Social science as the idea: Peter Winch and Wittgenstein’s heritage

pages: 145-162

Abstract

The text presented a short overview of Winch’s account of the social sciences as inseparable from philosophical, that is, conceptual investigations and Witt­genstein’s influence this argument. The author points to several critical remarks regarding Winch’s subjectivism and relativism caused by the insufficient elaboration and over generalizations which can be found in Winch’s early texts, and which were the object of his own self-criticism later on. Alongside the received view of the importance of Wittgenstein’s concepts of language-games, forms of life and rule-following, when it comes to social theory, the text emphasizes the relevance of less considered concepts of perspicuous representation and aspect-seeing regarding Winch’s understanding of the possibilities of understanding of different cultures. Keywords: Winch, Wittgenstein, Social Sciences, Philosophy, understanding, aspect-seeing, perspicuous representation