Foundations of Social Science
LECTURE 1.
Outline:
1. Philosophy of social science and public administration
- What is it?
- Why study it?
2. Connection to other courses
3. Theme topics and structure of the course
4. Modern science and the modern (administrative) state
General question of the course
- What makes certain forms of knowledge scientific?
- What separates science from non-science?
Philosophy of science: what is it?
3 main disciplines:
- Ontology (ontos = being): what is the (social) world made of? Are collective
corporations independent of the individuals that made them?
- Epistemology (episteme = true / scientific knowledge): what constitutes true
scientific sound knowledge?
- Methodology: what are the ways to acquire true knowledge about the social world?
What is a good criteria that distinguish science from non science?
Generate a useless skill cause it will learn you to reason.
Theme & topics of the course
- The epistemology of the social sciences with a focus on public administration) what
counts as scientific knowledge (about the social world)?
- The problem of the separation between science and non-science > epistemology = the
search for a solution to the problem of separation
Topics of the course
Exploration of different solutions to/critiques of the problem of separation
- Different solutions to the problem/question of separation: positivism,
interpretisivsm, critical rationalism, conventionalism > attempts to find an appropriate
solution to the separation of science form nonscience.
- Critiques of the problem/question of separation:
,The origins of the separation problem
1. The scientific revolution
2. The enlightenment
The main object before the 16th century was religion, god. In the 16th century they started to
ask what the foundations of scientific knowledge are. There were a lot of scientific
discoveries in the 16th century.
Heliocentrism: sun is the center of the universe
Geocentrism: earth is the center of the universe (used in bible).
How should we explain these new scientific findings, like the telescope?
There were so many scientific discoveries and differences between religion and science that it
could no longer be ignored by the public.
Scientific Revolution
17th century > new foundations for science
Francis Bacon tries to capture the scientific findings and tries to capture a different kind of
science that are pre francis.
He wants to ignore other ways that are not scientific. Its supposed to be a foundation that is
supposed to be a basis that accumulates knowledge.
A foundation to separate scientific knowledge and to accumulate scientific knowledge and to
grow the amount of knowledge.
Bacon thinks we need to have a new foundation to do the separation and accumulation. He
typically disagrees with the predators.
Francis Bacon
- Negatively, a critique of preconceived ideas (idols, something that you worship but is
not worth worshipping)
1. Tribe, metaphor for faulty forms of reasoning that we all have because we are
human. We faulty rely on false ideas. Example: confirmation bias, magic.
2. Cave, preconceived ideas that have to do with our social backgrounds (how
we are raised, educated etc) Example: chef sees chicken as a source of food
and an animal doctor sees potential diseases.
3. Market, mistakes that come from the way that we use language. The sun goes
under the clouds, but the sun did not go anywhere.
, 4. Theatre, preconceived ideas that come from the way people are attached to
philosophers (back then it was Plato or Aristoteles) example: arguments from
authorities.
- Positively, the foundation of a philosophical method for the growth of a scientific
knowledge > knowledge based on experience and induction.
Bacon wants to identify what counts as scientific knowledge: knowledge based on
experience and induction.
Science can help us discover parts of the world we normally ignore. The ship on the cover of
the book is a metaphor of scientific knowledge. The 2 pillars are the strait of gibraltar. Its
separates the real world and what is beyond. We know the mediterranean sea, but only a little
part. We want to build the knowledge and Bacon builds the ship that will collect knowledge
and bring it back.
The enlightenment
Diderot en D”alembert tried to make a book (encyclopedie) that has all the knowledge of the
world. What they had in common with bacon:
- All knowledge based on observations
- All knowledge needs to be systemized by human reasoning.
Encyclopedie: science of man and science of nature.
The structure of the book can be captured in lines of a figure (branches of a tree). In both you
can see a hierarchie, most things fall under sciences of man and sciences of nature. The
second thing you can see especially with the tree is that you can see that knowledge has no
limit. Subsciences can emerge. Branches can grow and there can grow new ones.
Third one: philosophy is central to science. Without philosophy there is no basis where
science can grow.
Scientific knowledge has a special relationship with the truth.
Philosophers agree that scientific knowledge separates non scientific knowledge is truth.
A story of debates of truth
Disagreements between different epistemological theories of science can be understood
according to their underlying theory of truth.
Four main theories of truth
1. Truth as correspondence
2. Truth as coherence
, Truth as correspondence
Criterion: a belief is true if it corresponds to the facts, it mirrors social reality ‘out there’.
The picture theory of truth: true beliefs offer a picture (that is a representation of reality).
True statements are based on empirical observations
Examples:
- Everyday popular conception
- Positivism (true statements are based on observations.
Truth as coherence
Criterion: a belief is true if it fits into a system of beliefs in a non-contradictory war. if
accepting the belief doesn't make the system of beliefs internally contradictory.
The web theory of truth: true beliefs fit into a self-sustaining web. For example: I think that I
can not walk on water.
Examples:
- Interpretivism
- Conventionalism
Pragmatist Truth
Criterion: a belief is true insofar as it makes a positive practical difference in our lives.
The tool-box theory: it works because its true. Example: crime rates down
Examples
- Scientific practice
- Pragmatist epistemology
No truth theory of truth
Criterion: none
Truth is what one calls true what one might happen to believe as true in a particular context
or choose to subjectively believe as true on an individual level.
People disagree about what the truth is.
Example:
LECTURE 1.
Outline:
1. Philosophy of social science and public administration
- What is it?
- Why study it?
2. Connection to other courses
3. Theme topics and structure of the course
4. Modern science and the modern (administrative) state
General question of the course
- What makes certain forms of knowledge scientific?
- What separates science from non-science?
Philosophy of science: what is it?
3 main disciplines:
- Ontology (ontos = being): what is the (social) world made of? Are collective
corporations independent of the individuals that made them?
- Epistemology (episteme = true / scientific knowledge): what constitutes true
scientific sound knowledge?
- Methodology: what are the ways to acquire true knowledge about the social world?
What is a good criteria that distinguish science from non science?
Generate a useless skill cause it will learn you to reason.
Theme & topics of the course
- The epistemology of the social sciences with a focus on public administration) what
counts as scientific knowledge (about the social world)?
- The problem of the separation between science and non-science > epistemology = the
search for a solution to the problem of separation
Topics of the course
Exploration of different solutions to/critiques of the problem of separation
- Different solutions to the problem/question of separation: positivism,
interpretisivsm, critical rationalism, conventionalism > attempts to find an appropriate
solution to the separation of science form nonscience.
- Critiques of the problem/question of separation:
,The origins of the separation problem
1. The scientific revolution
2. The enlightenment
The main object before the 16th century was religion, god. In the 16th century they started to
ask what the foundations of scientific knowledge are. There were a lot of scientific
discoveries in the 16th century.
Heliocentrism: sun is the center of the universe
Geocentrism: earth is the center of the universe (used in bible).
How should we explain these new scientific findings, like the telescope?
There were so many scientific discoveries and differences between religion and science that it
could no longer be ignored by the public.
Scientific Revolution
17th century > new foundations for science
Francis Bacon tries to capture the scientific findings and tries to capture a different kind of
science that are pre francis.
He wants to ignore other ways that are not scientific. Its supposed to be a foundation that is
supposed to be a basis that accumulates knowledge.
A foundation to separate scientific knowledge and to accumulate scientific knowledge and to
grow the amount of knowledge.
Bacon thinks we need to have a new foundation to do the separation and accumulation. He
typically disagrees with the predators.
Francis Bacon
- Negatively, a critique of preconceived ideas (idols, something that you worship but is
not worth worshipping)
1. Tribe, metaphor for faulty forms of reasoning that we all have because we are
human. We faulty rely on false ideas. Example: confirmation bias, magic.
2. Cave, preconceived ideas that have to do with our social backgrounds (how
we are raised, educated etc) Example: chef sees chicken as a source of food
and an animal doctor sees potential diseases.
3. Market, mistakes that come from the way that we use language. The sun goes
under the clouds, but the sun did not go anywhere.
, 4. Theatre, preconceived ideas that come from the way people are attached to
philosophers (back then it was Plato or Aristoteles) example: arguments from
authorities.
- Positively, the foundation of a philosophical method for the growth of a scientific
knowledge > knowledge based on experience and induction.
Bacon wants to identify what counts as scientific knowledge: knowledge based on
experience and induction.
Science can help us discover parts of the world we normally ignore. The ship on the cover of
the book is a metaphor of scientific knowledge. The 2 pillars are the strait of gibraltar. Its
separates the real world and what is beyond. We know the mediterranean sea, but only a little
part. We want to build the knowledge and Bacon builds the ship that will collect knowledge
and bring it back.
The enlightenment
Diderot en D”alembert tried to make a book (encyclopedie) that has all the knowledge of the
world. What they had in common with bacon:
- All knowledge based on observations
- All knowledge needs to be systemized by human reasoning.
Encyclopedie: science of man and science of nature.
The structure of the book can be captured in lines of a figure (branches of a tree). In both you
can see a hierarchie, most things fall under sciences of man and sciences of nature. The
second thing you can see especially with the tree is that you can see that knowledge has no
limit. Subsciences can emerge. Branches can grow and there can grow new ones.
Third one: philosophy is central to science. Without philosophy there is no basis where
science can grow.
Scientific knowledge has a special relationship with the truth.
Philosophers agree that scientific knowledge separates non scientific knowledge is truth.
A story of debates of truth
Disagreements between different epistemological theories of science can be understood
according to their underlying theory of truth.
Four main theories of truth
1. Truth as correspondence
2. Truth as coherence
, Truth as correspondence
Criterion: a belief is true if it corresponds to the facts, it mirrors social reality ‘out there’.
The picture theory of truth: true beliefs offer a picture (that is a representation of reality).
True statements are based on empirical observations
Examples:
- Everyday popular conception
- Positivism (true statements are based on observations.
Truth as coherence
Criterion: a belief is true if it fits into a system of beliefs in a non-contradictory war. if
accepting the belief doesn't make the system of beliefs internally contradictory.
The web theory of truth: true beliefs fit into a self-sustaining web. For example: I think that I
can not walk on water.
Examples:
- Interpretivism
- Conventionalism
Pragmatist Truth
Criterion: a belief is true insofar as it makes a positive practical difference in our lives.
The tool-box theory: it works because its true. Example: crime rates down
Examples
- Scientific practice
- Pragmatist epistemology
No truth theory of truth
Criterion: none
Truth is what one calls true what one might happen to believe as true in a particular context
or choose to subjectively believe as true on an individual level.
People disagree about what the truth is.
Example:
