Jaan Valsiner Department of Communication and Psychology, Center for Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. Valsiner (ed.), Social philosophy of science for the social sciences, Theory and history in the humanities and social sciences,.
Society’s Suicide: Reliance on Opinions
Such affective outbursts of social stigmatization point to the extra-philosophical origin of the philosophy of science, which is present in the social sciences. The social philosophy of the social sciences must take into account the normativity in the field of the various social sciences.
The issue of normativity is worked out in psychology (Svend Brinkmann (2019) in Chapter 11) and generalized to all social sciences - as we see in the chapters on economics (Jo Thori Lind - Chapter 15) and sociology (Gunnar Aakvaag in Chapter The socio-political issues of "open access" (Lars Wenaas—Chapter 13) provide the wider framework for normativity to present the results of the social sciences to the audience.
Social and Cognitive Roots for Reflexivity upon the Research Process
Social Sciences, What for?
On the Manifold Directions of Social Research
Therefore, and as the extensive use of "ought" in the previous paragraph makes clear, the discussion presented in this chapter takes the subject of this volume - social philosophy of social sciences - necessarily in moral grounds. More specifically, six different viewpoints on what kind of knowledge social sciences should create are first presented.
Return on Investment Versus Intrinsic Value
In contrast to the former, there is a view that portrays scientific knowledge in general - social sciences included - as something valuable per se (eg Burawoy, 2007). On the other hand, there is a position which claims that social sciences should not be asked to return anything other than pure knowledge, since the extension of scientific, social knowledge has an intrinsic value - which goes beyond any money-related concern .
Citizen Versus Academic Relevance
Summarizing up to this point, it is possible to identify a position that argues for making the social sciences accountable for their contribution to social improvement. In fact, it is not hard to see that it is quite risky to position scientific communities as the sole gatekeepers to decide what is and is not relevant to the social sciences – because of the inherently perverse incentives involved in to do it.
Applied Versus Basic Social Research
At the same time, it is possible to find the opposite perspective, namely that the social sciences should focus on different forms of fundamental research. Here, of course, one can find multi-volume theoretical discussions that have shaped the understanding of social disciplines (eg Geertz, 1973).
A Common Framework
Yet it is not the only one, since the recognition that social sciences can pull in different directions is something necessary, but not sufficient. It is therefore possible to find several examples of contemporary social research that are simply not in the.
Concluding Remarks: Finding Common Ground
While this does not imply that any form of social research could fit within the classical model, it does make clear that it is an inadequate approach; insufficient to understand how many different elements come together at the moment of defining the kind of knowledge that the social sciences create. The question at stake is therefore how to establish a meaningful relationship between the social sciences and society.
The Special Case of Norway
Finally, there are a series of what I consider good reasons for vitenskapsteori in the training component of the Ph.D. Gunnar Skirbekk (2018) has traced this argument in the Norwegian public sphere back to the eighteenth century.
Concluding Remarks
In the worst periods of the so-called science wars, however, the question at stake was whether validity claims were anything more than a matter of power games. Norway is still small, but since 1975 its higher education institutions have become massive universities, enrolled in the so-called knowledge economy.
Culture or Biology? If This Sounds Interesting, You Might Be Confused
Introduction
My goal is to diagnose the confusion.3 In discussions about the role of biology in the social world, it is easy to ask the wrong questions and it is easy to misinterpret scientific research. In the first part of this chapter (the section "Psychological Essentialism and How It Thinks About 'Biological Differences'"), I will draw on evidence to show that it is in public understanding to refer to 'biological', 'natural' or 'genetic' differences. with an essentialist picture of the human species.
What Are “Biological Differences”?
The fetal hormonal difference brings about a "hard-wired" difference in the structure of the brain. One way to understand something as "biological" is that it is the kind of thing that is studied in biology or in the biological sciences.
Psychological Essentialism and How It Thinks of “Biological Differences”
Generic sentences are sentences of the form "Fs are G" or "F is G", eg, "Lions have manes". They should be contrasted with clearly defined sentences such as "Some lions have manes," "Many lions have manes," or "All lions have manes." Evidence suggests that the use of generics contributes to the essentialization of type. Thus, we can explain the contested character of the concept of a "biological change". The change.
Psychological Essentialism Deeply Distorts Biology
There is simply no such thing as a gene that somehow "accounts for" the production of the female or the male type of primary reproductive organs. There is simply no sense in which hormone levels, either as a fetus or later in life, can be well described as falling into a male or female "type". The psychological essentialist treatment of hormones as immutable essences that specify the essence of the male or female is profoundly incorrect in terms of how androgens function in development and in how they are involved in shaping behavior.
Conclusion
Bibliography
Conditional Objectivism: A Strategy for Connecting the Social Sciences
In the second part of the chapter, we outline various open problems in the preparation of evidence-based recommendations for practice. For example, many authors fail to assess the methodological rigor and quality of the studies cited to support their position.
How to Derive Practical Recommendations from Empirical Evidence
In the first part of the chapter, we propose conditional objectivism, a strategy intended to guide decision-making in light of value-laden subjects of scientific inquiry. We focus on the recommendations made as part of the publication process or when the results are published.
Protected Values
Using the theory of heuristics applied to scientific decision-making (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011; Wimsatt, 2006), we propose that the complex relationship between practical recommendations and empirical evidence can be facilitated by heuristics. Recommendations based on conditional objectivism as value-free science [Problems: (1) include and weigh values; (2) side effects; (3) intuitive.
Consequentialist Test of Utilitarian Value
Plurality of Values
In our example of the dangers of smoking, a scientist might ask what measures could be taken to protect restaurant workers if smoking were permitted indoors, which would be consistent with a liberal approach to legislation. Alternatively, a scientist could consider what would be the best solutions for a country's economy without worrying about restaurant workers.
Conditional Objectivism
This evidence leads to the recommendation that abortion of embryos carrying the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome is justified from that perspective.” In contrast, the counterfactual, from Wolf-Devine and Devine's perspective, can be expressed as follows: “When viewed from the perspective of the negative psychological consequences for mothers who abort their children, the evidence suggests that the negative psychological consequences for a mother who aborts a child are worse than those of a mother who does not abort the embryo. A careful review of the literature shows that many social scientists share Noddings' lack of pluralism; she simply made this point explicit.
Open Problems
The second is the problem of data interpretation that occurs at the end of the empirical study. For example, an abortion decision may be based on the well-being of the child, the mother, or both.
Summary and Conclusion
In the social sciences and humanities, it is difficult to draw a clear line between science and evidence-based advocacy. Conditional objectivism offers new solutions to address various problems facing the social sciences.
Towards Reflexivity in the Sciences
Anthropological Reflections on Science and Society
Today, the concept of reflexivity is expanded to concern a researcher's positionality both as a researcher and as a writer (Hastrup, 1992), as well as the awareness of the socio-political context and the institutional environment one finds oneself in. Positionality in this respect does not only refer to a researcher's relationship to the social and political context of the study (Coghlan & Brydon-Miller, 2014), but also to the influence of one's race, gender, sexuality, class and place of origin. (Kempny, 2012) has on the research process, including the very first stage of formulating a research question.
Between Impact and “Grimpact”: Practical Recommendations to Avoidance of Harm
What strikes me in Carre's contribution is his sober awareness of the institutional and economic realities that strongly influence modern science. Estimating the potential damage is more complicated, as it is based on prediction and again requires deep knowledge of the socio-political context.
Sciences, “Societies,” and Points of View
For example, animal production experts who strive to increase meat production while minimizing costs were unaware of the need to address the negative impact of meat production on the environment. John Law and Marianne Elizabeth Linen argue that certain practices, including science, create categories and divisive structures that make certain things or beings passive or active, with or without agency (Law & Lien, 2012).9 As they argue, it is time to pay attention to the textures in the margins and to ontologies as they are applied in practice.
Towards a Non-dualistic Perspective in Sciences
Nevertheless, the role of the social sciences in understanding the world goes beyond translation and includes empirical contribution and critical study of the phenomenon. The social sciences can facilitate critical examination of the epistemological and ontological assumptions behind modeling practices, and a sensitivity to natural science as a storytelling practice can enrich scientific analysis (Haraway, 2015).
Manifold and Uneven Paths Towards Reflexivity
Although the leading scholars in biology and genetics rejected the ideas of a Nordic master race, the idea of racial segregation was widespread within social and natural sciences (Kyllingstad, 2012), and it influenced public opinion and politics (Roll-Hanses. 15 The project website “From racial typology to DNA sequencing” can be accessed at https://www.
Concluding Remarks
Furthermore, conceiving of nonhumans, including Earth, as agents rather than passive subjects can enrich our explanations and broaden the scope of our understanding of the impact of our research. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators in Transition, 12.-14. September 2018, Leiden, p.
Philosophies of Explanation in the Social Sciences
Explanation: Guidance for Social Scientists
It is an attempt to explain what etiological explanation is and, more specifically, what causal explanation is when done right.
Statistical Explanation
Causal Explanation
Criteria of Explanatory Success
On the one hand, an explanatory account that has no justification for it – no evidence or reasoning that makes it credible – is wasted. One is after enlightenment of a particular kind - the one that does away with mystery and ushers in the experience of "getting". Therefore, only justification together with understanding will do.
An Argument for the Inadequacy of Statistical Explanation
Ultimately, the point is to get to the truth, but in practice we are concerned with whether an explanatory account rests on epistemic considerations and is therefore a promising candidate for the truth. To ask why something happened is to ask for more than just enlightenment about the circumstances of the event.
Articulating Causation
Some “cases of intentional causality are special” in the sense that he is “directly aware of the causal connection,” since “there is one.” The inference rests largely on the premise that there is “a resemblance between the thoughts and passions of one man, with the thoughts and passions of another” (Hobbes, op. cit.).
Causal Explanation Without Articulation
We can easily understand why people do what they do when there is reason to believe that they act for reasons. Clearly, articulation of the causal link between X and Y is necessary to rule out inauthenticity.
The Semantic Argument
Constant conjunction between X and Y is evidence of the causal dependence of Y on X only if no third factor, Z, causes both X and Y. The condition is that the general nature of the causal relation between C and D, the details of which are unknown, is related to the nature of the connection between A and B, which is known.
A Humean Morale
Familiarity with responding to reasons gives no clue to the causal mechanism connecting her being pleasant to think P, to her being pleasant to think that P, to thinking that P. Second, there is no way one can get a grip on nature. of irrationality by helping yourself with the analogy with response to reasons.
From Causality to Catalysis in the Social Sciences
Social Sciences: Normative Regulation of Human Agency
A cycle in catalyst regeneration (CAT) includes three phases—BINDING, SYNTHESIS, and RELEASE AND RECREATION. Analyzing the catalytic processes allows the precise description of how the new Gestalt emerges.
Catalytic Models: Overcoming the Limits of Causality Discourses
This axiom is built on the observation of the contrast between natural and technological (man-made) objects. The latter is the administrative principle of control through homogenized social norms by insisting on the rigor of classical logic.
The Dynamics of Linearity and Nonlinearity
The human mind is a system at the boundary of two worlds of objects - its biological substrate (the brain) functions as any (non-linear) biological system would, but "mind formation". Vienna, Kunsthistorische Museum), (b) Regular assumption of a linear binary opposite in evaluation (a or b), (c) Curvilinearization of the opposition (from a or b to the behavior of a and b in relation to each other) and the display of the voltage ratio.
Basic Tensions in Forms and Philosophy of Science
But what is the 'field of action' for a dead Egyptian pharaoh whose ceiling of the tomb in which the coffin with his embalmed dead body is located under many wrappings. In a similar vein, the social sciences are struggling to move beyond the reduction of non-linear complexity to linearized 'variables'. Linear “variables” cannot generate new kinds of things of their own kind – but in open systems of biological, psychological, and social orders, the generation of new forms is the premise of the systems.
How Catalytic Systems Grow?
Even if it is possible to argue that the solution of the Möbius loop involves the time—necessary to see the reversal of the backward <> forward vectors at each turn—the process of changing dominance turns into a cyclical iterative cycle. Nothing can grow from the tensions on the surface of the loop, despite the tension of the opposites changing their position back and forth at each step.
Beyond Causal Attributions—To Structures of the Full Field
Here we can generalize - the usual linguistic attribution of the form "A causes B" by goal-oriented people is a projected cognitive illusion that masks the actual role of the catalyst ("A establishes the conditions for MY (our) achievement of B" ). This illusion allows for a distraction from the person's agentic role, which may play a role in the ego's defensive functions.
Art as Catalyst for Human Affect
The nature depicted in the paintings or graphic sheets of how the apple-eating couple Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden was sumptuous. Two aspects of the landscape paintings are important to emphasize in this discussion of the catalytic process in the human psyche.
Where Chemistry Ends and Semiotic Catalysis Begins
First, images are (semiotic) catalysts of the second order – they are representations of real or imaginary views of nature and its modifications. In contrast to the catalysts of the first order – the totality of the meaning field of a person experiencing a natural scene – the paintings have limited dimensions (Lorraine's measures 102 × 136 cm, and Ruysdael's 119 × 180 cm in canvas size).
The Cultural System of Catalysis: Preparing for the Future
Da Silva (2014) introduced the concept of semiotic catalyst activator – a sign that guides the creation of the catalytic sign field for the future in the present. Two specific features in the transition from the young white supremacist to a flexible human being who succumbs to the affective attraction across racial boundaries are relevant here to see the semiotic catalyst activator in action.
Conclusion: Normative Sciences Need Systemic Developmental Epistemology
This demand is an opportunity that can lead all social sciences to understand the dramatic reality of the human condition. Historically structured sampling (HSS): How can psychology's methodology be aligned with the reality of cultural psychology's historical nature.
How to Identify and How to Conduct Research that Is Informative
How confident would you be that you would get the same results, i.e. that you would be able to replicate the finding you are about to submit for publication. Would you ever publish a finding that you are not sure you or others can replicate?
How Can We Evaluate Published Research?
TOP guidelines: https://cos.io/our-services/ top-guidelines/ Directory of repositories: http://www.opendoar.org see also O. The GRIM test can point out such anomalies and is available online (http ://www.prepubmed.org/grim_test/).
Old and New Lessons Learned on How to Conduct and Publish Research
Applying adjustments for publication bias or checking the validity of statistical reporting will help increase the informational value of one's own research. After giving examples of some tools that could guide the evaluation of published research, we now turn to a summary and discussion of aspects that researchers can use to increase the credibility and validity of their projects.
Increasing Research Transparency Disclosure and Reporting
It is therefore not surprising that researchers have called for adequate a priori power analyzes or simulations in order to be able to accurately detect potential effects (Anderson, Kelley, & Maxwell, 2017; Bakker et al. , 2012; Maxwell, 2004). While these applications cover the most common models, researchers have advocated the use of power simulations for more complex or unusual situations (Maxwell et al., 2008).
Accelerate Scientific Research Replication
Using NHST this could be tested against the null hypothesis of d = 0, but this would not provide an indication of the absence of an effect. First, the effect is not statistically different from zero and is statistically equivalent (lower than the limits of interest), which could result in the conclusion that there is no effect.
Explaining Social Phenomena: Emergence and Levels of Explanation
A Guide to Causation, Catalysis, Reproducibility, and Informative Value
Explanation, Causality, and Responsiveness to Reasons
Elster deviates from Malnes' use of the term explanation and argues that explanation is necessarily causal (Elster, 2015, p. 1). The first criterion is that the explanation must be supported by the facts, and the other that it must facilitate an understanding of the action explained.
Intentionality and Catalysis
I suppose that causality is not the culprit that causes people to lose sight of the complexity of social phenomena. In summary, I applaud Valsiner's grand vision, but I ask whether it might be possible to introduce some of the useful concepts of catalysis into the social sciences without abandoning the notion of causality and cause.
Replicability, Speed, and Informational Value
Any of the myriad possible causes we can construct seems to us better than nothing. Finally, while the critique of traditional social science is important, it reads more as a critique of science done badly than of the particular form of science itself.
A Challenge from Below and Levels of Explanation
Neuroscience is therefore of obvious importance, and the book is entitled Toward a unified science of the mind-brain. Some people have severed the connection between the left and the right side of their brain, and it is possible to give instructions to the right side of the brain (the side without language) that the left side (with language) does not have access to.
Philosophies of Explanation in the Social Sciences
Gazzaniga provides an interesting account of the issue of the origins, levels of analysis and growth of neuroscience in his article Neuroscience and the correct level of explanation for understanding the mind: an alien wanders through some neuroscience laboratories and concludes that earthlings do not understand how best to understand the mind-brain interface (2010). Neuroscience and the Right Level of Explanation for Understanding the Mind: An alien wanders through some neuroscience labs and concludes that Earthlings do not understand how to best understand the mind-brain interface.
Social Normativity in Social Sciences
Normativity in Psychology and the Social Sciences: Questions of Universality
I illustrate this with reference to a central contribution to social anthropology, namely Scheper-Hughes's (1993) study of cultural practices of grief and mourning, which simultaneously illuminates cultural particularities while maintaining a universalist approach to ethical normativity. in line with Levinas.
The Fact-Value Dichotomy in Scientific Practice
Seeing that they are not so figurative, Hume is forced to conclude that there are no moral facts. So statements of value still fell outside the realm of the meaningful, since (1) they are not analytic, and (2) they are not intelligible when couched in the language of physics.
The Normativity of Human Life
And while these concepts highlight real features of the world, they are nevertheless inherently evaluative (since, all things being equal, it is normatively better to go for the more coherent, simple, and relevant theory rather than the theory, which is less the case is). ). We also need the perspective of the 'dialectician' (an equivalent of modern cultural psychologists) to understand this (Robinson, 1989).
Sources of Universal Social Normativity
I have previously discussed the perspective of the former (Brinkmann, 2016a), so I will concentrate here on the latter. Levinas is best known for his concept of the face: This is the ground of ethics in his work, because it is in the encounter with the face of the other that one can understand that the other is not like me, to one side, but also not against me, on the other (Davis, 1996, p. 45).
Conclusions
This is also why it makes sense to criticize the deteriorating living conditions of people in this part of the world, because there is a pre-cultural source of moral normativity that one can call upon to fight for the relief of suffering in ' a world of "death without weeping" (to quote the title of her book). Scheper-Hughes's work beautifully represents a cultural sensitivity that enables readers to understand the (non)reactions of the grieving mothers without judging them but which at the same time articulates a deep moral normativity that should make us wish for a change in the living conditions of the mothers.
