College aantekeningen
History of Social Sciences: ALL LECTURE NOTES
- Instelling
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
Including summaries and notes for all course materials. Supporting visuals are included.
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1HISTORY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE: EXAM NOTES
Week 1: Institutionalization Of Social Sciences
Materials: Ellar - Introduction and Chapter 1; Haack
1.1) Introduction:
Premise of the course: science is the best way of gaining insight into the world, despite its
flaws.
Sociology of Knowledge:
● ‘The best way to think of the project at hand is “sociology of knowledge,” that is, the
social organization of knowledge-making and knowledge-transmitting.’ (Eller 2017: vii).
‘humans must organize themselves in some way to produce and disseminate knowledge
[...] different [...] disciplines know different things [...] each is a particular way of knowing’
(Eller 2017: viii).
● ‘An interesting and important question is whether science is the only way of knowing
[...] music, art, literature, and perhaps religion have their own way of knowledge and
their own unique and valuable ways of knowing’ (Eller 2017: viii).
Themes according to Eller:
● ‘The best way to think of the project at hand is “sociology of knowledge,” that is,
the social organization of knowledge-making and knowledge-transmitting.’ (Eller
2017: vii). ‘Humans must organize themselves in some way to produce and
disseminate knowledge [...] different [...] disciplines know different things [...]
each is a particular way of knowing’ (Eller 2017: viii).
■ There are those who contend that only the natural sciences produce
knowledge, in the form of theories and laws. Such people may reject the
“social sciences” as poor imitations’ (Eller 2017: viii).
■ ‘Then there are those who assert that science is itself not a universal
but a culturally-specific way of knowing’ (Eller 2017: ix). Science is not
equal.
■ ‘Finally, there are those who say that the current way of organizing
knowledge – the contemporary academic disciplines, the existing
school and university systems, and the traditions of article writing and
book publication– are not the best way to construct and transmit
knowledge’ (Eller 2017: ix).
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Status of Science: Case of Oostvaardersplassen (nature reserve in the Netherlands)
● More than half of the 5320 grazing animals counted last October have died this winter
● Scientific arguments against feeding the animals
○ Fodder taken by strongest animals
○ Fighting and stress in the herd
○ Early rut: faster population growth
○ Digestion switched off from winter condition
○ Hay has too much protein
○ Feeding makes the animals aid dependent on humans
● Nevertheless the province decides to feed the animals
○ Even though, “from a scientific point of view, feeding the animals is unwise”
(Jacobien Kamphof, woordvoerder provincie Flevoland)
● Thus the topic of science’s status is complicated
Science
● ‘The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the
structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and
experiment’.
● ‘the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions.’
● Science is the more or less systematic search for knowledge by experts, who react
to earlier knowledge and share their ideas with others
○ Eller’s Viewpoint:
■ Scientific knowledge inexorably “progresses,” that is, each day science
has more and better knowledge than the day before;
■ Scientific knowledge is superior to other forms of (or spurious claimants
to) knowledge because of its “method”; and
■ Scientists are particularly conscious of both’ (Eller 2017: 10)
Law of Colombijn on political pressure:
1.2) Institutionalization
Institutions:
● Institutions are frozen answers to recurrent, fundamental questions (Geert de Vries,
after James Feibleman)
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● Formal institutions that are an important part of society (state of law, education,
parliamentary democracy, free press, health care)
● More spontaneously grown, repetitive actions (things that have become a concept,
e.g. the soul pair of trouser)
Institutionalization:
● a human activity that installs, adapts, and changes rules and procedures in both
social and political spheres.
● the action of establishing something as a convention or norm in an organization or
culture
(also, conventional definition of the state of being placed or kept in a residential
institution)
Thomas Theorem:
● ‘If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences’ (William Isaac
Thomas & Dorothy Swain Thomas, 1928).
Social Construction of Reality:
● The sociology of knowledge is concerned with the analysis of the social construction of
reality (Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 15).
● The problem is contained in Pascal’s famous statement that what is truth on one side
of the Pyrenees is error on the other’ (Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 17).
● ‘The reality of everyday life further presents itself to me as an intersubjective world
that I share with others. [...] I know there is an ongoing correspondence between my
meanings and their meanings in this world (Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 37).
Social Construction of Reality:
● The sociology of knowledge is concerned with the analysis of the social construction of
reality’ (Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 15).
● The problem is contained in Pascal’s famous statement that what is truth on one side
of the Pyrenees is error on the other’ (Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 17).
● ‘The reality of everyday life further presents itself to me as an intersubjective world
that I share with others. [...] I know there is an ongoing correspondence between my
meanings and their meanings in this world (Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 37).
Symbols:
● ‘Intersubjective sedimentation can be called truly social only when it has been
objectivated in a sign system of one kind or another’ (Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]:
85).
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● ‘Language becomes the depository of a large aggregate of collective sedimentations’
(Berger & Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 87).
● ‘Physical objects and actions may be called upon as mnemotechnic aids’ (Berger &
Luckmann 1967 [1966]: 88).
Susan Haack’s Three Different Viewpoints Regarding The Objectivity In Science:
Old Deferentialism (optimism) New Cynics (scepticism) Crossword (in-between position)
● Taking science to enjoy a ● Disdain the notions of ● The evidence for a scientific
privileged epistemic evidence and warrant claim is strong or weak; strong
standing because of its because, as they are or weak objectively, i.e.,
uniquely rational and at pains to point out, independently of how anybody
objective method, is what has passed for judges it.
over-optimistic. warranted theory, ● There is no guarantee that
● Science is reliable and it’s relevant evidence, every scientist is fully
the truth. known fact, objective objective, i.e., is an absolutely
truth, has often disinterested truth-seeker.
enough turned out to
be no such thing
Karl Mannheim’s Generation: ‘one’s generation profoundly affects one’s individual knowledge
[...] People of the same age, having lived through the same events, have in common “possible
modes of thought, experience, feeling and action”, resulting in what he called “the stratification
of experience” (Eller 2017: 3)
Agnotology: • ‘agnotology is the investigation of the causes and effects of ignorance or
knowledge-lessness. Robert Proctor, for one, has insisted that ignorance is not merely the
absence of knowledge, but is a social product as much as knowledge is’
Institutionalization of Disciplines
Jack Eller’s Concepts Of The Institutionalization Of Social Sciences:
● ‘Institutionalization occurs whenever there is a reciprocal typification of habitualized
actions by types of actors. The typification of habitualized actions that constitute
institutions are always shared ones. They are available to all members of the
particular social group in question.
● ‘The institutions as historical and objective facticities, confront the individual as
undeniable facts. The institutions are there, external to him, they have coercive power
over him.’
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