Abel Outline

Chapter 11: Social Sciences Outline

Philosophers argue that the actions of human beings comprise a unique and ultimate category of events, and that therefore such fields such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science can not be studied by the methods of the natural sciences (by which they usually mean physics.)

Verstehen- "to understand," denotes the position of those who claim that the social scientist can and must make use of his own inner experience.

The student of human actions is part of his own subject matter. He must use the methods of introspection and empathy, which have nothing in common with the procedures of natural science.

Isaiah Berlin- "a man who lacks common intelligence can be a physicist of genius, but not even a mediocre historian" (108).

Claims of the Verstehen Position:

1. In the natural sciences, a hypothesis is verified by experiment, but the social sciences can not experiment. The ability to experiment is essential to the testing of explanations in the natural sciences.

2. The natural sciences can repeat experiments in order to verify their hypotheses, and can generalize their results. The social sciences deal with situations that are not uniform: no two persons and no two social contexts are exactly alike.

3. The natural scientist, it is claimed, can isolate what his hypothesis applies to, so that his predictions are not upset by outside variables. In both the natural and social sciences, we always assume that we may disregard certain elements as irrelevant or trivial. Some areas of physics, such as cloud formation and hydrodynamic turbulence, seem to be as complex as any phenomena the social sciences study.

4. It is claimed by the Verstehen position that no social scientist can predict with any assurance.

5. The hypotheses of the natural scientist can be stated with precision and universality because he operates with certain constants that hold true throughout the universe.

6. The physical scientist can verify his hypotheses by observation. For example, he can see the eclipse and the falling apple; but the social scientist can see only the smallest part of "social reality." He relies on introspection and empathy to uncover the motives of human behavior, which are unobservable and inaccessible.

I am not one of those historians who must submerge themselves in masses of documents to form an opinion. As soon as I know the facts, I enter into the psychology of the men who were important to the events...I read their works; I study their actions; then, ...interpreting from experience, I try to form an opinion, and finally I work out an hypothesis which I verify by research.
-Guglielmo Ferrero

If the social scientist correctly predicts voting behavior, that is, if his hypothesis is verified by what happens, then his empathy with presumed laziness or disgust or rebelliousness or whatever, is beside the point.

7. The raw material of the natural sciences can be measured with precision, but concepts in the social sciences (e.g. army morale, equality of opportunity, free enterprise. national character) are inherently vague and qualitative (or intensive.) The social sciences are increasingly relying on mathematics. To call a sound high-pitched and to identify its wavelength is to refer to the same "piece of the world" in different ways. Quality and quantity are not antithetical; any quanitity is of a quality.

8. In the natural sciences, phenomena may be studied without regard to their past (an inclined plane is just what it is,) whereas human beings and societies are only what they have come to be.