The Human (Social) Sciences

No Dogs Allowed!

How to study such magnificent creatures?

• We are conscious after all, a trait that we may share with no other species

• We are emotional, value-laden, mistake ridden, and so, unpredictable?

• Are we the ultimate variables?

Can the humanities be a science?

• Psychology, linguistics, sociology(not as frequently majored in), anthropology, economics, political theory used to be understood as humanities. Can they be studied using a systematic scientific method?– Why not?– Testable or not?• Hypotheses, pages 157-158

Hypotheses

• More humans will go to the beach in the summer than the winter.– Are these claims only successful relative to a particular

clan or culture?– Are they problematic, inductively? Do they allow us to

predict which individuals will go to the beach more in the summer than the winter?

– What is the difference between this and PV = nRT? (Ideal gas law, where P = pressure, V = volume, n = amount of gas in moles, R = ideal gas constant, T = temperature)

Positivity and Normativity, Revisited

• Ethics was normative• The natural sciences were positive• The human sciences are both

– Positive: likely in most of the experimental hypotheses they test

– Normative: in the aim of improving human kind by their results• But wait, don’t natural sciences do this too?

– Though the study of distant galaxies may not have any humanity’s-future-condition-improvements in mind, many of the sciences, including biology, receive their funding from governments, and in their grant applications they mention how this may research may help them solve such-and-such disease

• Identify examples of normativity and positivity, 158-9

Experimentation in the Social Sciences

• Surveys– Are people lying?

• Example of magazine readership• If you were asking if people were doing embarrassing things, or asking

questions that were too private: having AIDS, for example.– Policy of allowing people in the workplace to call afterwards and get their blood

removed from the system

– How do different words affect how people answer the same question? Example, page 160.

– Hawthorne effect– “Counseling”– Activity: design an experiment that would persuade people that

euthanasia is good, that euthanasia is bad, and a neutral one. Then we can test it on the teachers.

Experiments on human subjects

– Ethical constraints (compare with studies on non-human animals, show pictures)• Things we can do to animals:

– Dehydration, immobile for extended periods of time, living in a cage, having their brain cut open, death

• Humans are sometimes not even permitted to be confused, and must always be debriefed after the experiment

• WW2 Experiments on humans– Use of data on freezing by contemporary scientists

• Experiments on prisoners?

– Informed consent: knowing what is at stake in the scientific experiment, and being a willing volunteer

Figuring out illiterate liars• The Stroop Effect

RED

BLANCO 绿色ROJO

Clever Experiments

• You need to be imaginative to test humans; experiments on people who can’t talk, like babies– How can we figure out if babies can recognize

numbers?

Assignment

• 5 positive statements• 5 normative statements

• Do you think we ought to start thinking now about the kind of peace we want after the war?

• 81% yes• 14% no• 4% no opinion• Which of these seems better to you: for us to win the war

first and then think about the peace, or to start thinking now about the kind of peace we want after the war?

• 41% think about peace• 55% • 4% no opinion

Activity

• Write a yes question, a no question, and a neutral question. You may choose from the following topics:– Gay marriage should be legal.– Euthanasia should be legal– Gays should be allowed in the military– Abortion should be legal– School uniforms should be required– We should increase the cost of the Beijing subway– Air conditioning in summer should be mandated– Students use computers in class– Free school for primary students