The Logical and Epistemological Foundations of Sociology in the Philosophy of F.S.C Northrop

Abstract

Filmer S. C. Northrop was born in 1883* Studied at Beloit, Yale and the University of London Imperial College of Science and Technology. He was professor of Law and Philosophy at Yale. Published The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities and The Meeting of East and West* among many books and articles. An expert in epistemology, his method of analysis is a search for the discovery of the first principles of knowledge and the rigorous logical relationship between those principles and the whole body of doctrine. It provides a method of thinking as much as it provides a system of thoughts. This dissertation explores those elements of Northrop's philosophy which deserve the attention of sociologists. His philosophical ideas about the logical and epistemological categories of knowledge provide the social scientist with the training to think deductively and to avoid the misunderstandings derived from the use of common sense language, disregarding logical and conceptual distinctions. This systematic study offers the opportunity to gain a fertile system of thought, and consider the new theory of the social sciences as a portion of it.