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The philosophy of social science has become one of the battleground of contemporary theory and analysis. At the core of the debate is the central question about the objective capacity of a range of disciplines not explicitly regarded as scientific? The philosophy of social science employs a rich and complex approach to its object, an approach which explores methodological, epistemological, metaphysical and logical questions. How can such a diverse approach attempt objectivity when faced with the complexity of what is studies, namely the social world? What is the object of social scientific investigation? The Object of Social Science presents a clear and structured analysis of the philosophy of social science across each of its main disciplines: Anthropology, Sociology, History, Economics and Geography. It both identifies the practical and theoretical procedures involved in the identification of the object and, at the same time, raises questions about the very objectivity of these procedures in analysing the object. The book will prove invaluable to students across the social sciences as a guide to the theories and methodologies, which underpin their disciplines. \ About the Author Ebleonora Montuschi teaches Philosophy of Social Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is Deputy Director, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences. Preface Introduction: Objectivity, Science and Social Science; A Skewed Comparison; What Model of Science for Social Science?; What Model of Knowledge for Social Science?; What Model of Object for Social Science? Chapter One: Anthropological Objects; From Positivism to Interpretivism; Anthropological Objects I: Cockfighting in Bali; Anthropological Objects II: Witchcraft in the Bocage; Anthropological Objects III: Nuer Sacrifice and Txikao Coucade; Complex Anthropological Objects Chapter Two: Sociological Objects; Received Paradigms; Against Prescriptive Assumptions: Indexical Social Objects; Sociological Objects: Stages of Research and Levels of Construction; a Classic Example: Suicide Chapter Three: Historical Objects; The Normative View: Explaining History by Hempelian Laws; What do Historians Explain?; Quantitative and Qualitative History: Samples of Research; Making History in Museums Chapter Four: Economic Objects: Economic Theory and Methodological Concern; Rhetorical Objects of Economic Practice; Realist Objects of Economic Practice; The Partial Object of Economics Chapter Five: Geographical Objects; A Natural or a Social Science? Space and Place: Quantitative Reconstructions; Space and Place: Qualitative Reconstructions; Space and Place: Realist Reconstructions; The Possible Worlds of Human Geography Notes Bibliography Index