Social Science

From its origins in the 16th and 17th centuries when a new system of knowledge was created around the idea of modernity, the author traces the transformation of modern conceptions of social science as a cognitive system and as an institution. Focusing on the rise of positivism in the age of the Enlightenment to its final collapse in the 20th century, Gerard Delanty argues how social science is today recovering its role as the critical voice of modernity and examines the positivist dispute from post-empiricist perspectives. It is argued that the conception of social science emerging is one that involves a synthesis of radical constructivism and critical realism.