THE ORIGIN OF VALUES: SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEFS
Book ID/图书代码： 13149013B63356
English Summary/英文概要： Values have always been a central topic in both philosophy and the social sciences. Statements about what is good or bad, fair or unfair, legitimate or illegitimate, express clear beliefs about human existence. The fact that values differ from culture to culture and century to century opens many questions. In The Origin of Values, Raymond Boudon offers empirical, data-based analysis of existing theories about values, while developing his own perspective as to why people accept or reject value statements. Boudon classifies the main theories of value, including those based on firm belief, social or biological factors, and rational or utilitarian attitudes. He discusses the popular and widely influential Rational Choice Model and critiques the postmodernist approach. Boudon investigates why relativism has become so powerful and contrasts it with the naturalism represented by the work of James Q. Wilson on moral sensibility. He follows with a constructive attempt to develop a new theory, beginning with Weber’s idea of non-instrumental rationality as the basis for a more complex idea of rationality. Applying Boudon’s own and existing theories of value to political issues and social ideas-the end of apartheid, the death penalty, multiculturalism, communitarianism-The Origin of Values is a significant work. Boudon fulfills a major task of social science: explanation of collective belief. His book will be of interest to sociologists, philosophers, psychologists, and political scientists.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 古往今来，价值观一直是哲学和社会科学中的核心主题。人们对于好坏，公平，合理的评价，清楚地表达了有关人类存在的信念。事实证明，不同文化以及历史变迁所导致的价值观不同，给我们带来很多问题。在《价值观的起源》一书中，Raymond Boudon仔细分析了人们认同抑或否定价值观的原因，同时也为价值观中的现有理论提供了经验主义、以数据为导向的分析。Boudon将价值观里的主要理论分类了一下，包括那些以坚定信念、社会或生物因素以及理性或功利主义的态度。他讨论了广受欢迎、影响深远的理性选择典范并且批判了后现代主义者对于价值观的看法。Boudon调查了相对主义在当下变得如此盛行的原因，并且将它与James Q. Wilson著作里所代表的自然主义在道德情感方面进行比较。Boudon完成了社会科学的一项大工程：他对集体信念作出了解释。本书深受社会学家，哲学家，心理学家以及政治学家的喜爱。(Susie)
Awards/获奖情况：“[T]he book has much to offer . . . Written by an outstanding theorist in characteristically assertive fashion, The Origin of Values is likely to provoke heated debate across a number of social science subfields.”
—Pieter Vanhuysse, Acta Sociologica
“This book is a collection of Boudon’s essays revolving around his ’cognitivist’ or ’judicatory’ model of rationality, a generalization of the conventional rational choice model. The book builds on ideas presented in his earlier work, The Art of Self-Persuasion, extending its analysis of positive beliefs to that of values, which are defined here as explicitly held normative beliefs.”
—Sun-Ki Chai, Contemporary Sociology
“Raymond Boudon is the most thoughtful sociologist in France, and his thoughts are always commanding. The Origin of Values is a masterly review of one of the crucial questions in social thought, and Boudon’s own theory will be a major statement on the issues of value and rationality.”
—Daniel Bell, Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences, Emeritus, Harvard University
About the Author/作者介绍： Raymond Boudon在巴黎第四大学担任教授。此外，他还是圣彼德斯堡大学外语学院，美国艺术与科学学院，国际人文学院的教授。他的著作包括《自我说服的艺术》，《艺术形态分析》以及《社会变革理论》。Raymond Boudon is professor at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. In addition, he is a member of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, International Academy of Human Sciences of St. Petersburg, and the Central European Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include The Art of Self-Persuasion, The Analysis of Ideology, and Theories of Social Change.
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