Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part I. Foils and Stories -- 1. Three Approaches to Foils -- 1.1. Rational Choice Theory and Its Foils -- 1.2. Social Scientific Theories and Their Foils -- 1.3. Foils in the Academy -- 1.4. My Hope for This Book -- 2. Three Types of Stories -- 2.1. Deep Stories -- 2.2. Exemplar Theorists -- 2.3. Ideal Types -- 2.4. The Rational Reconstruction of Research Programs -- 2.5. The Trouble with Stories: Thin and Thick Research Communities -- 2.6. Typologies and Genealogies -- Part II. The Rationalist Challenge -- 3. Rational/Social Choice Theory -- 3.1. Thin and Thick Rationalists -- 3.2. Rationalist Ontology -- 3.3. Rationalist Methodology -- 4. Rationalism and Hegemony -- 4.1. Why Rationalist Social Science Tends toward Hegemony -- 4.2. The Result: Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Conciliation -- 4.3. Countertendencies: How Rationalist Social Science Defines Its Baselines and Boundaries -- 4.4. Countertendencies: Why Rationalist Social Science Lowers Its Positivistic Pretensions -- 4.5. Modest Rational Choice Theory -- Part III. The Alternatives to Rationalist Hegemony -- 5. Cultural/Interpretive Theory -- 5.1. Thin and Thick Culturalists -- 5.2. Culturalist Ontology -- 5.3. Culturalist Methodology -- 5.4. Culturalist Lacunae -- 6. Structural/Institutional Theory -- 6.1. Thin and Thick Structuralists -- 6.2. Structuralist Ontology -- 6.3. Structuralist Methodology -- 6.4. Structuralist Lacunae -- Part IV. The Debate about the Debate -- 7. The Need for Synthesis: Structure and Action -- 7.1. For Synthesis -- 7.2. Types of Syntheses -- 7.3. Structure/Institution and Action/Process -- 7.4. Methodological Synthesis: The Causal and the Interpretive -- 7.5. The Importance of Synthesis -- 8. The Need for Analysis: Models and Foils -- 8.1. For Models and Foils -- 8.2. Against Synthesis.

8.3. Conclusion: Synthesis and Analysis -- Part V. The Philosophy of Science -- 9. The General and the Particular -- 9.1. The Research Programs -- 9.2. Weber's Approach -- 9.3. The General and the Particular in the Social Sciences -- 10. Models and Foils: A Modest Philosophy of Science for Social Science -- 10.1. Theory -- 10.2. Evidence -- 10.3. Theory and Evidence -- 10.4. Evaluation -- 10.5. How a Modest Rationalist Evaluates Theory and Evidence -- Notes -- References -- Index.