Norm and Context in the Social Sciences

In this collection of essays based on a 1987 conference at the Free University in Amsterdam, social scientists reflect philosophically and religiously on their work, on the relation of Christian faith and the social sciences, from technology to modern art to storytelling to agricultural economics. The contributors have all at some time or another had their own concern to honor norms and values ridiculed as violating scientific objectivity. In this book at least three forms of contextuality are considered: a turn to ‘encounter’ (over against unilinear models of development), a ‘post-positivist’ penchant for multiple paradigms, and a ‘narrativism’ which replaces the traditional ideal of context-transcending knowledge with the story. Co-Published with the Institute for Christian Studies and the Free University Press.