Abstract
This chapter compares the history of science with the history of social science and makes the case for the centrality of disciplinary history for the latter. Gunnell draws upon both the literature in the philosophy of science and his own work on the orders of discourse to make the argument for why history matters for the social sciences. This chapter serves as the conclusion of the volume. Gunnell turns to the philosophy of science, specifically the work of Thomas Kuhn, to demonstrate the centrality of history to understanding the nature of the social sciences. He juxtaposes the role of history in the natural sciences to that of the social sciences.
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References
Gunnell, J. G. (1998). The Orders of Discourse: Philosophy, Social Science, and Politics. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
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Gunnell, J.G. (2019). The Matter with History and Making History Matter. In: Schmidt, B., Guilhot, N. (eds) Historiographical Investigations in International Relations. The Palgrave Macmillan History of International Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78036-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78036-8_9
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