Contents: Preface; Introduction: the legendary Peter Winch and the myth of 'social science'; Beyond pluralism, monism, relativism, realism etc: reassessing Peter Winch; Winch and linguistic idealism; Seeing for themselves: Winch, ethnography, ethnomethodology and social studies; Winch and conservatism: the question of philosophical quietism; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Phil Hutchinson, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Rupert Read, Reader in Philosophy, University of East Anglia, UK and Wes Sharrock, Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester, UK.

The revived interest in Peter Winch's work since his death in 1997 provoked this exciting new volume. A focus on the misrepresentation he suffered through a failure to understand central social and philosophical themes in his writing, encouraged the authors to re-establish a Winchian voice and examine how his central claim is both more significant and more difficult to transcend than sociologists and philosophers have hitherto imagined.