Synchronic empirical research

Abstract

Interpretive philosophy opens a novel range of empirical topics for researchers. This chapter focuses on synchronic research topics (or those pertaining to a single snapshot of time) and argues that anti-naturalism generates distinctive ways of studying beliefs, identities, cultural practices, traditions, and political resistance. Examples are drawn from cutting-edge interpretive research into subjects like the politics of Islam, race, globalization, and democratic civic engagement. In addition, some of the more controversial findings of mainstream social science are engaged, including Samuel Huntington’s thesis that global politics consists of a “clash of civilizations”; Michelle Alexander’s argument that the United States is experiencing a new Jim Crow; and Robert Putnam’s view that American democracy is suffering a decline in civic engagement.