From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 11:58:08 MDT
On 6/16/2003, Mark Walker 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. The public can read that a
>>physicist says some weird thing or another and the usual reaction is "how
>>fascinating, I didn't know that", even if they have little idea what it
>>means,
>>but if a social scientist says some well established thing that goes against
>>popular wishes, such as that a minimum wage raises unemployment, the
>>reaction
>>will be a quick dismissal. Alas, one of the myths of democracy is that
>>there
>>should be no social experts, so that every thought that occurs to anyone on
>>social issues is as valid as anything any "expert" says. It's just not so.
>
>I'm not sure about this characterization of democracy versus the social
>science. ... Weber or Macintyre ... describe the rise of the social sciences
>and the social expert. ... in terms of their ability to tell us the most
>efficient way to achieve some social end. The ends themselves are not open
>to scientific scrutiny, since ends involve values, and values lack "factual
>content" they are grounded merely in the assertion of our wills. ... I'll
>grant
>you that this conception has come under attack by ... certain postmodern
>conceptions of the social science. ... also come underattack from the other
>more traditional quarter (cf. MacIntyre) which says that there are social
>experts but their expertise covers both means and ends, facts and values. ...
I agree that social experts try to present themselves as unthreatening to
democracy by distinguishing expertize on facts and values. But it also seems
clear that ordinary voters do not accept this division of labor. They believe
that they should have opinions on facts, not just on values.
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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