The questions below will provide you with a partial framework for your investigation of the epistemology of the Social Sciences (SS). I have assigned you each to a working group organized by sub-topic but you must each individually complete at least one question from your group’s sub-area of SS knowledge. (One credit per question answered. Two of you cannot get credit for the same question. Bonus marks for more than one question answered.) You will then work as a group and compile your answers and use these to discuss the essential questions. Finally, each group will present their results to the class as a whole. We will follow this up with a class discussion on the essential questions as applied to SS globally.
An honest effort is
required: you will be able to address some of the questions based on your prior
knowledge, but some will require serious investigation. Use all the resources available to you –
your text, teachers, other students and adults, the library and the web. Your
text discusses some of the questions below.
Start each question by looking in the index to your text for an intro to
the topic. For many questions I have noted book sources to get you started.
Rodrigo
Alvarado, Alfonso Tejada, Ricardo Peña, Helmuth Sejas, Nicole Suarez, Vesna
Canelas
On philosophical underpinnings and methodology
The
methods of science – with all its imperfections – can be used to improve
social, political and economic systems, and that is true no matter what
criterion of improvement is adopted.
How is this possible if science is based on experiment? Humans are not electrons or laboratory
rats. But every act of Congress, every
Supreme Court decision, every Presidential National Security Directive, every
change in the Prime Rate is an experiment.
Every shift in economic policy, every increase or decrease in funding
for Head Start, every toughening of criminal sentences is an experiment.
Exchanging needles, making condoms freely available, or decriminalizing
marijuana are all experiments. Doing
nothing to help Abyssinia against Italy, or to prevent Nazi Germany from
invading the Rhineland, was an experiment.
Communism in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China was an
experiment. Privatizing mental health
care or prisons is an experiment…In almost all these cases, adequate control
experiments are not performed, or variables are insufficiently separated. Nevertheless, to a certain and often useful
degree, policy ideas can be tested.
Carl Sagan (Demon-Haunted World,
p.423)
1.
Discuss the quote above from Sagan. What does it tell you about the nature of
evidence (observation and experimental results) in economics? Compare this to the sentiments expressed in
the quote in the front flap of Economics by Lipsey and Steiner.
2.
Different economic models deliver different
results. Read the article “What’s Neo
in Economics” from Economics 88/89 and outline the basic assumptions of
the models discussed there. Give some
examples of the different results each model would give when considering the
same scenario. What does each of these
models assume as a basis? What
assumptions underlie ALL of them. (That
is, what are the underlying assumptions of economics as a whole? You might want to read the introduction to
Friedman’s Hidden Order.) Discuss utilitarianism briefly.
On
the overlap/conflict with other areas of knowledge
1. Karl Marx describes the economic
basis of societies as the infrastructure and all else as superstructure in his
description of what he called “historical materialism.”. Research these terms and find out what Marx
meant. (Check out the extract from Marx
on p. 30 of Social Change.) How does it relate to one of Marx’s most
famous quotes: “Religion is the opiate of the masses?” Are there non-Marxist economists who have
similar beliefs? Name a few of them and
describe their arguments? What does all
this say about the relative importance of economics and other social sciences,
religion, ethics, etc.? Can you fit
this in with what you know about reductionism?
2. What role do science and technology
play in an economy? (Are there
economists who place science and technology at the center of economic
development? Who?). Try reading one of the chapters out of the
book Connections by James Burke to get an idea of the complex and
unpredictable nature of technological progress. What does this tell you about the nature of economic progress?
3. 19th Century economist (and
reverend) Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population that
inspired early proponents of the theory of evolution (particularly Charles
Darwin and Alfred Wallace), not to mention inhumane poor laws and the non-response
to the Irish Potato Famine. The essay
is also (falsely) given credit for inspiring the poet Thomas Carlyle to label
economics the “dismal science.” So,
what did Malthus say? What does it have
to do with evolution? Domestic and
foreign policy? And what’s so “dismal”
about it? (As a bonus you can try to
find the REAL story behind what Carlyle was on about. )
On limits and the future
1.
In David Friedman’s book, Hidden Order, he uses
various economic models to “predict” the price of popcorn in movie
theaters. What are his results? Likewise, in the Chapter The Seven Wise
and the Science of Economics from The Golem at Large the authors
discuss the accuracy of predictions by economists. How accurate is economic forecasting? What does this tell us about the state of economics?
2.
What is the “butterfly effect” and what does it have
to do with economics? (You may also
want/need to look up definitions for: non-linear systems, chaos and
complexity. Try out the books: Emergence
and Complexity for more detailed discussion.)
3.
An
economist knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing
Economists use economic indicators and statistics as a
way of being more “scientific,” or more precisely, of being more
“quantitative.” Many thinkers have
criticized this “econometric” way of thinking because it makes invisible those
qualitative things that are difficult or impossible to put a number to (e.g.
quality of life, human happiness, freedom and democracy). Indeed, econometricians have been able to
find positive indicators for the eras of U.S. slavery and the Industrial
Revolution which most would label as “bad times.” Describe in some detail a situation where economic indicators
could be showing improvement while the quality of life is dropping. (You could do this as an original example or
via research - for example of the
studies done of slavery or the IR.)
Things are not always so clear of course. Econometric thinking can argue on both sides of a question, so
perhaps we should not put the blame on quantitative analysis. Prior to Marshall Sahlins’ seminal paper
“The Original Affluent Society” (see www.primitivism.com/original-affluent.htm)
it was clear to all that humans lived a life that was “nasty, brutish and
short” as hunter-gatherers. (Just look
at average income, or savings, or any other indicator if you don’t believe
it.) Sahlins was able to use data from
present hunter-gatherer societies to show that this is not the case. Jared Diamond has done a good job of
outlining the arguments in his article “The Worst Mistake in the History of the
Human Race” at www.agron.iastate.edu/courses/agron342/diamondmistake.html
Summarize the data/argument from Diamond’s paper (Sahlins has more data).
Intro: Find course syllabi for introductory
level courses in anthropology and sociology at the university level and print
them off.
On philosophical underpinnings and methodology
The
methods of science – with all its imperfections – can be used to improve
social, political and economic systems, and that is true no matter what
criterion of improvement is adopted.
How is this possible if science is based on experiment? Humans are not electrons or laboratory
rats. But every act of Congress, every
Supreme Court decision, every Presidential National Security Directive, every
change in the Prime Rate is an experiment.
Every shift in economic policy, every increase or decrease in funding
for Head Start, every toughening of criminal sentences is an experiment.
Exchanging needles, making condoms freely available, or decriminalizing
marijuana are all experiments. Doing
nothing to help Abyssinia against Italy, or to prevent Nazi Germany from
invading the Rhineland, was an experiment.
Communism in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China was an
experiment. Privatizing mental health
care or prisons is an experiment…In almost all these cases, adequate control
experiments are not performed, or variables are insufficiently separated. Nevertheless, to a certain and often useful
degree, policy ideas can be tested.
Carl
Sagan (Demon-Haunted World, p.423)
1.
Discuss the quote above from Sagan. What does it tell you about the nature of
evidence (observation and experimental results) in sociology?
2.
You have read the Poincaré jibe that sociology and, by
association, anthropology, appear to be more about method than subject
matter. Complete at least four of the
following readings and compare the methodologies discussed:
a.
Margaret Mead Coming of Age in Samoa, p. 259
b.
Marvin Harris Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches,
Prologue
c.
August Comte, Social Change, p. 14
d.
Sociology 93/94, pp. 4-7
e.
Friedl, The Human Portrait, Ch. 1
f.
Anthropology, p. 97 (“The Study
of Man’s Culture”)
g.
Landis, Sociology, Ch. 1
What do you think Poincaré was getting at? Do you agree? Explain.
On
the overlap/conflict with other areas of knowledge
1. Soc/Anthro have tried using many ideas
from the natural sciences. So, for
example, we have “cultural relativism” modeled after Einstein’s theories of
relativity and laws about “observers” in soc/anthro interfering with the
experiment based on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Research how you see relativism and observer
interference in at least two of the following cases/articles:
a.
Napoleon
Chagnon, Anthropology 88/89, p. 4
b.
Richard
Lee, Anthropology 88/89, p. 21
c.
Anthropology
88/89, p. 62
d.
Anthropology
88/89, p. 25
2. Max Weber, in “The Role of Ideas in
History” (Social Change, p. 40), discusses the influence of IDEAS,
specifically scientific and religious ones, on developments in society. What does Weber say? Marshall McLuhan (author of The Gutenberg
Galaxy and best known for his aphorism “the medium is the message”) and
Neil Postman (author of Technopoly and Amusing Ourselves to Death)
go further and discuss the impact of communication technology on ideas. Give a brief description of what each of
them say. Tie it all together and come
up with your own statement on the impact of communication technology on
history. Try it out by discussing the
printing press, TV or the internet.
3. A nasty debate has been going on for
some time over the relationship between sociology and biology. The “sociobiologists” led by E. O. Wilson
believe that sociology is best explained by looking at biology and
evolution. Members of the other camp
(esp. Stephen Jay Gould) disagree.
Discuss this debate using what you know about reductionism, determinism
and free will. (Read: End of
Science, pp. 143-149 to get Wilson’s viewpoint. pp. 149-154 give a bit of a rebuttal by Noam Chomsky.)
On limits and the future
1. The discussion of Brown’s cultural
universals leads to the idea that there is something innate within each human
from which culture sometimes/usually/often springs. This, effectively, is reducing culture and society to
psychology. How far can this mission
go? Use the previous link to Brown’s
universals. They are also reproduced
and discussed in Pinker’s The Blank Slate.
2. Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins
have developed a theory of cultural evolution called memetics. What is a meme? What effect might this theory have in the future of soc/anthro?
Elizabeth
Shultz, Dennise de la Zerda, Laura Sologuren, Alejandro Olguin,
Jhonny Montaño, Debbie Farkas
Behind us lies the wealth of history itself, the treasure-trove of knowledge -- of successes laden with promise and failures laden with fault. We are the heirs of a history which can teach us what we must avoid if we are to avoid immolation and what we must pursue if we are to realize freedom and self-fulfilment' (Murray Bookchin, 1986.)
Intro: Find course syllabi for introductory
level courses in history and political science at the university level and
print them off.
On philosophical underpinnings and methodology
1. Read Contemporary Political
Ideologies pp. 1-7 and outline the building blocks of political
thought. What are the assumptions of
these blocks?
2.
It is often said that “history is a judge” but of what? Develop the argument that the answer is
political science! If political science
is actually a science and history is its judge then history must play some role
in the scientific method we have discussed.
What role does history play in the scientific method IN RELATION to
political science. You may want to
consider the following quote to start:
The methods of science – with all its
imperfections – can be used to improve social, political and economic systems,
and that is true no matter what criterion of improvement is adopted. How is this possible if science is based on
experiment? Humans are not electrons or
laboratory rats. But every act of
Congress, every Supreme Court decision, every Presidential National Security
Directive, every change in the Prime Rate is an experiment. Every shift in economic policy, every
increase or decrease in funding for Head Start, every toughening of criminal
sentences is an experiment. Exchanging needles, making condoms freely
available, or decriminalizing marijuana are all experiments. Doing nothing to help Abyssinia against
Italy, or to prevent Nazi Germany from invading the Rhineland, was an
experiment. Communism in Eastern Europe,
the Soviet Union and China was an experiment.
Privatizing mental health care or prisons is an experiment…In almost all
these cases, adequate control experiments are not performed, or variables are
insufficiently separated. Nevertheless,
to a certain and often useful degree, policy ideas can be tested.
Carl Sagan (Demon-Haunted
World, p.423)
Can
history itself be scientific? Is it in any way testable? Suppose that someone
invented a time machine. Would this
make history more amenable to the scientific method? Consider what Popper says about historical sciences such as
cosmology, evolutionary science and geology.
3.
''A
mere collector of supposed facts is as useful as a collector of matchboxes.'' (Febvre) What else, then, do historians do? What are the purposes of history? Although the study of history is often justified on the basis of
providing the example of the past for the people of the present. Have governments,
or people, ever changed their behavior because of history? Do people act on principles that they derive
from historical example? What does R.G. Collingwood have to say about the
function of history? Look at the
Bookchin quote that starts this section.
On
the overlap with other epistemologies
1. Karl Marx describes the material
basis of societies as the infrastructure and all else as superstructure in his
description of what he called “historical materialism.”. Research these terms and find out what Marx
meant. (Check out the extract from Marx
on p. 30 of Social Change.) How does it relate to one of Marx’s most
famous quotes: “Religion is the opiate of the masses?” What does this say about the relative nature
of history, politics and economics.
(See Q 1 in section 3 for more on Marx.)
2. Max Weber, in “The Role of Ideas in
History” (Social Change, p. 40), discusses the influence of IDEAS,
specifically scientific and religious ones, on developments in society.
3. Read the chapter on “Liberation
Theology” in Contemporary
Political Ideologies and
discuss the relationship between politics and religion suggested by liberation
theologians.
On limits and the future
1. Francis Fukuyama wrote a paper for
the Rand Corporation in which he predicted the “End of History.” It was re-written as a best-selling
book. Research
the history and reception of this book.
How has history judged Fukuyama’s hypothesis? Would it have been better to have entitled it “End of
Politics?” Would it have fared any
better? (There is something on Fukuyama
in John Horgan’s End of Science, which is of course a book containing a
similar argument. You can also read: pages.prodigy.net/aesir/fuku.htm ). Ironically, Fukuyama is arguing in a manner
very similar to Marx about history.
Marx in turn took the basic ideas from Hegel. What are the Marxian and Hegelian ideas about
history? What is teleology and why does
Karl Popper have such trouble with it?
(Popper rejects Marx and Engel’s self-proclaimed ‘scientific socialism’
as unscientific.)
2.
Compare
the following quotes:
The
first law is that the historian shall never to set down what is false; the
second, that he shall never dare to conceal the truth; the third, that there
shall be no suspicion in his work of either favoritism or prejudice.
Cicero
History is written by the victors.
Read pp. 252-253 of The Demon-Haunted World by Carl
Sagan and discuss which quote you think is most applicable to history as it is
practiced. What role does choice of sources play in the writing and
interpretation of history? What are the sources of history? Discuss the question of the authenticity and
completeness of historical sources. Illustrate your discussion with examples
(actual examples or imagined possibilities).
Research the following terms and discuss them briefly: oral history,
history from below and the Annales School.
Why are oral histories important?
Is there any hope for a science of history? What
alternative does the “narrative/linguistic turn” offer to the scientific
model?
Ricardo
Arze, Orit Farkas, Tatiana Pozo, Tatiana Werhahn, Steven Batek, Fernanda Ponce
Intro: Find course syllabi for introductory
level courses in psychology and linguistics at the university level and print
them off.
On philosophical underpinnings and methodology
1. Read Behavior and Mind and describe the assumptions underlying the behaviorist school of psychological thought. What is meant by a “rejection of introspection?” Relate this to our “good ways for knowing.” What does B. F. Skinner mean by “laws of behavior?” Are these laws determinist? What does this mean for consciousness and free will? Compare the 5 ways of using mental terms. (This is somewhat repeated in Q2 section 3 below, so make sure to compare if you do both Qs.) How does the linguist Noam Chomsky counter the behaviorists? What is a “universal grammar?” (Note the close relationship between linguistics and psychology.)
2. How does Steven Pinker describe the methods of scientific psychology in How the Mind Works, pp. 21-58. What is the “computational theory of mind?” What is “evolutionary psychology?” Give an example of one of its findings.
3. Karl Popper argued that Freud’s ideas in psychoanalysis were not scientific. Explain Popper’s argument. How did it affect the field of psychoanalysis? Should all theories of psychoanalysis be scientific? (Can they be?) Are there any post-Freud attempts at making such a theory? What are they? What problems are created by the unsure nature of human senses and memory (delusions and hallucinations in the extreme cases)? Read what Carl Sagan says about these effects in Demon-Haunted World, p. 156 (repressed and false memories), p. 110 (on mass hallucinations and UFO sightings).
On
the overlap with other areas of knowledge
1. Discuss the Psychology of Religious knowledge. How do psychologists/ psychiatrists
differentiate between authentic religious visions and delusions? Consider the
findings of Michael Persinger and his God Machine. What do you think about his findings?
Read: www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/persinger_pr.html
and Carl Sagan, Demon-Haunted World, p.
110.
2. Psychology is the cornerstone of all other knowledge in the sense that
we attain and assess knowledge through our cognitive faculties. Explain the relationship between knowledge
and mind. In particular, psychologists
study how the human mind learns.
Learning is the acquisition of knowledge. What do Psychological theories of learning tell us about the
nature of human knowledge? Consider
constructivism in particular. What does
it say about ToK? What limits if any
does it place on human knowledge? (You
may want to look at what the philosopher Immanuel Kant says about this.) A good, simple starting point for
constructivist theory is: www.artsined.com/teachingarts/Pedag/Dewey.html
On limits and the future
1. From a reductionist viewpoint all the social sciences could
(should?) eventually be explained by way of psychological principles. Is this really feasible? Explain.
2. Will psychology be able to explain consciousness in the future? What are some of the ideas out there
now? Pick at least four theorists from
the list below and give their ideas on the origin of consciousness:
a.
Ch. 7
in End of Science, Francis Crick’s ideas
b.
Ch. 7
in End of Science, Roger Penrose’s ideas
c.
Ch. 7
in End of Science, Daniel Dennett’s ideas
d.
Ch. 7
in End of Science, others
e.
How
the Mind Works and The
Blank Slate, Steven Pinker’s (sort of) ideas
f.
WWW, Julian Jayne’s ideas (his book is The
Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind)
What are behaviorist ideas on consciousness (see Q 1 in section 1 above)? How does the concept of “soul” or “free will” fit into this question of consciousness?
3. Gould, in the intro to Mismeasure of Man, outlines his
arguments against a single quantifiable measure of intelligence. What are his main points? What are the advantages to the quantitative
over the qualitative approach to psychology? Disadvantages? Is something lost in the rush to turn
psychology into a purely quantitative science?