Understanding Society

Understanding Society

Daniel Little

Books

2022

Confronting Evil in History (October 2022, Cambridge Elements)

2020
 

A New Social Ontology of Government: Consent, Coordination, and Authority (Foundations of Government and Public Administration)

2016 

New Directions in the Philosophy of Social Science

2012 

Varieties of Social Explanation Kindle edition

2010 

New Contributions to the Philosophy of History 

The Future of Diversity: Academic Leaders Reflect on American Higher Education (co-edited with Satya Mohanty) 

2003 

The Paradox of Wealth and Poverty: Mapping the Ethical Dilemmas of Global Development

1998 

Microfoundations, Method, and Causation: Essays in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences

1995 

On the Reliability of Economic Models: Essays in the Philosophy of Economics (edited)

1991 

Varieties of Social Explanation

1989 

Understanding Peasant China: Case Studies in the Philosophy of Social Science

1986 

The Scientific Marx
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Confronting Evil in History

Confronting Evil in History

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About Me

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Dan Little
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Philosopher of social science with a strong interest in Asia. Books on social explanation, Marx, late imperial China, the philosophy of history, and the ethics of economic development. All these topics involve the complexities of social life and social change. As Marx believed, “people make their own histories, but not in circumstances of their own choosing.”
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A web-based monograph

Understanding Society is an academic blog by Daniel Little that explores a series of topics in the philosophy of social science and the workings of the social world. Published continuously since 2007, the blog has treated a wide range of topics, from the nature of causal mechanisms to the idea of emergence to the political dynamics of right-wing extremism to the causes of large-scale technological disaster. Readers should consider the blog an example of “open-source philosophy”. It is an experiment in thinking, one idea at a time.

Navigation page

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Navigating the blog

Understanding Society contains about 1,500 posts on a range of topics. I hope that readers will browse the content for topics of interest to them. To gather posts on a given topic, readers can use the list of Labels and Threads below to select all entries on a given topic. A more user-friendly navigation system is available on the Wordpress mirror of the blog. Understanding Society is mirrored on Wordpress as UNDSOC.ORG, which serves as the archival and research site for the blog. The navigation tools available on the Wordpress mirror site of Understanding Society are the best available, so this page takes you to content on the Wordpress site. https://undsoc.org/navigation-tools/

Labels (on Blogger site)

ABM academic freedom agency agriculture alienation analytical sociology Annales school anthropology area studies assemblages authoritarianism autobiography Bhaskar biography Burma capitalism CAT_agency CAT_aggregation CAT_Artificial intelligence CAT_China CAT_cognition CAT_collective action CAT_disciplines CAT_epistemology CAT_evil CAT_explanation CAT_foundations CAT_globalization CAT_history CAT_histtech CAT_identity CAT_institutions CAT_materialism CAT_mechanisms CAT_methodology CAT_Michigan CAT_misc CAT_moraltheory CAT_ontology CAT_organization CAT_policy CAT_power CAT_progress CAT_race CAT_structure causal mechanism causal powers causal reasoning causation character China city class consciousness classification cohort collective action colonialism communication community comparative method complexity compliance concepts conceptual schemes confirmation contingency convention coordination corporate responsibility corruption creativity crime critical realism cultural revolution culture DEI democracy demography description digital humanities disciplines economic development economics education emergence empiricism employment entertainment environment epistemology equilibrium ethnography Eurasia evil evolution experiment explanation extremism faculty failure fascism feudalism folk sociology food France functionalism Geertz gender genocide globalization Goffman government habitus hate health heterogeneity historiography history Hobbes holism identity incommensurability India inequality innovation institutions intellectuals justice labor rights leadership legitimacy literature localism logistics Marx materialism Mead mechanism memory mental framework mental model mentality methodological individualism microfoundations Mill mobilization moral economy morality morphogenesis motivation narrative naturalism networks New PSS norms objectivity ontology organization organizational change Orwell pandemic paradigm pathway peasant perestroika phenomenology philosophy philosophy of science physics plasticity policy populism positivism poverty power practical reasoning pragmatism prediction prejudice privacy profession public opinion quality of life quantitative methods quantum race rational choice theory rationality Rawls realism rebellion redshirt reductionism regularities regulatory regime relativism repression revolution Rousseau safety science segregation simulation skill social causation social cognition social construction social facts social groups social laws social movements social networks social practice social problems socialism sociology sociology of ideas Southeast Asia spatial pattern structure STS subjectivity supervenience technology technology failure theory thought Tocqueville totalitarianism transportation unity of science university unrest urbanization values verstehen violence voter behavior warfare wealth Weber Wittgenstein youth

Threads

  • Progress and democracy
  • Foundations
  • What is a social science?
  • Ontological questions
  • Social science disciplines
  • Debates about methodology
  • Social explanation
  • Social cognition
  • Agency and action
  • Collective action
  • Identity and culture
  • Causal mechanisms
  • Racial equality and civil rights
  • Structures and processes
  • Institutions
  • Power and class
  • Materialism
  • Historical explanation
  • Southeast Asia
  • China

Digital editions of Varieties of Social Explanation

Digital editions of Varieties of Social Explanation are now available on Kindle and iBooks for iPad. This edition contains the original text of the 1991 edition along with an extensive new introduction, "Philosophy and Social Knowledge."

Here is the Kindle edition

Here is the iBooks edition

Here is the iBooks edition

Note to readers using the email feed

Blogspot has informed all publishers on the platform that it will no longer support the Feedburner email feed as of July 2021. Active email subscribers will continue to receive blog posts through FOLLOW.IT. Please see the "Note to readers" page provided below to find alternative ways of having regular access to Understanding Society. FEEDLY, Twitter, and Facebook provide easy, convenient ways of staying current with the blog.

Pages

  • Note to readers who use the email feed
  • Books
  • Research
  • Interviews
  • Online resources for understanding society
  • Beijing Forum 2011
  • Navigation tools UNDSOC
  • Stories by Dan Little on Medium
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