The Human Sciences

1. The Human Sciences

2. Human Sciences Introduction Human Science a.k.a. Social Science – Psychology, Economics, Anthropology, etc. Attempt to reduce human existence mystery by studying behavior systematically. Try to discover laws about human nature. MIRROR TEST – Confirms humans as only creatures who are self-aware and self-conscious (we recognize our reflection as ourselves, a dog will bark at its reflection). Also unique to humans are language, reason, free-will and creativity (in varying degrees).

3. Scientific Method and ToK: I. Observation – Though you can observe behavior, you cannot observe thoughts. Can learn from interviews or questions, but human tendency is to overestimate strengths and underestimate weaknesses. (H.S. Survey ex.) Loaded Questions – logical fallacy issue – difficult to phrases questions in unbiased ways. Typically, what people say they would do in the hypothetical example is different from what they actually do in reality (Obama example). The Observer Effect – When one knows one is being observed, one’s behavior changes,.

4. Overcoming the Observer Effect: 1. Habituation – Observed subjects grow accustom to being observed; reliable results. 2. Hidden cameras. PREDICTION AS AFFECTING BEHAVIOR: Psychology – “bright” vs. “less bright” students. Economics – Bull market (people expect prices to rise, people buy stocks, demand increases, prices go up. Anthropology – When a sorcerer in an aborigine tribe casts a death spell on someone, the person almost always dies. Why? Predictions are self-fulfilling and negating – psychological reactance.

5. Scientific Method and ToK II. Measurement – Adds precision, hard to accomplish in human sciences. Try to measure consciousness.... Olympic Medal Count example (bias of measurement depends on who measures, problems of measuring different things on a common scale.) ACTIVITY – Which of the following are easy to measure, which aren’t, how to do so? A. Weight B. Brand loyalty C. Temperature D. Social Class E. Inflation F. Intelligence G. Happiness H. Age. I. Progress J. Reading Ability

6. Scientific Method and ToK III. EXPERIMENTS – Play less a role in human than natural sciences due to: 1. Often impossible to run controlled experiments. 2. Artificiality distorts subject behavior. 3. Ethics of negative effects on participants. THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT – Pretend shock treatments to unseen subjects – raises ethical issues

7. Scientific Method and ToK IV. LAWS – Goal of any science, yet conflict with human free-will, or do they? A. Law of Large Numbers – In large populations, random variations tend to cancel out – usually allows accurate predictions of group behavior. Focuses on Probability more than Certainty (as do many laws in the Natural Sciences). B. Trends – Human scientists often discover trends (direction a variable moves) not laws. 1. Phillips Curve – Posited a stable relationship btw. Inflation and unemployment, but really was a correlation (think post hoc ergo propter hoc).

8. Natural vs. Human Sciences Different theories exist about the value of human sciences in relation to natural ones. 1. Reductionism – Idea that human sciences will be explained by natural sciences as knowledge in these areas grows. (I.E. – thermodynamics to simple mechanics). The Reductive Fallacy – Just because A is composed of B does not mean that A is nothing but B (arises in simple, underlying things being used to explain complex things). 2. Holism – Can only make sense of some things, i.e. living creatures, by looking at them as a whole (whole is greater than sum of the parts; cannot understand a group only in terms of the individuals who are part of it).

9. Natural vs. Human Sciences The Verstehen Position – Aim of human sciences is to understand meaning of social practices from the inside as understood by those engaging in the practices themselves (only context leads to understanding). ACTIVITY – Come up with multiple explanations for the following actions: a. A man picks up a glass of water. b. A man walks outside with an umbrella. c. A woman pulls out a gun. d. A woman waves her hand. e. A woman walks into a room, walks around, and then walks out again.

10. Natural vs. Human Sciences The Problem of Bias – Human sciences are more prone to bias than natural science. (think confirmation bias, etc.) In Defense of Human Science Predictions: 1. Usually deal with complex situations which do not allow for controlled experiments. 2. Some predictions are valuable not b/c of accuracy, but give society desire to change. 3. Purpose of human sciences can be seen as to describe and understand, not explain and predict.

11. Human Sciences Problems 1.Observation - (We cannot directly observe others’ minds; Questionnaires may mislead (or bias); Observing people may affect their actions). 2. Measurement – Social Phenomena are difficult to measure. 3. Hypothesis - The act of prediction may affect the behavior predicted. 4. Experiments - (Difficult to run controlled experiments in social science; morals and ethics limit our willingness to experiment). 5. Laws – (Human sciences not good at predictions; usually uncover trends not laws; science laws in general are probabilistic in nature).