The Earhart Foundation Conference on the State of the Social Sciences
December 6-7, 2002
Friday, December 6
9:30 – 10:00
Opening address – Professor Liah Greenfeld
10:00 – 11:30 Session I – The Record of the Social Sciences
Introductory remarks by Professor Bruce Mazlish
Papers suggested for consideration:
David Bell, “Class, Consciousness, and the Fall of the Bourgeois Revolution”
Efraim Karsh, “Revisionists, Arabists, and Pure Charlatans”
David Landes, “Introduction: On Technology and Growth” from Favorites of Fortune: Technology, Growth, and Economic Development Since the Industrial Revolution
George Liber, “New Soviet Nationality Studies: An Incomplete Social Construction of the Past”
Bruce Mazlish, “Some Achievements to Date” from The Uncertain Sciences
Chandler Rosenberger, “September 11: The ‘Global Century’ Deferred”
11:45 – 1:15 Session II – The Actual Preoccupations of the Social Sciences
Introductory remarks by Professor Jeffrey Friedman
Papers suggested for consideration:
Jeffrey Friedman, “Introduction: Economic Approaches to Politics” from The Rational Choice Controversy: Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered
Liah Greenfeld, “How Economics Became a Science: The Surprising Career of a Model Discipline”
Irving L. Horowitz, “Decomposition or Reconstruction of the Social Sciences?”
Seymour Martin Lipset, “The State of American Sociology”
John Markoff and Veronica Montecinos “The Ubiquitous Rise of Economists”
George Prevelakis, “Jean Gottman’s Relevance in Today’s World”
Adam Seligman, “The Self in the Social Sciences”
Peter Wood, “What is Anthropology?”
2:15 – 3:45 Session III – The Political Leanings of the Social Sciences
Introductory remarks by Professor Peter Wood
Papers suggested for consideration:
David Bell, op. cit.
Irving L. Horowitz, op. cit.
Efraim Karsh, op. cit.
Seymour Martin Lipset, op. cit.
Nathalie Richard “L’histoire en France (1876-1896): les fondements ideologiques d’une reussite institutionelle”
Peter Wood, op. cit.
4:00 – 5:30 Session IV – The Influence of the Social Sciences
Introductory remarks by Professor Richard Landes and Dr. Chandler Rosenberger
Papers suggested for consideration:
Liah Greenfeld, op. cit
John Markoff and Veronica Montecinos, op. cit.
Nathalie Richard, op. cit.
Chandler Rosenberger, op. cit.
Saturday, December 7
Papers suggested for consideration:
Liah Greenfeld, “The Trouble with Social Science” and
“An Invitation to a Dialogue: A Comment on Neuroscience and Culture”
10:00 – 12:00 Session V – The Nature of Science
Introductory remarks by Professor Gerald Holton and Dr. Nikolas Prevelakis
1:00 – 2:45 Session VI – Are the Social Sciences in Need of Reform?
Introductory remarks by Professor Irving Louis Horowitz
3:00 – 4:30 Session VII – A New Paradigm for the Social Sciences?
Introductory remarks by Professor Liah Greenfeld
4:30 – 5:00 Summing Up – Natan Press
The organizers would like to thank The Historical Society for its support of this conference.