KI_Social_Science_Key_Concepts__1_

KI Social Science Key Concepts Social Science is Invalid Social Science Science Simplifying Assumptions ● Practicality and Testability sacrificed for Certain Knowledge ● E.g. Coase Theorem that interested parties would bargain to correct externalities in the absence of transaction costs ○ Coase: Zero Transaction Costs “Could not be further from the truth” ● BUT: Could be used as benchmarks for ideal situations to effect change based on theoretical conceptions Simplifying Assumptions ● E.g. Frictionless Surface ● Applied when applying mathematics to make predictions ○ Confirmation Holism Observer Effect: Observer affects the observed ● Studied subject would be more conscious of actions ● Making of predictions could lead to the opposite result as people react to predictions (e.g. recession) ○ Impossible to confirm or falsify predictions ● BUT: Interpretivist Social Science which involves living with foreign cultures Apart from Quantum Indeterminism, Observer does not affect the observed Value-ladeness: Researcher’s own cultural perspective and values would interfere with the interpretation of data ≠ Objectivity ● Inevitable need for prescriptive judgements in social science for practical applications ● Inevitable need for cultural perspective to interpret meanings Theory-Ladeness Values, Ethics and Emotions hardly involved

● E.g. The idealisation of Liberal Individualism and Autonomy ● BUT: Peer Review and Corroboration Difficult to Control and Isolate Variables ● Interdependence of Variables ● Difficult to Quantify Variables ● Cannot distinguish Correlation from Causation ○ Other variables may have contributed to event ● BUT: Explanation and Meaning > Causation Able to control, isolate and quantify Variables Difficult to Generalise findings due to Irreducibility of Human Behavior to Laws ● Different Reactions to Social forces ● Abstractions from Observed social groups could lead to neglect of significant contributing social forces ● Society is always in flux: Every hyperinflation is different from the previous as governments learn from mistakes ● Too General: Devoid of meaning and applicability ● Too Specific: Cannot be extrapolated to other cases ● BUT: Probabilistic, Pragmatic Theory of Truth Arguments for Naturalism Social science should be subject to the same standards as natural science ● Need not make explicit reference to meanings and interpretations (the human-constructed vocab that is in a double-hermeneutic) 1. Social science need not appeal to meaning to explain human behavior a. Macroeconomics: Can speak of causal mechanisms and relations amongst various factors from safe assumptions (e.g. Humans are primarily concerned with their self-interest)

b. BUT: Meaning and Interpretation need not be individualist; it is not necessarily the case that people are pr