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On the Philosophy of the Social Sciences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

May Brodbeck*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Laboratory for Research in Social Relations University of Minnesota

Extract

When, in recent years, philosophers of science attend to the physical sciences, their activity centers on the analysis and clarification of the methods and theories of these sciences. Thus philosophers have made remarkable contributions to our understanding of mechanics, the relativity theory, the quantum theory, probability, and geometry, as well as to the foundations of mathematics. More general discussions about theory construction, explanation, and concept formation always are illustrated and illuminated by reference to specific theories within science. In our generation, most philosophers of science have taken for granted that physical science is descriptive, empirical, functional, and—leaving aside controversial interpretations of quanta—deterministic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1954

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Footnotes

*

Opening paper of a symposium held at the St. Louis meeting of the American Philosophical Association, 1 May 1953. Papers by Gewirth and Rudner follow in this issue.

References

1 A generation ago a very similar view was held by the social psychologist, William McDougall. Both advocate the reduction to psychology of all other social sciences; both are ardently anti-reductionist in psychology. But Professor Hayek is not, as was McDougall, a vitalist. Again, McDougall thought of psychology as the science of behavior, while Professor Hayek most emphatically does not.

2 For an illuminating analysis of the nature of social and scientific ideologies, see Gustav Bergmann, “Ideology”, Ethics, 51, 1951. Also, valuable discussions relevant to the issues treated below may be found in the same author's “Theoretical Psychology”, Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 4, Stanford University Press, 1953, and “Holism, Historicism, and Emergence”, Philosophy of Science, 11, 1944.

3 The Counter-Revolution of Science: studies on the abuse of reason, The Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois, 1952. Unless otherwise noted, all page references are to this book.

4 Pp. 33, 27, 35.

5 Individualism and the Economic Order, p. 60, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1948. Also cf. The Counter-Revolution of Science, p. 30.

6 The Counter-Revolution of Science, p. 28.

7 Pp. 44–5, 59, 77.

8 J. W. N. Watkins, “Ideal Types and Historical Explanation”, in Readings in the Philosophy of Science, eds. H. Feigl and M. Brodbeck, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1953, p. 740 fn. I shall discuss an issue raised in Mr. Watkins’ excellent paper in my last section.

9 Of such stuff is the jealous “Hostile Highbrow” reaction by humanistic intellectuals to serious social science. Our inevitable empathy with this reaction should be tempered by the fact that its stereotypes are hardly distinguishable from those of the “Hostile Lowbrow”. There is criticism and criticism, after all. For an amusing and enlightening analysis of Friendly and Hostile reactions to social science see the essay by D. Lerner in Continuities in Social Research, R. K. Merton and P. F. Lazarsfeld, eds., Free Press, Illinois, 1950.

10 See, for instance, Watkins, ibid., p. 735.

11 An American Dilemma impressively attests to the success of one attempt to approximate the man-from-Mars condition. The Trustees of the Carnegie Corporation who initiated and financed this elaborately detailed study of the American Negro deliberately “imported” a general director, Dr. Gunnar Myrdal, who would be as free as possible from traditional attitudes both specifically American and imperialistic. True, Dr. Myrdal is human, but by simple extension of Professor Hayek's thesis, the best man for the job would have been a southern American, perhaps one Negro and one White. Would they not know most intimately American attitudes on this subject?

12 Pp. 42, 49, 89.

13 Pp. 89, 98.

14 P. 97.

15 P. 49.

16 P. 50.

17 Pp. 47, 213, fn. 39.

18 Pp. 36f.

19 Pp. 55, 54.

20 Watkins, ibid., p. 732.

21 ibid., p. 729.

22 ibid., pp. 730–31.

23 Note, on p. 724, his quotation to this effect from Walter Eucken.