Download marcotte_hpr - DigitalCommons@URI

Ryan Marcotte Cobb
Senior Honors Project
Truth
Them
Humanities
Philosophy
Anthropology
Falsehood
science
Right
society
History
Theory
Wrong
+
Ethics
Practice
Us
Reality
Sociology
Phenomenology
and Its Relevance to Social Inquiry
controversy in anthropology
In November of 2010, the American Anthropological
made changes to its Long-Range Plan.
Association
These changes omitted any mention of the word
'science.'
Section 1
Old: The purposes of the Association shall be to advance anthropology as
the science that studies humankind in all its aspects, through archaeological,
biological, ethnological, and linguistic research.
New: The purposes of the association shall be to advance the public
understanding of humankind in all its aspects. This includes, but is not limited
to, archaeological, biological, social, cultural, economic, political, historical,
medical, visual, and linguistic anthropological research.
controversy in anthropology
Even more changes...
Section 3
Old: To further the professional interests of anthropologists, the Association
shall, in addition to those activities described under Section 2: Take action on
behalf of the entire profession and integrate the professional activities of
anthropologists in the special aspects of the science; and promote the
widespread recognition and constant improvement of professional standards
in anthropology.
New: To further the professional interests of anthropologists, the Association
shall promote the widespread recognition and constant improvement of
professional standards in anthropology.
response from the community
There were many objections from practicing anthropologists.
“...because it abandons the core principles of and rationale for the
association...”
– Peter Peregrine, President of the Society for Anthropological
Sciences
“... makes it necessary for those who believe that there are
ways of generating theory-laden falsifiable accounts of the
world in terms of culture (and other basic anthropological
concepts) must work under a different banner than
anthropology.”
- Carl Lipo, Professor of Anthropology at California State
University
The changes are “another step in the conversion of
Anthropology from a social science into an esoteric
branch of journalism.”
- Stu Plattner, Former Cultural Anthropology
Program Director, National Science Foundation
response from the community
Many practicing anthropologists believe that the word 'science'
brings cultural and intellectual respectability.
" Science has a special currency in courts, public opinion, and in the
legislative process. If we purge science from our mission statement we
lose our credibility, the ability to advocate for effective change, and hence
our power to do good."
– Raymond Hames, Chair of Anthropology at University of Nebraska,
Lincoln
“So in effect, the AAA position is that the AAA should engage in
speaking with authority of science but without actually bothering to
do the work and exercise the critical restraint of science.”
- Murray Leaf, Professor of Anthropology at University of Texas,
Dallas
AAA response to the debate
The AAA responded to the backlash by clarifying
the reasons for the change in an press release
called 'What is Anthropology?'
“Anthropology is the study of humans, past and
present. To understand the full sweep and
complexity of cultures across all of human
history, anthropology draws and builds upon
knowledge from the social and biological
sciences as well as the humanities and physical
sciences.”
response from the community
Defenders of the change argue that the AAA is right
to include alternate knowledge systems.
“...the old mission statement privileged
"science" over and above the knowledge
systems of the very people we have been
studying and working with for generations. It
is well past the time for this to change. Do
anthropologists still use science? Of course,
and science may well offer the most
appropriate methodology for many. Still, we
must also recognize that there are other
means to knowing, exploring, and
explaining.”
- Dooglas Carl, Lecturer and Doctoral
Candidate in Applied Anthropology at the
University of South Florida
tension within anthropology
The debate reveals a growing divide within the
anthropology community.
“ between those who stick with the classic conception of studying humanity by means
of systematic, rigorous, and ideally objective forms of inquiry,
and
those who see anthropology as inextricably and profoundly tied to the subjectivities of
its researchers and their admitted epistemological limitations.”
- Peter Wood, Former Professor of Anthropology, Boston University
The divide within anthropology is reflected
in their own social arrangement.
“they go and meet with their own actual disciplinary types, in separate
groups, so that the real scientists don't have to deal too much with the fluffhead cultural anthropological types who think science is just another way of
knowing.”
- Alice Dreger, Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science, columnist for
Psychology Today.
a crisis of rationality
Opposition to the AAA LRP:
More intellectual rigor
More cultural authority
More likely to be funded
Science is the only rigorous way to go about
explaining human existence.
Defense of the AAA LRP:
More intellectual honesty
Less cultural imperialism
Science is just one way of explaining
human existence.
a crisis of rationality
Project Goals:
1.
How did science come to dominate
our intellectual discourse regarding
human existence?
- History of philosophy and science
2.
What are the alternate ways of
“knowing, exploring, and explaining”
human existence that the AAA is
defending? Why?
- Problems with scientific
methodology
- Nature of Social Inquiry
- The possible role of
phenomenology in social inquiry
Core Text: Edmund Husserl's
evolution of science
The Crisis of European Sciences and
Transcendental Phenomenology
In Ancient Greece, science was considered a branch of
philosophy.
Similarities:
Shared the same theoretical attitude
Shared cultural configurations
Both were non-traditional
Core Text: Edmund Husserl's
evolution of science
The Crisis of European Sciences and
Transcendental Phenomenology
During the late Renaissance, the relationship
between philosophy and science changed.
Galileo began conceptualizing physical things in
terms of mathematical relations.
Established the “formula-world.”
Core Text: Edmund Husserl's
evolution of science
The Crisis of European Sciences and
Transcendental Phenomenology
Modern philosophy was inspired by Galilean science.
Descartes expanded upon Galileo's 'mathematization' of nature.
- From radical subjectivity, absolute objectivity can be
ensured.
David Hume contests that we cannot go from radical subjectivity
to absolute objectivity.
The rise of mutually exclusive epistemologies uprooted the
common faith in philosophy.
Core Text: Laurie Spurling's
Phenomenology and the Social World
evolution of science
By the early 20th century, science was careful to avoid the pitfalls
of modern philosophy.
The intellectual movement of positivism set criteria for genuine
knowledge.
1. Facts are observable, individual and concrete phenomena
2. Facts should only be described.
3. A critical mass of fact-observation constitutes general
laws.
4. Predictions can be made using a deductive method that
explains individual phenomenon in terms of
relevant
general laws.
5. The hypothetico-deductive method can explain both
physical
and non-physical phenomena.
adaptation of positivism
Core Texts: Laurie Spurling's
Phenomenology and the Social World,
Fred Dallmayer and Thomas McCarthy's
Understanding and Social Inquiry
Since the early 20th century, social inquiry has been dominated by
a positivist paradigm.
Positivist social science sought to explain social phenomena in
terms of
- Laws and Causation
- Descriptive Language only
Society is understood as a system of shared values/norms that act
as covering laws, which dictate the behavior of individuals.
adaptation of positivism
Core Texts: Laurie Spurling's
Phenomenology and the Social World,
Fred Dallmayer and Thomas McCarthy's
Understanding and Social Inquiry
Problems:
Laws can only explain human actions through a radical transformation
of its meaning.
- The Hungry Man example
Causality doesn't seem to apply to human behavior.
- The technical use of causality requires:
1. Contingent and external relation between two discrete
entities or events.
2. The cause must be temporally prior to the effect.
3. The constant conjunction between the case and the
effect.
Purely descriptive language is not possible.
epistemology and sociology
Core Text: Peter Winch's
The Idea of Social Science and Its Relation to
Philosophy
If the positivist methodology cannot explain social phenomena, an
alternative must be presented.
Peter Winch argues that our conception of reality affects how we
behave.
Philosophy, which uses a priori reasoning, can help us elucidate
these concepts.
Hence, “the central problem of sociology, that of giving an account of
the nature of social phenomena in general, itself belongs to
philosophy....sociology is really misbegotten epistemology.”
Core Text: Peter Winch's
philosophy and society
The Idea of Social Science and Its Relation to
Philosophy
Which philosophy is best suited to understand social phenomena?
Winch argues along with Ludwig Wittgenstein that meaningful
behavior is rule-governed behavior.
Phenomenology holds that intersubjectivity is a structure of all
experience.
Core Text: Maurice Merleau-Ponty's
Merleau-Ponty + science
The Visible and the Invisible
Merleau-Ponty's philosophy is conscious of the evolution of science as
described by Husserl.
Merleau-Ponty adds another chapter to the history of the evolution of
science
- Albert Einstein as a revolutionary figure in the philosophy of
science
“...for science itself: “objective” and “subjective” are recognized as two orders
hastily constructed within a total experience, whose context must be restored in
all clarity.”
The elucidation of this total experience is the goal of phenomenology.
- Phenomenology must be able to account for both the natural and
social
world without falling back into the traditional ontology.
- Calls for a new ontology, new language in which to speak about social
phenomena
Core Texts: Maurice Merleau-Ponty's
The Visible and the Invisible, Phenomenology of Perception
Laurie Spurling's
Phenomenology and the Social World
applied ontology
People are not merely role-players in a social system:
Existential Situation
Freedom
Structure
tension within anthropology
The debate over the AAA's revised LRP
“...reflects a long-standing and growing divisiveness within
anthropology between those who stick with the classic conception
of studying humanity by means of systematic, rigorous, and
ideally objective forms of inquiry, and
those who see anthropology as inextricably and profoundly tied to
the subjectivities of its researchers and their admitted
epistemological limitations.”
- Peter Wood, Former Professor of Anthropology, Boston
University
The most systematic version of
scientific practice is positivism.
Phenomenology has much to say
about social phenomena.
- Sought objective knowledge by
abolishing any bias of the theorist.
- Any understanding of social
phenomena must take into
account the perspective of both
the theorist and those being
theorized about.
- Knowledge, rightfully so-called,
must overcome our finitude as
embodied beings by appealing to
transcendental intelligibility (ie,
mathematics).
- Any knowledge, rightfully socalled, must be epistemologically
limited by our finitude as
embodied beings.
tension within anthropology
Can we say that science is the only way to go about
explaining human existence?
- History of science and philosophy
- Problems with scientific methodology in explaining
human behavior
- Nature of social inquiry and its relation to a priori
reasoning.
- Phenomenology as another way of 'knowing, exploring, and
explaining.'