Lecture 2

Question 1

What is the common sense view of science?

Answer 1

• Based on empirical observation,
  not speculation or preconceived ideas
• Describing the world as it is in itself
• Outsider’s (third-person) perspective
• Neutral, value-free
• Formulated in exact theories,
  if possible using math / statistics

Question 2

Who are the Vienna Circle

Answer 2

group of scientists (in early 20th century Vienna) reflecting on philosophical questions about science

Question 3

What is the aim of the Viena circle?

Answer 3

Development of a strictly
scientific worldview

Against speculative philosophy,
religious ideas, traditional
worldview

Question 4

Why is postitivism called like this?

Answer 4

From ‘positive’, in the sense of ‘what is posited’, ‘what is
given’, ‘what is laid down’,
* not in the sense of ‘happy’, ‘in a good mood’, ’constructive

Question 5

What is strict empiriscism?

Answer 5

knowledge can only come from
observation

No place for speculative claims that are not based on observation!

Question 6

What are Analytic statements

Answer 6

True just on the basis of the meaning of the words used

Question 7

What are synthetic statements

Answer 7

True/false on the basis of the meaning of the words used and what the world is like

Question 8

What are the core ideas of synthetic statements?

Answer 8

• The empirical sciences are concerned with synthetic statements.
• Empirical scientific research is the only way of determining the
  truth or falsity of these statements.

Question 9

What are the core ideas of analytic statements?

Answer 9

Definitions, logic, and mathematics are all analytic statements

Question 10

What is gate-keeping?

Answer 10

Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination. Filtering the wrongs before a research

Question 11

What is The verifiability criterion of meaning

Answer 11

The meaning of a synthetic statement is its method of verification

Question 12

What is the inductive method

Answer 12

From observations to general theories
and empirical regularities / laws

Question 13

What do observations?

Answer 13

• Observations give rise to
  hypotheses and theories
• And they serve to support /
  confirm them

“let the data speak”

Question 14

What is behaviorism?

Answer 14

• In psychology (and more broadly)
• Exclusive focus on observable behavior in
  response to external stimuli
• Nothing about internal cognitive processes
• Because those are unobservable /
  unverifiable

Dog whistle thingy

Question 15

What falls in the Common sense view of science accoridng to Risjord?

Answer 15

Science ought to be value-free

Cf. Risjord: Strong Thesis of Value-Freedom

Science is objective insofar as values play no role in
scientific research

Question 16

What are the pros and cons of door-to-door method?

Answer 16

• depends on people wanting to talk to representaive;

+ more accurate for people who are hard to locate

• expensive

Question 17

What are the pros and cons of a Questionnaire?

Answer 17

• depends on effort to mail in

+ cheaper

Question 18

Whata are some preditabe erros?

Answer 18

• Scientific reasons of accuracy and feasibility for choosing methods
• Political reasons for favoring certain kinds or errors and inaccuracies

Question 19

What is type I error?

Answer 19

A False positive, concluding there is some effect when there is none.

Question 20

What is a type II error?

Answer 20

False negative, concluding there is no effect when there is one.

Question 21

What are weighig different kinds of errors?

Answer 21

Deciding what error matters
more is never a purely scientific decision.

• but always a value-laden one!
• Social
• Political
• Economic
• Moral
• Religious
• Personal

Question 22

What are epistemic values?

Answer 22

values that have to do with truth and knowledge truth, knowledge, explanatory scope, predictive power, etc

Question 23

What are non-epistemic values?

Answer 23

values that don’t have to do with truth and knowledge political ideals, social values, religious and other worldviews

Question 24

Does epistemic values influenece science?

Answer 24

no

Question 25

What is a Contextual role?

Answer 25

values involved in the context in which research takes place, but not necessary for conducting research

Question 26

What is a constitutive role?

Answer 26

Values necessary to the activity of research, shape research from
the inside, research doesn’t make sense without them

Question 27

What is a Contextual role for non-epistemic values?

Answer 27

• what research to fund, what problems to investigate, where and
  how to communicate about findings, with whom are results shared, etc

Question 28

What is a Constitutive role for epistemic values?

Answer 28

what method gives the most accurate results, which (statistical)
analysis technique is most suitable and reliable, is a sample representative, what to do with outliers, etc.

Question 29

What is the Moderate Thesis of Value-Freedom?

Answer 29

Science is objective when only epistemic values are
constitutive of scientific practice; moral and political considerations must always remain contextual

Question 30

What are the problems of moderate Thesis of Value-Freedom?

Answer 30

• Weiging different kinds of errors (type I & II)
• Defining terminolog
• Moral reasons (Milgram experiment, Animal testing, Deception, manipulation, deprivation,
  etc. in experiments)
• Emancipatory and critical research
  (Social science can itself be
  oppressive and exclusionary by
  working from a privileged
  perspective. Recognizing this and changing it requires commitment to political value
• Concepts like ‘injustice’,
  ‘oppression’,‘equal’, ‘prejudice’,
  etc. are both descriptive and
  normative (value-laden)
• Thick moral concepts
• Such concepts seem inevitable for
  certain social science projects! )

Question 31

What is Value-laden?

Answer 31

Presupposing the acceptance of a particular set of values.