Social Scientific Realism

Abstract

This thesis constitutes an attempt at discussing realism in the social sciences, i.e. what I term social scientific realism and will do so by first providing a comprehensive definition of the view?doing so vis-a-vis scientific realism. It will be argued that what sets realism in the social sciences apart from that in the physical sciences is the heavy use of the notion of emergence and consequently the notion of emergence is explored?pointing out that despite the myriad accounts of emergence available the one that best suits social scientific realism is General Ontological Supervenience Emergence. Finally, attention is given to the type of objects studied in the social sciences?it is argued that such objects are best thought of as interactive kinds and that it is their nature as such that gives us a reason for thinking social scientific realism true.