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‘What it Makes Sense to Say’: Education, Philosophy and Peter Winch on Social Science
Author(s) -
SMEYERS PAUL
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9752.2006.00532.x
Subject(s) - winch , epistemology , sociology , philosophy of education , harm , politics , philosophy of science , social science , environmental ethics , psychology , higher education , law , political science , social psychology , philosophy , oceanography , geology
This paper sets out Peter Winch's central ideas about the nature of the social sciences, and reappraises their potential for educational research. It is argued that the dichotomy between ‘reasons’ and ‘causes’ has done much harm, and that the important matter of understanding ‘what is real for us’ has recently been neglected. Winch's philosophy suggests a more adequate framework for educational research: one that embraces a pluralistic interpretive position, accommodating various methods and various kinds of understanding of the social, and that views educational science as involving opportunity for reflection and a degree of distance from the world of practice, yet at the same time as essentially part of the political debate about education.