Words and Distinctions for the Common Good: Practical Reason in the Logic of Social Science

Words and Distinctions for the Common Good: Practical Reason in the Logic of Social Science

How social scientists' disagreements about their key words and distinctions have been misconceived, and what to do about it Social scientists do research on a variety of topics—gender, capitalism, populism, and race and ethnicity, among others. They make descriptive and explanatory claims about empathy, intelligence, neoliberalism, and power. They advise policymakers on diversity, digitalization, work, and religion. And yet, as Gabriel Abend points out in this provocative book, they can’t agree on what these things are and how to identify them. How to tell if something is a religion or a cult or a sect? What is empathy? What makes this society a capitalist one? Disputes of this sort arise again and again in the social sciences. Abend argues that these disagreements have been doubly misconceived. First, they conflate two questions: how a social science community should use its most important words, and what distinctions it should accept and work with. Second, there’s no fact of the matter about either. Instead, they’re practical reason questions for a community, which aim at epistemically and morally good outcomes. Abend calls on social science communities to work together on their words, distinctions, and classifications. They must make collective decisions about the uses of words, the acceptability of distinctions, and the criteria for assessing both. These decisions aren’t up to individual scholars; the community gets the last word. According to Abend, the common good, justice, and equality should play a significant role in the logic of scientific research. Gabriel Abend is professor of sociology at University of Lucerne and the author of The Moral Background: An Inquiry into the History of Business Ethics (Princeton). "[A] fun and deeply thoughtful contribution to real-world social science research." ― Choice "Deliver[s] outstanding expositions of highly original and helpful arguments." ---Christian Dayé, American Journal of Sociology "An interesting read and an education in itself." ---Michael J. Carter, Social Forces "What Abend is asking for in his book is the proliferation of different publics concerned with the use of words/concepts and distinctions. The invitation of his book is tantamount to saying: please don’t keep these issues private. Please don’t leave them in the hands of a few powerful individuals or groups and power struggles. In this sense, Words and Distinctions for the Common Good could be seen as a necessary and strategic playbook for all those who accept Abend’s invitation or who are already working in this direction from different perspectives in the social sciences and philosophy." ---Matteo Santarelli, Quaderni di Teoria Sociale "Subversive in its writing style which is refreshingly free of jargon. . . . [ Words and Distinctions for the Common Good ] is stupendous, and the bibliography encyclopaedic ranging from Plato to Haraway." ---David Zeitlyn, Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford "Periodically, a sociologist writes a book that encourages their peers to think carefully, critically, and collectively about taken-for-granted assumptions and ways of doing research and theory-building. Such texts do not fall into the genre of 'methods' books, but instead they are books that ask us to step back and assess the underlying logic by which we do research. Gabriel Abend’s Words and Distinctions for the Common Good: Practical Reason in the Logic of Social Science is the latest volume in this important tradition. It is fun and engaging to read." ---Stephen Ellingson, Contemporary Sociology “This is a remarkable, original, sophisticated, challenging, thought-provoking book that makes a significant contribution to the discussion of a set of very general and deep issues that beset social scientists but are, in Abend’s opinion, poorly understood and thus inadequately addressed by them.”— Steven Lukes, New York University "In this uniquely witty, profound, and wide-ranging book, Abend offers a highly original discussion of how to produce better social science, and down the line, better societies. In a deeply learned argument, he develops a challenging and surprising analysis of the interlinkages between interests, the law, and classification in knowledge production, highlighting their many real-world (moral and distributive) consequences. A must-read!”— Michèle Lamont, author of How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment “Gabriel Abend brilliantly takes on some of the knottiest problems in the social sciences, the conundrums posed by the basic tools of the trade: our words. Forget about ‘agency,’ ‘class’ or ‘race’—how about ‘sandwich’ and ‘planet’? With lucid prose, irresistible zest, and surprising examples, Abend invites us to reconsider the foundations of social thought. This book will persuade even the most no-nonsense empiricist to see how much is at stake in the mere act of putting a name on something.”— Webb Keane, Unive