by Chris Alexion, Copyright May 25, 2006, all rights reserved. 313 views
Different bloggers seem to harp on their own particular notes. Multi-generational faithfulness; fatherhood; entertainment; you name it. Well, I always find myself hammering the same points about empiricism and the contemporary worship of science. And now I have another excuse. I wrote a post some time ago pointing out how outrageous it is for empiricism–which is one school of philosophy–to hold court over all other philosophies. It's like submitting all questions about the existence of imaginary creatures to the Easter Bunny. How did he get that job?
Today, in studying for a CLEP test on sociology, I came across an article on the subject. The article discussed the controversy about what constitutes evidence in sociological studies:
One shift in the discipline away from scientific explanation had philosophical roots. Early theorists' approach to sociology, led by Comte, was to treat it in the same manner as natural science, applying the same methods and methodology used in the natural sciences to study social phenomena. The emphasis on empiricism and the scientific method sought to provide an incontestable foundation [emphasis mine] for any sociological claims or findings, and to distinguish sociology from less empirical fields like philosophy. This methodological approach, called positivism, became a source of contention between sociologists and other scientists, and eventually a point of divergence within the field itself.
So, again, empirical philosophy is paraded around as some kind of arbitrator between all other philosophies. No matter what competing sociologists have to say, we can get an "incontestable foundation" if only we look to hard Newtonian science. Unfortuntately for Comte, though, it didn't work, as later developments in the field show.
The Easter Bunny was just too biased.
1 • Andrew Wheatley • May 26, 2006 • 11:18 AM
Nice post.
Can empiricism prove itself to be true? Can you discover the principle of empiricism using empirical methods?
(Hint: The answer to both questions is 'No.')
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