博主按：昨天和复旦经济学院的陈硕（年轻新锐，大陆第一个在APSR上发表论文的人，据我所知）聊天，聊到我下学期想开的课“研究设计（Research Design）”。我大致说，这门课不是（一般理解的）方法论的课，而是一门介于方法论和社会科学哲学之间的课。其主要目的是告诉学生如何写本像样的书（或者说，你的博士论文应该怎么推敲话题和问题，怎么构思或安排，如何选择运用何种技巧【假定技巧你都会】）。

 

陈硕说，一本书的背后的构思很难教（或者传授），我基本同意。不过，我的一点个人体会是，“草鞋没样，边打边想，边打边像”。因此，大家也不需要过于悲观。

 

“研究设计（Research Design）”的一部分主要内容是批评和学习最近的一些中外博士论文（或者是博士论文，经过修改后，成的书）。鉴于涉及面子问题，因此，本课程拒绝旁听。

 

不过，欢迎那些有勇气把自己的博士论文拿来当靶子的年轻新锐们提供你们的博士论文（仅限于政治学[含，国际政治、比较政治、中国政治]；社会学；制度经济学）来作为我们课程中的讨论对象。我们也欢迎这其中的一些年轻新锐（在上海的）来直接面对批评和建议：台上台下互动么。

 

为了让大家了解我写书的一些过程，我特将我的下一部书的内容安排贴在这。【我希望下周过后将书的proposal交给出版社审阅。红色和蓝色表示还没有完成的部分。最后的内容可能会有些小的变动，但应该不大。【书的最终完成恐怕需要到2013年底了。】

 

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On Social Evolution:

Phenomenon & Paradigm

 

  

To Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck,

and in memory of David Hull

 

 

Shiping Tang

Fudan University, Shanghai, China

 

 

“One hundred [fifty] years without Darwinism are enough.”--Hermann. J. Muller, 1959

 

“Give Darwin his due.” --Philip Kitcher, 2003

 

 

 

 

 Outline

 

Preface

 

Introduction: Toward Social Evolutionary Social Sciences

I. Key Definitions

II. Plan of the Book

 

Chapter One: Why (not) Social Evolutionary Social Sciences?

I. Why do Social Sciences Need an Evolutionary Approach?

II. Why Haven’t Social Sciences Been Social Evolutionary Sciences?

III. Lacking Systematic Statement on Social Evolution

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Two: From Biological Evolution to Social Evolution

Introduction

I.        A Brief History of Evolutionary Thinking

II.     Sorting out the Various Notions of “Evolution”

III.   Biological Evolution: the modern understanding

IV.  Common Misunderstanding about Biological Evolution

Concluding Remarks: the Task Ahead

 

Chapter Three: On Social Evolution as a Phenomenon

Introduction

I.        Ideational Forces and Social Evolution as a New Phenomenon

II.     Social Evolution: Further Elaborations

III.   Social Evolution on Four Levels

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Four: On Social Evolution as a Paradigm

Introduction

I.        SEP: Core Ontological and Epistemological Principles

II.     SEP: Operational Principles on the Four Levels

III.   What Is Not a Social Evolutionary Approach?

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Five: A Critique of Existing Evolutionary Social Sciences

I.          Introduction

II.       Evolutionary Theorizing of Human Society: False Starts

III.     Evolutionary Theorizing of Human Society: Real but Incomplete

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Six: What Social Evolution Paradigm Can Do

I.        Explaining Institutional Change and Human Progress (Tang 2011, A General Theory of Institutional Change, Routledge)

II.     Explaining Systemic Transformation of International Politics (Tang, Social Evolution of International Politics, Oxford University Press, 2013)

III.   Explaining States’ Foreign Policies (Tang 2008a; Tang and Long 2012)

IV.  Explaining Social Transformation: synthesizing micro and macro (Elias 1939[1994])

V.     Fields in which SEP Can Have a Transformational Impact

a. From Social Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology to Social Evolutionary Psychology

b. Neo-modernity as a Social Evolutionary Meta-theory of Knowledge and Society

c. A Social Evolutionary Defense of Liberty and other Moral Principles

Concluding Remarks: The Power of SEP

 

Conclusion