Varieties of Social Explanation: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Science

This book is one of the best discussions of the philosophy of social science that I've ever read. Little is an excellent writer. As a teacher of statistics and research methodology classes at the college level I have long lamented the fact that most statistics and methodology texts entirely leave out any substantive discussion of the inference of causation. This is a shame, given how much fallacious research is floating around in the media and the social sciences in which causal statements are based on correlational data. Little's discussion of causal inference would be good reading for almost any student of statistics or methodology in the social sciences. Highly recommended.

The great advantage of Varieties over many other introductions to the philosophy of the social sciences is that it is organized like a traditional textbook. It is not written for speed reading, but it assumes no prior technical knowledge on the part of the reader. New concepts are properly introduced as needed. Lecturers will be pleased to borrow from its many detailed examples of the various forms of social scientific explanation. Fashion-conscious readers should beware; Little is concerned with more traditional social scientific approaches. He might be classified as an "analytical" philosopher, and he doesn't devote much space to anything smacking of postmodernism & co.