what is the right thing to do episode 2 selected topics

Ethics and Economics Week 2

Philosophy of Social Science

Tomáš Cahlík

Introduction: Philosophy – Selected Topics

Philosophy of Science


Macrosocial Science and Functionalism

Moral Questions and Social Science


Western tradition, Chinese tradition, Indian tradition, Islamic tradition

Western Tradition: starts in ancient Greece as „love of wisdom“

It builds upon pre-understanding of experience, it starts with amazement and doubt.

Its subject and method are given endogenously

Introduction: Philosophy – Selected Topics Philosophy – possible definition: it is a critical, rational

science about conditions for the possibility of empirical reality as a whole

Philosophy is a tradition

Philosophy is a process

„All western philosophy is just comentary to Plato“ (428-348 BeforeCommonEra)

Plato discovered the difference between sensual and spiritual , and „set the stage“ as theoretical x practical philosophy and for theoretical philosophy as a triangl: being (nature), self (soul) and idea (absolute)


Philosophy x religion

Philosophy is strictly rational, religion can be based on revelation and belief

Philosophy x art

Art works through sensual preception


Philosophy x ideology

Neutral conception of ideology

Any systematic set of beliefs, meanings or propositions

Marxist conception of ideology

Material base (production forces and production relations) x ideological superstructure (philosophy, religion,…..)

Introduction: Philosophy – Selected Topics Philosophy x ideology

Positivist conception of ideology

Positivism is empiricism of the 19th century. Pejorative name is scientism.

It developed in the 20th century into neo-positivism and critical rationalism

Ideology is para-theory; all statements that we can neither verify nor falsify

Critical ratonalism: Karl Popper (1902 – 1994)

Criticizes ideologies that promise creation of an ideal society as a closed social system – Marxism

Book: Open Society and its Enemies - Developes the concept of an open society, deidealizes Plato, against totalitarianism

Well known follower is George Soros.


Some notions

Ontology: is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.

Noetics: It is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of mind and intellect.

Epistemology: It is the study of knowledge and justified belief. It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which knowledge pertinent to any given subject or entity can be acquired.

Methodology: It is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study. In recent years however, there has been a tendency to use methodology as a substitute for method or operating procedure.

Introduction: Philosophy – Selected Topics Some current (20th century) philosophical positions classification)

Position developed from Empiricism Positivism

Wittgenstein I and logics

Neo-positivism and Vienna Circle

Critical rationalism

Wittgenstein II and language games

Positions oriented phenomenologically (looking for essences) Existentialism

Hermeneutics

Marxist positions Marxism-leninism

Neomarxism and Critical Theory


Empiricist Epistemological Opinion: Scientific knowledge is derived from empirical

facts, from empirical experience Observational and experimental facts

Experiments To get relevant experimental facts, isolate the process under investigation and eliminate the effects of other processes Some questions: Are facts directly given to careful unprejudiced

observers via the senses? Are facts prior and independent of theory?


Basic Empiricist Methodology: Induction – deriving theories from the facts

derive = logically deduce

Principle of induction: If a large number of A´s have been observed under a wide variety of conditions, and if all those A´s without exception possess the property B, then all A´s have the property B.


Basic Empiricist Methodology:

Problems: Little scientific knowledge would survive the

demand there be no exception

Exactness of mathematically formulated laws x inexactness of any measurements

Problem of induction (David Hume) – justifying induction by appealing to induction

What about probabilistic version? (…all A´s probably have the property B)


General Empiricist Methodology

Laws and Theories

Initial conditions (Facts acquired through observation)

Explanations and their test on predictions

Both induction and deduction are used here.


Falsificationism (Critical rationalism applied to science) Critical rationalism: Karl Popper 1902-1994 If a theory can never go wrong because it is

sufficiently flexible to accomodate anything, it cannot explain anything, because it cannot rule out anything. Examples: Marxism and Freudism

Scientific theories must be falsifiable. All theories are speculations. They must be tested

by predictions of observations and experimental results. It can never be legitimately said of a theory that it is true, it can hopefully be said that it is the best available.


Falsificationism

Logical point: A finite number of observational statements cannot verify a theory, but a single one can falsify a theory.

Examples of not falsifiable statements

All points on a Euclidean circle are equidistant from the centre.

Luck is possible in sporting speculations.

Philosophy of Science Interpretative epistemology: Theories as structures – Kuhn´s paradigms (Thomas Kuhn 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolution) Different groups of scientists may interpret

and apply the paradigm in a somewhat different way. Risks are thus distributed through the scientific community and the chances of some long-term success are increased.

Revolution is a change in the way the world is percieved and interpreted

The importance of predictions in Kuhn´s epistemology is supressed


Compromising epistemology: Theories as structures – Research Programs (Imre Lakatos, 1960ies and 1970ies)

Not all parts of a science are on par, hard core and protective belt (protects hard core against falsificationism, gives time to the hard core to develop)

He brings the term „heuristics“ – set of standards (rules or hints) to aid discovery or inventions


Compromising epistemology: Theories as structures – Research Programs (Imre Lakatos, 1960ies and 1970ies)

Negative heuristics x positive heuristics

Two main indicators of the merit of a research program: Leads to novel predictions – (predictions important

again)

Positive heuristics is sufficiently coherent to map out a program

Replacement of a degenerating research program by a progressive one constitutes a scientific revolution.


Epistemology allowing different types of knowledge: Anarchistic Theory of Science(Paul Feyerabend, 1975 Against Method)

Advocacy of freedom („Anything goes“) – remove methodological constraints and leave individual the freedom to choose between science and other forms of knowledge.

Institutionalization of science is inconsistent with the humane attitude.

Criticism: he is utopian, because of path dependency of research in existing paradigms or research programs.


Orher Approaches:

The Bayesian Approach – An attempt to develop an account of universal method by adapting a version of probability theory

The New Experimentalism – An attempt to counter what it sees as excesses of the theory-dominated account of science


What are laws? – an ontological question

Do scientific laws have exception?

Are scientific laws just regularities?

Can such regularities change?


Are Social Sciences different from Sciences?

Reflexivity of Social Sciences: created and

thereafter dispersed knowledge can change the Society – Does reflexivity exist in physical sciences and in biology?

Regularities change with the change of the Society – What about in physical sciences and in biology?


Has progress been bigger in Sciences than in Social Sciences?

Progress measured with predictability

Progress measured with intelligibility

Naturalism x Interpretationism

Naturalism rejects differences between natural and social sciences, stresses the importance of predictions

Hermeneutics and Critical Theory stress interpretation, they look for the meaning of human actions


Are social theories reducible?

Example of reduction from Physics: Newtonian Physics can been reduced into the Relativist Physics

Is Economics reducible to the Adaptive Complex Systems Theory?


Human Action and its explanation (Praxeoloxy)

Folk Psychology (Pre-understanding)

L (Law of Intentions): If we want something and believe that an action can bring it then we do that action

L makes actions intelligible, but its use for predictions is questionable. Wants and beliefs explain reasons, but is it possible to use them in causal analysis? Laws are about causes and effects, without laws or empirical regularities that have the potential to become laws, predictability is low.

From folk psychology to the theory of rational choice


Human Action and its explanation (Praxeoloxy)

Two possible positions: become an interpretationalist or a behaviorist

Behaviorism: Instead of considering unmeasurable wants and beliefs, analyse the influence of measuable features of environment on actions.

LE (Law of Effects): If emitted behaviour is reinforced, it will be repeated with greater frequency (or intensity or duration). If it is punished, it will be repeated with lower frequency (or intensity or duration)

Behavioral Psychology

Behavioral Economics


If you believe, that just predictions are important and that explanations are not, then you may be an instrumentalist.

Instrumentalism: A theory is to be judged not on the truth of its assumptions but on the confirmation of its predictions with observations

Theories are just useful concepts for organizing our thinking

In Economics: Milton Friedman


Reaction on this rather extreme instrumentalist view has been further development of interpretationism – search for the meaning of actions

The Hermeneutics of human action

Hermeneutics developed from Exegesis – critical explanation of the Bible with the realizations that interpretations can change in time and space

Actions are not given by scientific laws, but by norms (rules). Norms are social constructs.

Learning norms is like learning language.

Norms can change like language

Meaning that we give to actions changes as well.


Search for deeper meanings

Applications:

The Philosophy of History

Freud and Psychoanalysis

Marxism and meaning

Historicism and its criticism from Karl Popper (Book: Poverty of Historicism)

Critical Theory: post-modern „marxism“ - beyond class interests, interests of different social groups are stressed (females, gays, racial minorities etc.)


Individuals and social structures

Individualism x Holism

As ontological positions

As methodological positions

As ethical positions


Holism

Organicism and Complex Systems Theory Irreducibility of the whole into its parts

Émile Durkheim (1859 – 1917) Collective consciesness (ontological holism) Functionalism (methodological holism)

The strategy of identifying and explaining parts of social structures in terms of the purposes they serve for the society – not for individuals


Autonomy of Sociology Fathers of modern Sociology developed argumentation

for the existence of social facts

Durkheim and his empirical analysis of Suicide

Psychological states of individual suicide victimes are intermediate links (or just by-products) in a causal chain from „social integration“. There exists some optimal level of integration and biases from this level increase the suicide rate. Egoistic, altruistic and anomic suicide.

Durkheim believed in the „unity of science“: disciplines might be distinguished by subject matter but not by method

Are social facts irreducible to psychological facts?

Is Sociology reducible to Psychology?


Functional Analysis and Functional Explanation

Biology and Social Sciences

Biology

Superintelligent design (God) x Natural Selection

Social Sciences

Superintelligent design x intelligent design (constructivism) x natural selection


Natural selection

Later generations have hereditary traits more similar to their ancestors than to others

There is always variation in every generation among these hereditary traits

There are differences in the fitness to the environment of these hereditary traits


We have to assume functions in order to be able to identify parts of social structure based on regularities that systematize them

Once we have discovered systematic regularities, a psychological theory may help to explain them

Manifest and latent functions

Social science looks for latent functions. e.g. latent function of marriage is maintaining the optimal degree of social integration

We can group social structures differently based on different functions

Functional explanation is related to functional analysis; with badly defined functional structures we cannot get good explanations and we ought to redefine the functional structure


Individualists (e.g. Karl Popper: Open Society and its Enemies) stress moral troubles with holism and functionalism

Holism threatens the priority of personal liberty and individual human rights

Holism is usually accompanied with totalitarianism

Example: In Marxism, latent function of elections is to deceive proletariat through giving it the illusion it choses its oppressors – believing it, why ought you to respect the outcome of elections?


Laws and empirical regularities

Are rough-and ready generalizations sufficient to justify causal judgments? (e.g. „Countries usually declare war when attacked“, „If price of some good increases, its consumption decreases“)

Can we find 100% statistical regularities, laws?

Too many factors

Social structures are adaptive systems, regularities change in time, with different speed

Philosophers and biologists have generally concluded that there are no further laws in biology beyond the three broad principles of the theory of natural selection. Biological systems belong to adaptive systems as well as social structures (systems).


Is Social Science dehumanizing? Predicting behaviour may encourage us to view people no longer as autonomous subjects (moral agents).

Is there some morally dangerous knowledge?

Is social research to be controlled?

Experimenting with people


Consequentionalism is closely tied to the naturalistic approach to social science

Deontology is closely tied to interpretationist approach to social science

Is it possible to split facts and values? Description and prescription?

Problem of value-laden terms (e.g. rationality)


Feminist philosophy of Social Science

Standpoint theory: there are certain facts relevant to scientific knowledge that are detectable only from certain points of view

Explanation: Points of view of „minorities“ as women (homosexuals, Roma population) may contain some tacit knowledge.

Minorities may have different preferences concerning scientific targets

what is the right thing to do episode 2 selected topics

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