Models of Man
Philosophical Thoughts on Social Action

This classic book is Martin Hollis's influential rationalist account and exploration of human action and identity.

Martin Hollis (Author)

9781107534377, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 October 2015

172 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 0.9 cm, 0.25 kg

'Why do human beings behave in detail exactly as they do and not in some other way? What, if anything, causes them so to act? How can we validly explain the fact that they do in practice act this way and not differently? … It is the distinctive merit of Martin Hollis's exceedingly clever … little book to ram home the priority of these vertiginous metaphysical questions to any intellectually coherent attempt to understand one another, individually or by the gross. Radical interpretation is simply the stuff of human life; and the social sciences are radical interpretation on stilts.' New Society

All social theorists and philosophers who seek to explain human action have a 'model of man'; a metaphysical view of human nature that requires its own theory of scientific knowledge. In this influential book, Martin Hollis examines the tensions that arise from the differing views of sociologists, economists and psychologists. He then develops a rationalist model of his own which connects personal and social identity through a theory of rational action and a priori knowledge, allowing humans to both act freely and still be a subject for scientific explanation. Presented in a fresh series livery and including a specially commissioned preface written by Geoffrey Hawthorn, Hollis's important work is made available to a new generation of readers.

Preface to this edition Geoffrey Hawthorn
Preface
1. Two models
Part I. Plastic Man: 2. Nature and nurture
3. The regularity of the moral world
Part II. Autonomous Man: 4. Life's short comedy
5. Personal identity and social identity
6. Elements of action
Part III. Other Minds: 7. The rational and the real
8. Ideal understanding
9. Envoi: actor and context
Bibliography
Index of names.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB], Social & political philosophy [HPS]