Purpose and Necessity in Social Theory
eBook - ePub

Purpose and Necessity in Social Theory

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Purpose and Necessity in Social Theory

About this book

Originally published in 1987. Philosopher Maurice Mandelbaum offers a broad-ranging essay on the roles of chance, choice, purpose, and necessity in human events. He traces the many changes these concepts have undergone, from the analyses of Hobbes and Spinoza, through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Mandelbaum examines two contrary tendencies in the history of social theories. Some thinkers, he shows, have explained the character of institutions in terms of their individual purposes, whereas others have stressed relationships of necessity among society's institutions. Mandelbaum discusses chance, choice, and necessity at length and reaches some provocative conclusions about the ways in which they are interwoven in human affairs.

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Yes, you can access Purpose and Necessity in Social Theory by Maurice Mandelbaum in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Free Will & Determinism in Philosophy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. By the Same Author
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Preface
  8. Part One: Introduction
  9. Part Two: Individualistic & Institutional Theories
  10. Part Three: Necessity, Chance & Choice
  11. Notes
  12. Index