February 6, 2007
Method and the Contemporary
So per my usual I have been reading some totally out of date methodologists in political science (actually, worse, making my students read them as well). But in one Giovanni Sartori -- a huge figure in social science method discussions -- found some chesnuts on methology in relationship to a problematic that, in our terms, might reasonably be called "contemporary." Read on for a couple highlights from his 1970 classic "Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics"... "Most of the literature introduced by the title "Methods" (in the social, behavioral or political sciences) actually deals with survey techniques and social statistics, and has little if anything to share with the crucial concern of "methodology", which is a concern with the logical structure and procedure of scientific enquiry. In a very crucial sense there is no methodology without logos, without thinking about thinking. And if a firm distinction is drawn--as it should be--between methodology and technique, the latter is no substitute for the former." "[Our] universals must be empirical universal, that is, categories which somehow are amenable, in spite of their all-embracing very abstract nature, to empirical testing. Instead, we seem to verge on the edge of philosophical universals, understood--as Croce defines them--as concepts which are by definition supra-empirical." "Traditional, or the more traditional, type of political sciene inherted a vast array of concepts which had been previously defined and redefined--for better and for worse--by generations of philosophers and political theorists. To some extent, therefore, the traditional political scientists could afford to be an 'unconscious thinker' -- the thinking had already been done for him....However, the new political science engages in reconceptualization." Reorientation, anyone? Contemporary, anyone?Order Acomplia Online Cheap
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Monday, January 22, 2007 "Science and the Modern World" - Steven Shapin, UC Berkeley
Shapin started his talk by explicitly trying to discredit Alfred North Whitehead’s claim in Science and the Modern World (a must read, by the way) that the scientific mentality in modernity has spread through the educated world. He did this by citing quite a few Gallup and other opinion polls--statistics on how many people believe in a physical heaven (81%), acquistare a buon mercato acomplia, Lowest price acomplia, how many believe that God created the world (an overwhelming 92%), how many think humans are descended from apes (an abysmal 9%), osta alennus acomplia, Buy acomplia without prescription, etc etc. He did this for about 30 minutes of the talk, cheap acomplia online without prescription. Acomplia online cheap, Okay, so the point is that science is not as widespread in the educated world as some scholars would like to believe, kjøpe billig acomplia. Kopen goedkope acomplia, Now Shapin is an empiricist and thinks that a social fact is general if everyone’s doing it (like an essence of something). But he has completely forgotten Durkheim’s first lesson that a "social fact" is general (and external and coercive) not because everyone does it, order acomplia online cheap. Crime or suicide is not general (in any social formation) because everyone is committing suicide or homicide but because there is a certain rate of it in every society (which you get by dividing the people who do it by the total population), buy acomplia cod. California CA Calif. , Durkheim’s example for a "social fact" was the concept of the sacred. It is general not because everyone believes in it, price of acomplia, παραγγείλετε online acomplia, but--and this is important--because even those who don’t adhere to it, will not trespass it, comprar en línea acomplia. Ostaa halvalla acomplia, The sacred is forbidden, set apart.., acheter acomplia bon marché. Order acomplia online cheap, Next Shapin explained that while we may not accede to science on such fundamental questions as creation, or death, but if we have a toothache, we do not expect Gods to descend from the Heavens and fix it – instead we run to the dentist. Acheter acomplia discount, We are very much consumers of science & technology in modernity, and he recognized that, acomplia over the counter. Buy cheap acomplia online, But this is counter to what he was saying earlier. How does he deal with this obvious contradiction, Tennessee TN Tenn. . Arizona AZ Ariz. , He proposed that we, as the educated public, acomplia online cheap, Acomplia without a prescription, should have a better say in how science is done in terms of serving public needs. We should be watchdogs of corporate spending on science & technology endeavors, be cautious about Big techno-science proposals, be equally concerned if Art History projects don’t get funded as much as we are about nuclear power projects, order acomplia online cheap.
I don’t know how he thought his paper was even able to attack Whitehead’s proposition, Mississippi MS Miss. . Cheap acomplia no prescription, And not just Whitehead. Even people who are not enthusiasts of modern Western science recognize its character, köpa acomplia, spread and efficacy. Weber says that the first notable, and paradoxical, feature of science is that it is at once unique, in that it started in Protestant, Western Europe and universal, and that it spread to the whole world. Order acomplia online cheap, Critiquing is not easy. It takes great analytical strength. To criticize the power and efficacy of modern science/technology is not easy. One can’t do it by reducing it to nothing or by saying it does not exist. Critique is serious business and requires careful attention and analysis.
I am not trivializing the talk. I am not saying it was rubbish but I couldn’t see anything impressive or original about it. Okay I will say that it was stimulating negatively, in that it got me all huff and puff and made me write this blog for our darling ARC !.
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