Abstract
ABSTRACT How do new theories and conceptual frameworks in social science emerge? Developing and drawing upon ‘Social Perspectival Realism’ as a philosophy of social science, this essay proposes that new standpoints can lead to theoretical innovation. New standpoints afford perspectival shifts that reveal new empirics and bring new meanings to bear upon them. This conjuncture of new data and meanings afforded by perspectival shifts sets the basis for conceptual and theoretical innovation. This essay offers brief histories of two series of innovations to reveal these logics. The first series regard theories of capitalist social relations and value from Adam Smith to Karl Marx to more recent theories of racial capitalism. The second series of innovations include theories of the social self that began with William James and were carried through the early Chicago School and W.E.B. DuBois. Feminist Standpoint Theory will be discussed throughout, both as a theoretical mount and as an example of innovation in itself.
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