This chapter provides a narrative survey of the social sciences from antiquity to the early twentieth century, showing how crucial empirical methods have been in the progressive understanding of social behavior, and revealing the important place of female thinkers in the study of society (especially from the Enlightenment onward). In the author’s opinion, postmodernist opposition to neopositivism in the social sciences has been over-reactive. She argues that theories without “grass-roots” collections of data inevitably lack a solid grounding. This particular chapter discusses the foundations of modern empiricism, empiricism in history, Hobbesian atomism, empiricism in France, continental idealism, natural law theory, the social sciences and the Puritan mission, constructive skepticism and religious doubt, and Lockean empiricism.
