Michael Root is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota.

• Introduction. 1. The Liberal Ideal.2. Max Weber and the Methodology of the Social Sciences.3. Theories of Development in Psychology and Political Science.4. Functional Theories in Sociology and Biology.5. Rational Choice Theories in Positive and Normative Economics.6. Collecting Data in the Social Sciences.7. Sorting Data into Kinds.8. Explaining the Data.9. The Fact/Vale Distinction.10. Social Science and Perfectionism.Bibliography.

"This is a very attractive book. It is exceedingly well written. It is well organised; filled with interesting examples; and is quite comprehensive in scope. It contains any number of illuminating observations. Most importantly, its subject is significant, it keeps this subject in focus throughout, and it proposes its own distinctive approach to it." Brian Fay, Wesleyan University "Raises so many fascinating and important questions in the philosophies of the social sciences." Marthe Atwater Chandler, Ethics