Philosophy - Philosophy Course Notes

Problems in the Social Sciences

Lecture 15

June 21, 2007

- all sciences come with their own set of difficulties and challenges

- the social sciences are important to social/political/economic questions and are thus more likely to be used by people with ulterior motives

There are at least two main problems that are specific to the social sciences:

a) theoretical - problems that arise due to nature of what is being studied

b) practical - by people with economic and political interests

I. Theoretical Difficulties with Social Science

A. Our Vocabulary

For important terms that are not precise or measurable (justice, intelligence)

1. Operationalization

Replace everyday term which is not measurable with a measurable term.

We have to ask - is the operationalization sufficiently faithful to the normal meaning of the word.  If not we might be committing the fallacy of the persuasive definition.

This is the chief problem in the social sciences, and for asking truly important things like measuring justice, makes the social sciences almost useless.

B. Personal Biases

How people's interests imparts the kinds of things they study and how they study it.

Interested element in research that is not in natural sciences to same degree

A lot of research is funded by bodies that have certain values.  The influences of the funding agency can influence the results.

The social scientist themselves might have personal values that interfere too.

II. Practical Difficulties with Social Science

A. Limitations of Social Science Research

A lot of social science research depends on questionnaires and polling.   Questions need to be worded carefully, if worded ambiguously can skew the results.

You can influence the answers you get by asking questions in a particular order.

Before judging the results you should check what question(s) were asked to get that result.

B. Social Science "Research" Often Misused By People

People will very carefully select which facts they present to you.  Not deliberately lying, just being selective in what fuels to discuss.

Be leery about which facts are "common knowledge" a lot of "facts" can acquire a life of their own.  Today this often has to do with the structure of the mass media.  Some of the things we take to be true turn out to be false.