POS Systems and Functions (5) Flashcards
L.P. –> model of empirical cycle–> Popper–> Quine/Duhem–>?
there will always be theory that can be neither verified nor falsified: meta-theory
Metatheories serve these 3 important goals
- Identification
- Unveil underlying assumptions
- Create linkages (find the links btw. theories and their sociocultural, political and historical context)
Ontological question of metatheory?
What is the nature of social reality?
What is the nature of social reality?
- there are different units of analysis (individual and collectivist level)
individual
collectivism/social holism
individual:
- human behavior depends on the situation in which one finds himself
- no difference btw. individuals
- ind. respond to exterior incentives
- incentives determine human behavior
collectivism/social holism:
- social systems cannot be reduced to actions made on an individual level
- assess situations by looking at the social system
Epistemological question of meta theory?
What is our goal when analyzing social reality?
What is our goal when analyzing social reality?
Explaining
Understanding
Explaining social reality
- contains a series of facts that can be used to describe the context and clarify the effects of these facts
- focus on discovering rules and laws that can be generalized and used in similar situations
Understanding social reality
- being able to get appreciation for certain categories of knowledge about social reality
- constructed by the interpersonal interactions and the interpretation of social relationships
- gives a situational understanding of culture, religion.
What epistemology and what ontology? Social systems and functions
explaining and holism
What epistemology and what ontology? Rational choice theory
explaining and individualism
What epistemology and what ontology? hermeneutics
understanding and individualism
What epistemology and what ontology? social meaning
understanding and holism
Social systems and function
- describes why you do something
- explains by looking at the function of the action
- logical explanation, not necessarily causal
explanandum
object that is being explained (effect)
explanans
object that actually explains something (cause)
Problems when working with functional explanations
- cause-effect relationships get reversed –> wicked disjunction
- functional explanations assume a) existence b) regulating influence of her order social systems
- alternatives are excluded
- a functional explanation assumes that the explanans (which is functional towards some higher state of affairs) is a necessary condition
-> useful when looking for information or evidence
Why is Social systems and function explaining and holism?
holism:
- actors are heterogeneous
- explanation hinges on interactions btw. actors
- properties of the social system are emergent
explaining
- develops propositions to describe the antecedents (vorangehend) of an emergent (werdend) social process
(try to discover what the reasons are and when this phenomena exists
- aims for discovery of generalizable laws:
Two points discussed by social explanations
- Can we demonstrate a higher order system?
2. Ca we allow social explanations?
Are social explanations allowed according to Durkheim?
- no because social facts are only able to explain other social facts
- example: committing suicide is not an individual decision but caused by many different social and environmental incentives
anomie
losing the frame of reference;
lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group.
taxonomy
is the classification of individuals or objects in groups
What is a paradigm?
theories sharing similar assumptions, ambitions, modes of explanation
When are functional explanations admissible?
Only when a general causal feedback mechanism exists
e.g. in biology the general causal feedback mechanism is evolution or in economics it is economic competition and sociological legitimation
How can we explain the relation btw. unemployment and crime on a social system level?
We have to use Coleman’s bathtub model of explanation
Solution for:
Functional explanations confuse cause and effect in the chronological ordering
of events, leading to a ‘wicked’ disjunction:
- causal feedback mechanism is identified –> functional explanation becomes redundant because there now is a causal explanation for the same phenomenon)
- no causal feedback mechanism can be identified
- -> functional explanation becomes invalid
- looking at the system level to understand the functional explanation can sometimes help
