{"product_id":"what-is-a-person-rethinking-humanity-social-life-and-the-moral-good-from-the-person-up-9780226765945","title":"What Is a Person?: Rethinking Humanity  Social Life  and the Moral Good from the Person Up","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat is a person? This fundamental question is a perennial concern of philosophers and theologians. But  Christian Smith here argues  it also lies at the center of the social scientists quest to interpret and explain social life. In this ambitious book  Smith presents a new model for social theory that does justice to the best of our humanistic visions of people  life  and society.  Finding much current thinking on personhood to be confusing or misleading  Smith finds inspiration in critical realism and personalism. Drawing on these ideas  he constructs a theory of personhood that forges a middle path between the extremes of positivist science and relativism. Smith then builds on the work of Pierre Bourdieu  Anthony Giddens  and William Sewell to demonstrate the importance of personhood to our understanding of social structures. From there he broadens his scope to consider how we can know what is good in personal and social life and what sociology can tell us about human rights and dignity.  Innovative  critical  and constructive  What Is a Person? offers an inspiring vision of a social science committed to pursuing causal explanations  interpretive understanding  and general knowledge in the service of truth and the moral good.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651902398517,"sku":"ByrdShop_0226765946","price":34.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226765945.jpg?v=1781844713","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/what-is-a-person-rethinking-humanity-social-life-and-the-moral-good-from-the-person-up-9780226765945","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}