Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T01:38:46.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Making Reality Intelligible: the Relation Between Philosophical Analysis and the Study of Social Policies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

David Watson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The academic study of social policies has long been characterized by sympathetic reception of descriptions of social policies which are the outcome of methods of analysis developed in the academic study of history, sociology, economics, philosophy, and so on. However, cosy as such sympathy may be, it is time to move on. We may all agree that each of these methods of analysis, and others, separately or in combination, has something to offer; it is remarkably difficult to say precisely what. Studies of the study of social policies are too rare. Culyer has offered an account of what the methods of economic analysis do and might further yield (1981). Here I discuss what might be expected from philosophical analysis. I describe the two main contending conceptions of philosophical analysis in the Western tradition, drawing out their implications for the relation between philosophical analysis and the study of social policies. The importance of such analysis of what may be called ‘the conceptual aspect’ of social policies is illustrated by reference to recent discussion of the welfare state and of social need.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 491 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barry, B. (1965), Political Argument, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, J. (1972), ‘The concept of social need’, New Society, 30 03, pp. 640–3.Google Scholar
Culyer, A. J. (1981), ‘Economics, social policy and social administration’, Journal of Social Policy, 10:3, 311–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culyer, A. J., Lavers, R. J. and Williams, Alan (1972), ‘Health Indicators’ in Shonfield, A. and Shaw, S. (eds), Social Indicators and Social Policy, Heinemann, London, pp. 94–118.Google Scholar
Davis, G. (1983), ‘Conciliation and the Professions’, Family Law, 13:1, 6–13.Google Scholar
Downie, R. S. (1964), Government Action and Morality, Macmillan, London, ch. 1.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. (1978), Taking Rights Seriously, Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Edelman, M. (1977), Political Language, Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Gough, I. (1979), The Political Economy of the Welfare State, Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. (1977), ‘On the Contestability of Social and Political Concepts’, Political Theory, 5:3. 331–48.Google Scholar
Locke, John (1690), Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Yolton, J., Everyman, London, 1961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (1976), Social Justice, Clarendon Press, Oxford, Introduction.Google Scholar
Phillips, D. Z. and Mounce, H. O. (1969), Moral Practices, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, ch. 6.Google Scholar
Plant, R., Lesser, H. and Taylor-Gooby, P. (1980), Political Philosophy and Social Welfare, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Raphael, D. D. (1970), Problems of Political Philosophy, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Ragg, N. (1977), People not Cases, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Rees, S. (1978), Social Work Face to Face, Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Smith, G. (1980), Social Need, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Strawson, P. (1968), ‘Freedom and Resentment’ in Strawson, P. (ed.), Studies in the Philosophy of Thought and Action, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Strawson, P. (1971), ‘Categories’ in Wood, O. and Pitcher, G. (eds), Ryle, Macmillan, London, p. 197.Google Scholar
Szasz, T. (1974), Ideology and Insanity, Penguin, London, ch. 2.Google Scholar
Timms, N. and Watson, D. (1976), Talking about Welfare, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, Introduction, p. 2 ff.Google Scholar
Titmuss, R. (1971), ‘Welfare “Rights”, Law and Discretion’, Political Quarterly, 42, 113–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, R. (1969), ‘Need: a central concept’, Social Service Quarterly, 43:1, 13–17.Google Scholar
Watson, D. (1981), ‘Discretion, Moral Judgment and Integration’, in Adler, M. and Asquith, S. (eds), Discretion and Welfare, Heinemann, London, pp. 229–46.Google Scholar
Wilkes, R. (1981), Social Work with Undervalued Groups, Tavistock, London, Introduction.Google Scholar
Winch, P. (1958), The Idea of a Social Science, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, pp. 3–18.Google Scholar
Winch, P. (1972), ‘Nature and Convention’ in Winch, P. (ed.), Ethics and Action, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, p. 65 on Humpty-Dumptyism.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1958), The Blue and Brown Books, Blackwell, Oxford, Brown Book.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1958), Philosophical Investigations, translated by Anscombe, G. E. M., Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar