LEADER 04342nam 2200661Ia 450 001 9910812307703321 005 20240418030314.0 010 $a0-8122-0118-3 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812201185 035 $a(CKB)2670000000418180 035 $a(EBL)3442049 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001101423 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11708157 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001101423 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11067551 035 $a(PQKB)11046840 035 $a(OCoLC)859162352 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse26718 035 $a(DE-B1597)448972 035 $a(OCoLC)979970061 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812201185 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3442049 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10748395 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3442049 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000418180 100 $a20030313d2003 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnn#---|u||u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe saving lie $etruth and method in the social sciences /$fF.G. Bailey 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aPhiladelphia $cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press$dc2003 215 $a1 online resource (232 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-8122-3730-7 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [201]-206) and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPreface --$tIntroduction: Ideas, Reality, and Saving Lies --$tPart I. Expediency --$tIntroduction --$tChapter 1. A Very Beautiful Theory --$tChapter 2. The Coase Recension and Its Lineage --$tChapter 3. Gains from Trade --$tPart II. Morality --$tIntroduction --$tChapter 4. Natural Systems and Moral Systems --$tChapter 5. Imaginative Constructs and Social Reality --$tChapter 6. A Piece of the Action --$tPart III. Agency and Rhetoric --$tIntroduction --$tChapter 7. Affirming Structure: The Amen Category --$tChapter 8. Contested Structures --$tConclusion: General Theses and Particular Cases --$tReferences --$tIndex --$tAcknowledgments 330 $aThis book explores the distinction between selflessness and self-interestedness, between acting for one's own advantage and acting, even when disadvantageous, for reasons of duty or conscience. This apparently straightforward contrast (exemplified in the difference between rational-choice models in economics and holistic models in social anthropology) is a source of confusion. This is so, F. G. Bailey argues, because people polarize and essentialize both actors and actions and uphold one or the other side of the contrast as concrete reality, as the truth about how the social world works. The task of The Saving Lie is to show that both versions are convenient fictions, with instrumental rather than ontological significance: they are not about truth but about power. At best they are tools that enable us to make sense of our experience; at the same time they are weapons we deploy to define situations and thus exercise control. Bailey says that both models fail the test of empiricism: they can be at once immensely elegant and quite remote from anyone's experience in the real world. And since both models are "saving lies," we should accept them as necessities, but only to the extent they are useful, and we should constantly remind ourselves of their limitations. The wrong course, according to Bailey, is to promote one model to the total exclusion of the other. Instead, we should take care to examine systematically the rhetoric used to promote these models not only in intellectual discourse but also in defining situations in everyday life. The book strongly and directly advocates a point of view that combines skepticism with a determination to anchor abstract argument in evidence. It is argumentative; it invites confrontation; yet it leaves many doors open for further thought. 606 $aSocial sciences$xMethodology 606 $aEthics 610 $aAnthropology. 610 $aFolklore. 610 $aGeneral. 610 $aLinguistics. 610 $aSocial Science. 615 0$aSocial sciences$xMethodology. 615 0$aEthics. 676 $a300/.1 700 $aBailey$b F. G$g(Frederick George)$0242853 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910812307703321 996 $aThe saving lie$94113035 997 $aUNINA