From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Sat Jun 14 2003 - 14:25:34 MDT
On 6/14/2003 Lee Corbin wrote:
> > Let me suggest the main problem is that people don't realize that there
> really
> > are such things as social sciences, which can be just as "scientific"
> as other
> > "sciences", but are far less deferred to.
>
>But we've been led astray so many times, especially during
>social sciences' birth in the last century. Recall all
>the theories of Skinner and Watson, for starters. And Mead
>was swallowed whole for generations. Yes, I suppose that
>a "maturing" has occurred, and that what I am saying could
>have been aimed (once long ago) at Galileo and Kepler.
Yes of course there is an error rate. Perhaps the error rate declined, and
is higher in some sciences than in others. Those are hard claims to
document, however. They key point though is comparing the error
rate between professionals and amateurs; I claim that holding constant
the question, professionals are in error less often.
>So what about the old adage the social sciences truly are
>more difficult? Also the observation that it is vastly
>harder to uproot someone's beliefs about human nature (e.g.
>The Blank Slate), than it is to disprove the claims about
>N-rays or cold fusion?
Those are both plausible claims. But I don't see how they are
relevant to the question of whether there are social experts.
>Of course, you understand the reasons for that---the "fascinating"
>little science fact does not conflict with an entire world-view,
>and can be easily absorbed. But beliefs about many social issues
>appear to stand and fall together.
Having such over-confidence in such integrated world-views, i.e.,
ideologies, is largely a mistake.
>... I for one occasionally still find social science
>experiments not persuasive, for one reason or another, (forget
>behaviorism or leftist anthropology). Do you believe the Zimbardo
>effect? ...
I don't know this particular effect, but the key question is what
you mean by "not persuasive". Does not make you 100% confident
in someone's theory they say the experiment supports? Of course.
Does not give you any information whatsoever about how to predict
social behavior in other contexts? That's nuts.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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