Lee C. McIntyre

McIntyre calls for a revolution in the social sciences - it should be more like the physical sciences, with religious and political biases put aside for dispassionate research to discover the true answers to why people behave the way they do. An important argument, but McIntyre resorts to practically calling those who disagree names: "Are they afraid that a science of human behavior would somehow dehumanize us, and are they therefore motivated to find an argument against it?" Nyah, nyah, nyah. He is also somewhat repetitive. Despite these reservations, his case is persuasive, and the book is worth a read by anyone interested in the topic or working in the field of the social sciences.… (meer)

The author argues for the possibility of laws in social science, even though none have been discovered yet. He maintains that it is not an a priori question whether social laws are possible or not, so general arguments about complexity or openness are not sufficient to prove that social laws don't exist. Unfortunately the second part of the book where he discusses social scientific practice is a lot weaker and gives no indication of what a social law might actually look like (Bunge's Sociology-Philosophy Connection is much better in this respect, as he gives lots of examples). In general it seemed to me that the author didn't have quite sufficient familiarity with the different branches of social science. Like so many philosophers, he prefers to discuss abstract "isms" which don't relate directly to social scientific practice.… (meer)