In a singularly fundamental challenge to the positions widespread among social scientists, White distances himself from the reductionist models of the human brain. He asserts, basing his thought on the authoritative findings of modern neuroscientists, the causal potency of human self-awareness. The acceptance of such a potential in mankind transforms the behavioral sciences into the science of human action.Implicit in the evolutionary context of this perspective is a basic indeterminism inherent in human science. White stresses the central role of conscious purpose in human action and emphasizes the importance of choice and its consequences at the level of political community. In urging a consideration of the significance that neuroscience has for the behavioral sciences, White explores truly basic issues at the heart of those disciplines. He makes a persuasive case for interpreting human action as purposeful, conscious, choice-based, and cumulatively unpredictable.

A compelling argument for a fundamental redirection of thought away from a reductionist, deterministic approach to one viewing human actions as involving conscious choices and purposeful activities. In linking the developments in neuroscience to the social sciences, White strikes at the essence of what those sciences are and should be.

PrefaceThe Empty OrganismThe OrganismThe End of the Empty Organism: The Coming of Classical Social ScienceThe Organism in the Evolutionary Process: The Implications for the Philosophy of Social ScienceOrganic Selection, Human Evolution and Human HistorySelf Direction and Political Action: Conscious Purpose, Emic Analysis, and Ongoing Political BiographyThe Restoration of Politics as the Master ArtBibliographyIndex