The Epistemic Predicament of a Pseudoscience: Social Constructivism Confronts Freudian Psychoanalysis
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Theory and Reality
an introduction to the philosophy of science ........................................................... SCIENCE AND ITS CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS A SERIES EDITED BY DAVID L. HULL THEORY AND REALITY ........................................................... Peter Godfrey-Smith is associate professor of philosophy and of his tory and philosophy of science at Stanford University. He is the author PETER GODFREY-SMITH of Complexity and the Function ofMind in Nature. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2003 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2003 Printed in the United States of America 12 II 100908 45 ISBN: 0-226-30062-5 (cloth) ISBN: 0-226-30063-3 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Theory and reality: an introduction to the philosophy of science I Peter Godfrey-Smith. p. cm. - (Science and its conceptual foundations) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-30062-5 (alk. paper) - ISBN 0-226-30063-3 (pbk. : alk. The University of Chicago Press / Chicago and London paper) I. Science-Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series. QI75 .G596 2003 501-dc2I 2002155305 @ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Perma nence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. 56 Chapter Three Later (especially in chapter 14) I will return to these problems. But in the next chapter we will look at a philosophy that gets a good part of its motivation from the frustrations discussed in this chapter. Further Reading 4...................................................................................... Once again, Hempel's Aspects ofScientific Explanation (1965) is a key source, con Popper: Conjecture and Refutation taining a long (and exhausting) chapter on confirmation. -
Positivism and the 'New Archaeology'
2 Positivism and the 'new archaeology' 'Recipes for the Good Society used to run, in caricature, something like this - (1) Take about 2,000 hom. sap., dissect each into essence and accidents and discard the accidents. (2) Place essences in a large casserole, add socialising syrup and stew until conflict disappears. (3) Serve with a pinch of salt.' (Hollis 1977, p. 1) 'The wish to establish a natural science of society . probably remains, in the English speaking world at least, the dominant standpoint today . But those who still wait for a Newton are not only waiting for a train that won't arrive, they're in the wrong station altogether.' (Giddens 1976, p. 13) Introduction How should archaeologists come to have knowledge of the past? What does this knowl- edge involve? What constitutes an explanation of what archaeologists find? This chapter considers the answer to these questions accepted by the 'new' archaeology; it considers epistemological issues raised by a study of the past in the archaeological literature post- dating 1960. New archaeology has embraced explicitly and implicitly a positivist model of how to explain the past and we examine the treatment of the social world as an exten- sion of the natural, the reduction of practice lo behaviour, the separation of'reality', the facts, from concepts and theories. We criticize testing, validation and the refutation of theory as a way of connecting theory and the facts, emphasizing all observation as theory-laden. The new archaeology polemically opposed itself to traditional 'normative' archaeology as a social science and we begin the chapter with a consideration of this change and why it took place. -
Meta-Metaphysics on Metaphysical Equivalence, Primitiveness, and Theory Choice
J. Benovsky Meta-metaphysics On Metaphysical Equivalence, Primitiveness, and Theory Choice Series: Synthese Library, Vol. 374 ▶ Contains original research in analytic metaphysics and meta- metaphysics ▶ Offers a detailed and innovative discussion of metaphysical equivalence ▶ Explores the role of aesthetic properties of metaphysical theories from an original angle Metaphysical theories are beautiful. At the end of this book, Jiri Benovsky defends the view that metaphysical theories possess aesthetic properties and that these play a crucial role when it comes to theory evaluation and theory choice. Before we get there, the philosophical path the author proposes to follow starts with three discussions 1st ed. 2016, XI, 135 p. 20 illus. of metaphysical equivalence. Benovsky argues that there are cases of metaphysical equivalence, cases of partial metaphysical equivalence, as well as interesting cases of theories that are not equivalent. Thus, claims of metaphysical equivalence can only be Printed book raised locally. The slogan is: the best way to do meta-metaphysics is to do first-level Hardcover metaphysics.To do this work, Benovsky focuses on the nature of primitives and on the ISBN 978-3-319-25332-9 role they play in each of the theories involved. He emphasizes the utmost importance of primitives in the construction of metaphysical theories and in the subsequent evaluation ▶ 89,99 € | £79.99 of them. He then raises the simple but complicated question: how to make a choice ▶ *96,29 € (D) | 98,99 € (A) | CHF 106.50 between competing metaphysical theories? If two theories are equivalent, then perhaps we do not need to make a choice. But what about all the other cases of non-equivalent "equally good" theories? Benovsky uses some of the theories discussed in the first part of the book as examples and examines some traditional meta-theoretical criteria for theory choice (various kinds of simplicity, compatibility with physics, compatibility with intuitions, explanatory power, internal consistency,...) only to show that they do not allow us to make a choice. -
Philosophy in Review/Comptes Rendus Philosophiques Volume XXII, No
Philosophy in Review/Comptes rendus philosophiques Volume XXII, No. 1 Alexander Bird Thomas Kuhn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 2000. Pp. xii + 308. US$39.50 (cloth: TSBN 0-691-05709-5); US$16.95 (paper: TSBN 0-691-05709-9). After Thomas Kuhn's death in 1996, there has been increasing interest in his work, so much so that in the year 2000 there was a book of Kuhn's previously published essays, The Road Since Structure: Philosophical Es- says, 1970-1993, with an Autohiographical Interview (RSS), and there were four books published on Kuhn: Alexander Bird's book, Steve Fuller's Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times, Hanne Anderson's On Kuhn, and Ziauddin Sardar's Thomas Kuhn and the Science Wars. Bird's book, which is the first book on Kuhn from the perspective of naturalistic episte- mology, puts Kuhn's ideas into their historical context, and expounds on what Kuhn thinks on topics such as normal and revolutionary science. Bird argues that Kuhn's theory is imbued with commitments to empiricist and Cartesian 9 traditions, which Kuhn has already rejected. Hence, Kuhn's theory is not a thorough naturalistic epistemology, which then leads to scepticism and relativism. Of interest to the generalist are the first three chapters, which are on Kuhn's historical context, normal and revolutionary science, and paradigms. Of interest to the specialist are the last three chapters that are on the topics of perception and world change, incommensurability and meaning, and progress, truth, knowledge and relativism. In these latter chapters Bird argues that if Kuhn had become a naturalistic epistemologist, he would have avoided scepticism. -
Philosophical Theories, Aesthetic Value, and Theory Choice
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by RERO DOC Digital Library J Value Inquiry (2013) 47:191–205 DOI 10.1007/s10790-013-9379-8 Philosophical Theories, Aesthetic Value, and Theory Choice Jiri Benovsky Published online: 18 June 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 The practice of attributing aesthetic properties to scientific and philosophical theories is commonplace. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of such an aesthetic judgement about a theory is Quine’s in ‘On what there is’: ‘‘Wyman’s overpopulated universe is in many ways unlovely. It offends the aesthetic sense of us who have a taste for desert landscapes […]’’.1 Many other philosophers and scientists, before and after Quine, have attributed aesthetic properties to particular theories they are defending or rejecting. One often hears that a view is ‘‘elegant’’, ‘‘attractive’’, ‘‘beautiful’’, or even ‘‘sexy’’. The physicist Brian Greene decided to call the book, where he explains and defends the theory of superstrings for a general readership, ‘‘The elegant universe’’. And Dirac commented on general relativity theory thus: ‘‘The foundations of the theory are, I believe, stronger than what one could get simply from the support of experimental evidence. The real foundations come from the great beauty of the theory. […] It is the essential beauty of the theory which I feel is the real reason for believing in it’’.2 When defending four- dimensionalism, Ted Sider could not be more explicit: ‘‘It is easy to feel […]an intellectual joy in contemplating a theory so elegant and beautiful as four- dimensionalism, and it is tempting to accept the theory simply on this basis, utilizing arguments to rationalize more than justify’’.3 The list could go on and on. -
Theory Choice in Jurisprudence
Theory Choice in Jurisprudence Aleksander Peczenik 1 Kinds of Legal Theory ……………………………………………………….. 292 2 Anti-metaphysical Legal “Realism” ………………………………………… 292 2.1 Wróblewski – Metatheoretical Relativism ……………………………… 295 2.2 Strömberg – from “Realism” to “Description” of Rules ……………….. 295 2.3 Positivist “Descriptions” of the Law ………………………………... 296 2.4 Logical Analysis ………………………………………………………... 298 2.5 Questioning Relevance of Value Nihilism for Legal Discussions 299 2.6 Discovering “Pre-existing” Principles ………………………………….. 299 2.7 Return to Natural Law ………………………………………………….. 301 2.8 Aarnio’s Argumentation Theory ………………………………………... 302 2.9 Anchoring Legal Reasoning in a Cluster of Philosophies ……………… 303 2.10 Self-reflection …………………………………………………………... 304 2.11 The Search for Global Coherence in Legal Theory …………………….. 305 References …………………………………………………………………….. 306 © Stockholm Institute for Scandianvian Law 1957-2010 292 Aleksander Peczenik: Theory Choice in Jurisprudence 1 Kinds of Legal Theory Research in law is mostly oriented towards practical problems, rather particular then general. However, there is also a persisting trend to do more general research. In different times and places, it appears under different names, such as Legal Encyclopaedia, General Study of Law, Jurisprudence and Legal Theory. Legal Philosophy and Legal Sociology are also established disciplines. Sometimes, one meets combinations like General Theory of State and Law, General Theory of Law and Morals and so on. Finally, there are numerous “Law and” subjects, such as Law and Economics, Law and Society, Law and Literature etc. Representatives of all these disciplines belong to various more or less overlapping informal networks, quote each other, meet at common conferences and in many other ways appear as a kind of community of scholars. However, this community is in a state of chaos, creating more problems than solutions and more misunderstandings than problems. -
Why Freud Survives
Why Freud Survives He’s been debunked again and again—and yet we still can’t give him up. By Louis Menand Sigmund Freud almost didn’t make it out of Vienna in 1938. He left on June 4th, on the Orient Express, three months after the German Army entered the city. Even though the persecution of Viennese Jews had begun immediately—Edward R. Murrow, in Vienna for CBS radio when the Germans arrived, was an eyewitness to the ransacking of Jewish homes—Freud had resisted pleas from friends that he flee. He changed his mind after his daughter Anna was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. He was able to get some of his family out, but he left four sisters behind. All of them died in the camps, one, of starvation, at Theresienstadt; the others, probably by gas, at Auschwitz and Treblinka. London was Freud’s refuge, and friends set him up in Hampstead, in a big house that is now the Freud Museum. On January 28, 1939, Virginia and Leonard Woolf came for tea. The Woolfs, the founders and owners of the Hogarth Press, had been Freud’s British publishers since 1924; Hogarth later published the twenty-four- volume translation of Freud’s works, under the editorship of Anna Freud and James Strachey, that is known as the Standard Edition. This was the Woolfs’ only meeting with Freud. English was one of Freud’s many languages. (After he settled in Hampstead, the BBC taped him speaking, the only such recording in existence.) But he was eighty-two and suffering from cancer of the jaw, and conversation with the Woolfs was awkward. -
Naturalized Epistemology, Or What the Strong Programme Can't Explain
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. 36 (2005) 135–148 www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsa Naturalized epistemology, or what the Strong Programme canÕt explain Karyn L. Freedman University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., Canada, N1G 2W1 Received 26 September 2003; received in revised form 5 April 2004 Abstract In this paper I argue that the Strong ProgrammeÕs aim to provide robust explanations of belief acquisition is limited by its commitment to the symmetry principle. For Bloor and Barnes, the symmetry principle is intended to drive home the fact that epistemic norms are socially constituted. My argument here is that even if our epistemic standards are fully natu- ralized—even relativized—they nevertheless can play a pivotal role in why individuals adopt the beliefs that they do. Indeed, sometimes the fact that a belief is locally endorsed as rational is the only reason why an individual holds it. In this way, norms of rationality have a powerful and unique role in belief formation. But if this is true then the symmetry principleÕs emphasis on Ôsameness of typeÕ is misguided. It has the undesirable effect of not just naturalizing our cognitive commitments, but trivializing them. Indeed, if the notion of ÔsimilarityÕ is to have any content, then we are not going to classify as Ôthe sameÕ beliefs that are formed in accor- dance with deeply entrenched epistemic norms as ones formed without reflection on these norms, or ones formed in spite of these norms. My suggestion here is that we give up the sym- metry principle in favor of a more sophisticated principle, one that allows for a taxonomy of causes rich enough to allow us to delineate the unique impact epistemic norms have on those individuals who subscribe to them. -
HPSC0105 Sociology of Science & Technology Course Syllabus
HPSC0105 Sociology of Science & Technology Course Syllabus 2019-20 session | Edward Thomas Bankes | [email protected] Course Information This course examines the complex relationship between science and society. It also takes a sociological look at the process by which knowledge is constructed, using both historical and contemporary studies. The module also introduces students to the main currents of thought which have been influential in sociology of science. Basic course information Course See Moodle website: Moodle Web See Moodle, search HPSC0105 site: Assessment: 3-hour exam - 50% and essay (2500 words) - 50% Timetable: See UCL online timetable Prerequisites: None. Course aimed at 2nd and 3rd years Required texts: See below Course tutor(s): Mr Edward Thomas Bankes Contact: [email protected] Web: - Office location: 22 Gordon Square, Room B14 1 Schedule The course is split between nine topics in the sociology of science and sociology. The first four topics explore the history of the field, looking to the key moments in the maturation of the sociology of science as an academic discipline in its own right and as a way of understanding science in the world. The subsequent topics are more thematic, looking at issues that have been (and continue to be) of interest to scholars in the field. Following an introductory seminar in the first session, the lecture for each topic will take place in the second half of the session. The seminar will take place the following week in the first half of the next session. UCL Topic Activity Week 6 Introductory Seminar Core What does it mean to study science sociologically? readings can 1: Starting points: From Functionalist Sociology of be found in this syllabus. -
Toward a Monistic Theory of Science the “Strong Programme” Reconsidered
10.1177/0048393103252780PHILOSOPHYKempARTICLE / STRONG OF PROGRAMMETHE SOCIAL SCIENCES RECONSIDERED / September 2003 Toward a Monistic Theory of Science The “Strong Programme” Reconsidered STEPHEN KEMP University of Sussex This article considers the “Strong Programme” account of scientific knowledge from a fresh perspective. It argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the Strong Programme’s monistic intent, that is, its aim to unify considerations of instrumental adequacy and social interests in explanations of the development of scientific knowledge. Although sharing the judgment of many critics that the Strong Programme approach is flawed, the article diverges from standard criti- cisms by suggesting that the best alternative is not a dualistic framework but a more adequate monistic approach. Keywords: Strong Programme; interests; monism; finitism; classification 1. INTRODUCTION The Strong Programme (SP) analysis of scientific knowledge is generally acknowledged to have been a crucial inspiration for devel- opments in the sociological study of science over the past 25 years. David Bloor and Barry Barnes, sometimes in collaboration with Don- ald MacKenzie and Steven Shapin, rigorously argued that social fac- tors must be incorporated into any account of the dynamics of scien- tific knowledge. Crucially, they claimed that the commitments of scientists to specific beliefs cannot be explained without reference to social interests, even if those beliefs are judged to be rational or ade- quate. These arguments stimulated many responses, including sple- netic attacks (e.g., Slezak 1994), careful critical appraisals (e.g., Keat Received 1 November 2001 My thanks go to the British Academy for supporting me during the completion of this article through their Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. -
Constructivist Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. in P. Galison and D
Science Made Up: Constructivist Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. In P. Galison and D. Stump (eds.) The Disunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996, pp. 231-54. END NOTES 1 Part of the work for this paper was done during the tenure of a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. I am grateful for financial support provided by the National Science Foundation, Grant #BNS-8011494, and for the assistance of the staff of the Center. I also want to thank David Bloor, Stephen Downes, David Hull and Andy Pickering for offering good advice and criticism, some of which I have heeded. 2 Later developments in this line include ethnomethodology. See Garfinkel (1967) and Sharrock and Anderson (1986). 3 For a sample of some especially sympathetic admirers see the articles in Lawson and Appignanesi (1988). 4 Of course it is not only analytic philosophers who take a combative stance towards constructivism. Some Critical Theorists do too. See, for example, McCarthy (1988). 5 The platform below is an amalgam that constitutes an "ideal type" description of constructivism. I believe it captures important features of the school (at least in many of its stages). Nevertheless I have no doubt that each member of the school will find some things in my mix with which to quarrel. In any case, I have drawn the amalgam from the social interest Edinburgh school; especially Barnes (1977), Bloor (1976), Knorr-Cetina (1981) and Pickering (1984); the historical sociology of knowledge promoted by Shapin (1982) and the actor-network analysis of texts and transcription devices pioneered by Latour and Woolgar (1979) and developed further in Latour (1987). -
Failed Explanations and Criminal Responsibility: Experts and the Unconscious
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law 1982 Failed Explanations and Criminal Responsibility: Experts and the Unconscious Stephen J. Morse University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Evidence Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Legal History Commons, Mental Disorders Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons, and the Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Commons Repository Citation Morse, Stephen J., "Failed Explanations and Criminal Responsibility: Experts and the Unconscious" (1982). Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law. 1351. https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1351 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law by an authorized administrator of Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FAILED EXPLANATIONS AND CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY: EXPERTS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS* Stephen J. Morse** "There is no such thing as a bad boy." Fr. Edward Joseph Flanagan "Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner." French Proverb TABLE oF CoNTENTs I. INTRODUCTION: A PROJECT FOR SciENTIFIC NlENTAL HEALTH EXPERTISE . 972 II. SUBJECTIVITY, RESPONSIBILITY AND EVIDENCE: FORMULATIONS ON THE Two THEORIES OF EXPERT TESTIMONY . 976 Ill. PSYCHODYNAMICS AND CRIMINAL LAW: THEORY AND ITS DISCONTENTS . 983 A. The Appeal of Theoretical Romances . 985 B. Does Psychodynamic Psychology Provide a Valid Causal Account of Human Behavior? Science and Its Vicissitudes . 991 * Copyright © 1982 by Stephen J.