POS Systems and Functions (5)

Question 1

L.P. –> model of empirical cycle–> Popper–> Quine/Duhem–>?

Answer 1

there will always be theory that can be neither verified nor falsified: meta-theory

Question 2

Metatheories serve these 3 important goals

Answer 2

• Identification
• Unveil underlying assumptions
• Create linkages (find the links btw. theories and their sociocultural, political and historical context)

Question 3

Ontological question of metatheory?

Answer 3

What is the nature of social reality?

Question 4

What is the nature of social reality?

Answer 4

• there are different units of analysis (individual and collectivist level)
  individual
  collectivism/social holism

Question 5

individual:

Answer 5

• human behavior depends on the situation in which one finds himself
• no difference btw. individuals
• ind. respond to exterior incentives
• incentives determine human behavior

Question 6

collectivism/social holism:

Answer 6

• social systems cannot be reduced to actions made on an individual level
• assess situations by looking at the social system

Question 7

Epistemological question of meta theory?

Answer 7

What is our goal when analyzing social reality?

Question 8

What is our goal when analyzing social reality?

Answer 8

Explaining

Understanding

Question 9

Explaining social reality

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

Understanding social reality

Answer 10

• 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.

Question 11

What epistemology and what ontology? Social systems and functions

Answer 11

explaining and holism

Question 12

What epistemology and what ontology? Rational choice theory

Answer 12

explaining and individualism

Question 13

What epistemology and what ontology? hermeneutics

Answer 13

understanding and individualism

Question 14

What epistemology and what ontology? social meaning

Answer 14

understanding and holism

Question 15

Social systems and function

Answer 15

• describes why you do something
• explains by looking at the function of the action
• logical explanation, not necessarily causal

Question 16

explanandum

Answer 16

object that is being explained (effect)

Question 17

explanans

Answer 17

object that actually explains something (cause)

Question 18

Problems when working with functional explanations

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

Why is Social systems and function explaining and holism?

Answer 19

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:

Question 20

Two points discussed by social explanations

Answer 20

1. Can we demonstrate a higher order system?

2. Ca we allow social explanations?

Question 21

Are social explanations allowed according to Durkheim?

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

anomie

Answer 22

losing the frame of reference;

lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group.

Question 23

taxonomy

Answer 23

is the classification of individuals or objects in groups

Question 24

What is a paradigm?

Answer 24

theories sharing similar assumptions, ambitions, modes of explanation

Question 25

When are functional explanations admissible?

Answer 25

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

Question 26

How can we explain the relation btw. unemployment and crime on a social system level?

Answer 26

We have to use Coleman’s bathtub model of explanation

Question 27

Solution for:
Functional explanations confuse cause and effect in the chronological ordering
of events, leading to a ‘wicked’ disjunction:

Answer 27

• 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