Transcript What makes science different from propaganda?

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What makes science different
from propaganda?
Today’s session
You are learning about...
You are learning to...
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Distinguish between
different epistemologies
Consider the
epistemological status of
psychology
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•
Epistemology: realism,
positivism & objectivism
The scientific method
• ‘Classical’ science is based on three
overlapping ideas:
• These ideas lead to a particular view of how
‘knowable’ the world is.
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– Realism
– Positivism
– Objectivism
Realism
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• Realism suggests that there is a real world
independent of our thoughts and it has its
own inherent order.
Positivism
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• Positivism maintains that it is possible to know
how the world is through systematic collection
of empirical data in an objective way.
Objectivism
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• Objectivism states that there is a distinction
between our thoughts and what our thoughts
are about. We are being objective if our
thoughts correspond to what is actually the
case.
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• “When the pre-existing order of reality is
discovered, one’s beliefs replicate this preexisting order. That is, what one claims to be
the case corresponds to what is actually the
case.” (Fay, 1996)
• In the classical view of science, our knowledge
of the world moves ever closer to the
‘ultimate truth’.
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• Will science tell us the ‘ultimate truth’ about
the word?
Falliblism
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“No amount of experimentation can ever prove
me right; a single experiment can prove me
wrong.” (Einstein, in Calaprice, 2005)
Falliblism
• Evidence cannot show that theories are true,
but it can show that they are not false.
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– Science is an evolutionary process wherein
theories become less bad
– Popper (1959) - a theory that cannot be falsified is
‘immune’ from this process and therefore
unscientific
• Is the scientific method the right way to study
people?
– Is it possible to study people scientifically?
– Is it desirable to study people scientifically?
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• What objections can you think of?
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“If we accept that a human being is an entirely
natural phenomenon (i.e. no aspect of the
human being is nonmaterial, spiritual or
supernatural)...then the primary use of the
scientific method...seems to be justified.”
Huitt (1998)
Problem in principle
Serious
problem
Problem in practice
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Trivial
problem
Some objections
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• Psychological methods cannot provide the
valid measurements of human behaviour that
science requires. Either experimenter bias or
participant reactivity will always contaminate
the data.
Some objections
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• Our moral obligations as human beings place
ethical restrictions on how research can be
conducted. There are therefore aspects of
human behaviour that cannot be scientifically
investigated.
Some objections
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• The most important parts of psychology
concern subjective experience, and this
cannot be studied using the objective
methods of science.
Some objections
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• The aims of science are to describe, explain,
predict and control. A scientific psychology
will lead to a technology of behaviour and
thereby to the exploitation of human beings.
• People’s behaviour is determined by the
information they process. Psychological
knowledge is part of that information.
Therefore, by doing psychology, we change
the nature of the thing we are trying to study.
This makes normal scientific activity
impossible. In other sciences, the research
process does not change the subject matter.
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Some objections
Some objections
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• Science deals with predictable, deterministic
systems, but people have free will.
Consequently, people cannot be studied
scientifically because freedom of choice is, by
definition, not determined by antecedent
factors.
Some objections
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• Science deals with underlying structures that
are common to all the elements it studies, but
the important thing about people is their
uniqueness. Because science is primarily
concerned with similarities, it is unsuitable for
understanding the behaviour of individuals.
• People have minds/souls that are of a
fundamentally different nature from their
material, physical bodies. Science can explain
how the physical body works, but cannot
explain the workings of the mind because it is
only suitable for investigating the physical
world.
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Some objections