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Socializing Metaphysics

The Nature of Social Reality

Frederick F. Schmitt - Contributions by Gary Ebbs; Margaret Gilbert; Sally Haslanger; Kevin Kimble; Ron Mallon; Seumas Miller; Philip Pettit; Abraham Sesshu Roth; John Searle; Raimo Tuomela and Edward Witherspoon

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.
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  • Reviews
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 400 • Trim: 6¼ x 9
978-0-7425-1428-7 • Hardback • June 2003 • $162.00 • (£125.00)
978-0-7425-1429-4 • Paperback • June 2003 • $66.00 • (£51.00)
Subjects: Philosophy / Metaphysics, Philosophy / Methodology
Frederick F. Schmitt is professor of philosophy at Indiana University. He is author of Knowledge and Belief (1992) and Truth: A Primer (1995), and editor of Socializing Epistemology: The Social Dimensions of Knowledge (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
Chapter 1 Socializing Metaphysics: An Introduction
Chapter 2 The Structure of the Social Atom: Joint Commitment as the Foundation of Human Social Behavior
Chapter 3 Practical Intersubjectivity
Chapter 4 The We-Mode and the I-Mode
Chapter 5 Joint Action: From Individualism to Supraindividualism
Chapter 6 Group with Minds of their Own
Chapter 7 Social Ontology and Political Power
Chapter 8 Conventions and Form of Life
Chapter 9 Denotation and Discovery
Chapter 10 Individual Autonomy and Sociality
Chapter 11 Social Construction: The "Debunking" Project
Chapter 12 Social Construction, Social Roles, and Stability
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.
— Carol Rovane, Columbia University


... the volume has far too many virtues to be left outside an course reading lists or library orders on social theory.
— Metapsychology Online


Socializing Metaphysics

The Nature of Social Reality

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
Summary
Summary
  • 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.
Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 400 • Trim: 6¼ x 9
    978-0-7425-1428-7 • Hardback • June 2003 • $162.00 • (£125.00)
    978-0-7425-1429-4 • Paperback • June 2003 • $66.00 • (£51.00)
    Subjects: Philosophy / Metaphysics, Philosophy / Methodology
Author
Author
  • Frederick F. Schmitt is professor of philosophy at Indiana University. He is author of Knowledge and Belief (1992) and Truth: A Primer (1995), and editor of Socializing Epistemology: The Social Dimensions of Knowledge (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Chapter 1 Socializing Metaphysics: An Introduction
    Chapter 2 The Structure of the Social Atom: Joint Commitment as the Foundation of Human Social Behavior
    Chapter 3 Practical Intersubjectivity
    Chapter 4 The We-Mode and the I-Mode
    Chapter 5 Joint Action: From Individualism to Supraindividualism
    Chapter 6 Group with Minds of their Own
    Chapter 7 Social Ontology and Political Power
    Chapter 8 Conventions and Form of Life
    Chapter 9 Denotation and Discovery
    Chapter 10 Individual Autonomy and Sociality
    Chapter 11 Social Construction: The "Debunking" Project
    Chapter 12 Social Construction, Social Roles, and Stability
Reviews
Reviews
  • 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.
    — Carol Rovane, Columbia University


    ... the volume has far too many virtues to be left outside an course reading lists or library orders on social theory.
    — Metapsychology Online


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