science. It covers most of the important, and sometimes controversial, topics in the present debate but demands no previous knowledge of philosophy or the social sciences. A model of explanation is developed from current philosophical analysis of the natural sciences that can with care be made applicable to the work of the social scientist. The book begins by explaining the point of asking specifically philosophical questions - an issue on which many social scientists have come to grief. Summarising the concern of the philosopher of social science as the desire to explain rationally the scientific standing of social enquiry, it leads into an account of the nature of scientific explanation, paying special attention to the role of theories in science. The applicability of the dominant account of scientific explanation to human behaviour is shown to raise conceptual problems of an intractable kind - some of them traditional problems concerning 'free will', others contemporary problems with a bearing on social policies about crime, mental health and the enlargement of personal liberty. The intractability of these problems sets the book off on exploring the claim that social understanding is essentially non-scientific, because it involves the analysis of social meanings rather than casual regularities. This claim is seen to contain a good deal of sense - much of it well enshrined in sociological and anthropological practice - but to be misleadingly expressed. Next, the discussion turns to the argument that the proper explanation of social phenomena is 'functionalist' in character; functionalism is seen to do justice to the often-defended view that social phenomena are frequently holistically explained, but is rejected as involving anything peculiar to the explanation of social phenomena - and several self-ascribed functionalists are shown to be offering non-functionalist explanations. In the concluding chapters the role of the social sciences as ideologies is discussed, first in the context of social theorists' ambitions for a science which offers long-range predictions of social phenomena, and finally in the context of doubts about the possibility of objectivity in the description and analysis of social facts. Throughout the book every effort is made to represent conflicting views as fairly as possible; the differences within social science are emphasised in the attempt to show how no single simple account can do justice to the diversity of explanations offered by social scientists.

The Philosophy of The Social Sciences (Macmillan Student Editions)

Sociology

Red Globe Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ryan, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ryan, Alan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ryan, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Bertrand Russell: A Political Life

On Politics

The Reader's Companion to Cuba

The Reader's Companion to Alaska

The Reader's Companion to South Africa

The Reader's Companion to Ireland

The Reader's Companion to Mexico

Bertrand Russell: A Political Life

The philosophy of the social sciences

The Philosophy of The Social Sciences (Macmillan Student Editions)