Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science by Appiah, Kwame Anthony

Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science

Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah explores how early social scientists developed our modern understandings of society through their...
$32.50 USD
$32.50 USD
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Author: Kwame Anthony Appiah
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $32.50
Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science by Appiah, Kwame Anthony

Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science

$32.50

Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science

$32.50
Author: Kwame Anthony Appiah
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah explores how early social scientists developed our modern understandings of society through their theories of religion

The foundations of modern social science were built on the study of religion, the acclaimed thinker Kwame Anthony Appiah argues. Delving into the intellectual currents of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he investigates how formative thinkers--notably Edward Burnett Tylor, Émile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber--grappled with the concepts of society and religion as interdependent categories. Appiah shows how their efforts to define religion, or evade the task, mark the power and limitations of social thought in ways that persist among theorists today. Religion was not merely an object of study but a framework through which early social scientists established sociology as a discipline.

Appiah also examines more recent work in both interpretive sociology and evolutionary and cognitive psychology about the mechanisms through which communities form beliefs and values--while underscoring the enduring significance of these earlier debates for contemporary social thought. Throughout, he intertwines storytelling, historical analysis, and philosophical reflection to show how our ideas about society and culture have been, and continue to be, forged in dialogue with religious questions.

Author: Kwame Anthony Appiah
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 10/07/2025
Pages: 344
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
ISBN: 9780300233063


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2025

About the Author
Kwame Anthony Appiah is the Silver Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. His books include The Ethics of Identity, Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity, The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity, and As If: Idealization and Ideals. He writes the weekly "Ethicist" column for the New York Times Magazine.

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