The Construction Of Philosophical Foundation Of Social Science

This dissertation consists of seven parts,which are introduction,special-subject discussion of five chapters and conclusion.The introduction part mainly introduces the background and significance of the thesis,overseas and domestic research status,main contents and writing plan,and main innovative points.The most important of these is that in the background and significance of the thesis,I pointed out the core issues and the outline of the solution to the problem.That is,the arguments regarding to the social science paradigms actually reflect the predicaments and problems of theory in the four aspects,which are philosophical worldview,ontology,epistemology,and methodology of social science.Among them,the philosophical worldview of the social science is the most fundamental issue and the core of philosophical foundation and its problem is manifested as the divergence and opposition between the three philosophical worldviews,which in turn determines and triggers the existence of a variety of binary opposition issues in the other three aspects.In this regard,this paper attempts to analyze and solve these problems by using the worldview and methodology of contextualism.The first chapter states the intellectual foundations of contextualism in social science.Firstly,it points out that the pragmatism philosophy emphasizes on the subjects' actions,practice,community,real life,interaction between the subjects and the objects,pragmatist theory of truth,and so on.It provides the source and model for the generation of the contextualism.Secondly,it introduces the direct sources of the contextualism of the thesis—Stephen C.Pepper's contextualism and his Root Metaphor Theory.Based on the pragmatism,Pepper puts forward four kinds of root metaphors for observing and understanding the world and the corresponding world assumptions(worldview).It is Pepper who raises the contextualism to the level of worldview.Thirdly,it introduced the pragmatic contextualism and practice cognition views contained in the language games and rule-following theory of later Wittgenstein,and demonstrating the potential advantages of contextualism in epistemology and methodology of social science.Finally,it introduces the context construction and knowledge generation mechanism in the discourse communication put forward by Teun A.van Dijk from the perspective of discourse analysis,and reveals how various subject-object factors can promote dialogue and understanding through the construction of the subject's context.All of these contextualist thoughts and ideas together provide the intellectual foundations and theoretical tools for the analysis of this thesis.The second chapter discusses the dimension of worldview: reconstruction of philosophical foundation of social science based on contextualism.First of all,it elaborates three philosophical worldviews as the philosophical foundation of the traditional social science paradigm: the worldview of mechanism,the worldview of organicism,and the worldview of humanism.It reveals the philosophical worldview's basic role and influence to the modern social sciences in terms of the way of thinking,ontology,scientific epistemology,and methodology.It's also pointing out that to resolve the debate on the social science paradigm,we should look for the root of the problem from its philosophical foundation.Second,from the perspective of contextualism,it analyzes the respective advantages and disadvantages of these philosophical worldviews and how it has led to the social sciences being bogged down in ontology,epistemology,and methodology.Finally,based on the contextualism worldview,the article aims at the reconstruction of the philosophical foundation,discusses the new worldview based on contextualism root metaphors of action in the subject context,and points out contextualism as a philosophical dialogue platform.The ability to integrate the advantages of multiple perspectives of various worldviews can create a new philosophical foundation for the social sciences.The third chapter discusses the dimension of ontology: ontological construction based on contextualist root metaphor.First of all,it analyzes the root causes of the dispute between social nominalism and social realism formed in the social ontology of traditional social science paradigms.Secondly,from the perspective of contextualism,it discusses the contextual features of social existence,and then builds a new ontology based on "events" for the social sciences on the basis of contextual metaphor "historical events" —event ontology.It is pointed out that social historical events occupy an important ontological position in the real world and social science research,reflecting the universality implied by the ontology of "events" as a perspective or an analytical framework,trying to use them to dispel the dispute between social realism and social nominalism.To this purpose,the argument provides a new possibility.Finally,by analyzing the different interpretations of the "event ontology" by Davidson,Badiou and other scholars,this paper expounds the three basic characteristics of the "event ontology" of contextualism,and then might open up a new space for the development of social ontology.The fourth chapter discusses the dimension of epistemology: knowledge landscape based on contextualist fusion.First of all,it examines the dilemma of epistemology in the traditional social science paradigms: the problem of objectivist epistemology lies in its inability to meet strict and absolute objective standards,and the probelm of constructivist epistemology lies in its dispelling the objective quality that scientific knowledge should possess;The both plights lead to the lack of legitimacy of social scientific knowledge.Secondly,through contextual analysis,we examine the root causes of the dilemma of epistemology,and point out that the reason why there are two opposing positions of objectivism and constructivism is that they are dealing with the contextual factors that affect the knowledge production process and its conditions lead them to their respective extremes.Finally,proceeding from the universal contextualism,it discusses the contextual factors that are the objective conditions of social science knowledge,and the contextual cognitive mechanism that is the subjective basis of social science knowledge,and shows that social science knowledge is both objective and Constructive features,and thus build a new perspective of the context of social science knowledge,point out the significance what contextualism establishment the legitimacy of social science knowledge.The fifth chapter discusses the dimension of methodology: approaches based on contextualist analysis.First of all,it reviews the core of the disputes between the positivist methodology and the hermeneutic methodology in the traditional social science paradigm,clarifies its philosophical roots,and demonstrates the social science methodology of contextualism from the perspective of the development of the philosophical worldview and the advantages of contextualism.Then it expounded the methodological approach of social science methodology of contextualism.In social science research,researchers first put forward specific problems,and then construct appropriate contexts around the problem,and the relationship between contextual factors and research objects.Analyze and find the causal mechanism,and finally complete the answers to the initial questions with substantive instructions.Afterwards it points out the methodological features of contextualism: specific problem drives,overall positioning of case,intervention object context,and middle theoretical guidance.Finally,the significance of the social science methodology of context theory is elaborated.It is pointed out that the social science methodology of contextualism can combine the respective advantages of positivism and hermeneutics,thus solving the opposite problems between them and promoting the development of social science methodology.The conclusion part is the tendency towards to contextualist paradigm of social science.In this part,I briefly reviews and summarizes the content of the full text,re-emphasizing the core advantages of contextualism worldview in solving the dilemma of the philosophical foundations of social science.And its quality of cross sections,openness,inclusiveness,and platform embodied in solving problems that in social ontology,social science epistemology,and social science methodology.Finally,I present basically the construction of a contextualist paradigm of social science,which would be benefit to achieve the unity of social science paradigms.