The Human (Social) Sciences

1. The Human (Social) Sciences No Dogs Allowed!

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. Figuring out illiterate liars • The Stroop Effect RED ROJO BLANCO 绿色

9. 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?

10. Assignment • 5 positive statements • 5 normative statements

11. 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

12. 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