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In The Idea of a Social Science, Winch takes a hard stance against naturalistic and positive accounts of social phenomena. In fact, he argues that we cannot understand the meaning of social action causally. Have there been critical responses directly to this claim among late-20th/early-21st Century philosophers?

Joseph Weissman
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EVolk
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    Please don't add irrelevant tags. –  Dec 22 '15 at 07:38
  • Could you give a little more detail? What are meant by "naturalistic and positive accounts"? Also, could you elaborate on how he argues the position that "we cannot understand the meaning of social action causally" or is it too involved? Google Scholar says [Winch](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=11973636483036624109&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5&hl=en) has been cited 4,567 times. First on the list is [Giddens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens), a noted sociologist, perhaps start [there](http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/the_constitution_of_society.pdf)? – igravious May 19 '16 at 23:18

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I would recommend that you get hold of a copy of "The philosophy of Social Science" by Martin Hollis. In this book he considers different approaches for explaining social action including that of Winch.

James Kingsbery
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John
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