This book argues for a new direction of research, namely ‘History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences’ (HPSS). By adding a historical approach to the philosophy of the social sciences, the editor and authors show how fruitful HPSS is and simultaneously sheds new light on many central issues concerning the nature, development, and methodologies of the social sciences. This book revisits some classic works on the nature and methodology of the social sciences as well as offering a careful historical examination of the origins and development of a selection of social sciences and their distinctive methodologies. By reassessing the important debates in the philosophy of the social sciences as well as the methodological disputes between social scientists, the book provides a valuable resource to researchers and advanced students, but also to general readers.

Yafeng Shan is Associate Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His books include Rethinking Thomas Kuhn’s Legacy (Springer, 2024), Alternative Approaches to Causation: Beyond Difference-Making and Mechanism (OUP, 2024), Philosophical Foundations of Mixed Methods Research: Dialogues between Researchers and Philosophers (Routledge, 2023), Evidential Pluralism in the Social Sciences (Routledge, 2023), Examining Philosophy Itself (Wiley, 2023), New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress (Routledge, 2022), and Doing Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: A Case Study of the Origin of Genetics (Springer, 2020).