unit 5. empathy, truth and method
DESCRIPTION
Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method [Philosophy of Science]TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Unit 5Empathy, method and truth
Hermeneutics
![Page 2: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Last class
• Demarcation: Distinguishing scientific (empirical) knowledge from everyday knowledge
• Empiricism: social sciences should use the methodology of natural sciences
![Page 3: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Criticism of empirical method
• Tautological• Deterministic• Without context (historical, cultural etc.)• Uncritical of society
![Page 4: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Bleaching human behavior
![Page 5: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
• Strict demarcation bleaches human behavior• All bones and no flesh
![Page 6: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Hermeneutics
![Page 7: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
hermeneutics
• Hermes: God of deceit, trade and messenger of the Gods
• Hermeneutics focuses on the interpretation of narratives
![Page 8: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Wilhelm Dilthey (1883-1911)
• “Erklären” (explaining) Natural sciences (physical laws)
• “Verstehen” (understanding/interpreting) Social sciences
• Verstehen doesn’t really play a role in quantitative research
![Page 9: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Erklären (law-governed explanation)
• Causal explanations• Structure• Why does person X go to war? • Because war has broken out
![Page 10: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Verstehen (interpretation)
• Empathy• Human agency• Why does person x go to war?• Because he was raised as a patriot and he
feels it his duty to protect his country when it is threatened by a hostile nation.
![Page 11: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
• In what kind of research cases would empathy be valuable?
• Name some examples
![Page 12: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
![Page 13: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Being-in-the-world
• Being-in-the-world is a 'thrownness' (Geworfenheit)
• We are thrown in the world• We are put in a context without prior
knowledge.• There is no such thing as seeing the world
form a birds-eye view • We only see the world from within the world
![Page 14: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
• All meaning is context dependent• All meaning is anticipated from a certain point
of view
![Page 15: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Hermeneutic circleUnderstanding the whole by its parts in reference to the whole
WholePart
![Page 16: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Like reading a book
• To understand a sentence of a book you need to understand the whole book (context)
• To understand the whole book you need to understand the individual sentences.
![Page 17: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002)
![Page 18: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
• You always start out from prejudice, pre-understanding, pre-judgment
• Stating a research question is already interpretation
![Page 19: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Truth and Method
• Gadamer was critical of positivism (empiricism) in social sciences
• Social sciences shouldn't use The methodology of natural sciences
![Page 20: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
prejudice
• Understanding is a dialogue– We understand ourselves – And the matter at hand
![Page 21: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Fusion of horizons
• We all have our own horizon• By interpreting the horizon of others we
broaden our own horizon
![Page 22: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
• People are embedded in a (historical and cultural) context
• They have their own vantage point, their horizon
• Interpreting a narrative involves a fusion of horizons
![Page 23: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Interpretative theory
![Page 24: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Statements as conveyors of meaning
• Not: what correspondence with reality is there in statement A
• But: What does statement A mean
![Page 25: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Interpretative theory
• Room for free will, intentionality• Subjectivist paradigm, meaning is inter-
subjectively created• Understanding an action by relating it to the
(cultural) whole• Analyzing interviews
![Page 26: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Examples of relation to the whole
• Name some examples of customs that can only be understood in relation to the whole
![Page 27: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Constructing narratives
![Page 28: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
• People construct their own narrative • By interacting people construct/negotiate a
reality• So our reality is not objectively given but inter-
subjectively constructed
![Page 29: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006)
![Page 30: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
• Max Weber: Man is an animal in a web of meaning of his own making
• Geertz: Culture is the whole of these webs• These webs should not be researched in the
vein of the natural sciences: in search of laws. • But: interpretative search for meaning
![Page 31: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Thick description
• Thin description: what is literally happening• Thick description: What is happening in
context, in the space between erklären and verstehen
![Page 32: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Example: Winking
• Person a blinks his eye in an involuntary twitch• Person b blinks his eye as a signal to a friend• In thin description the actions of a and b
would be the same• In thick description we link the action of
person b to a context• His winking is a public code related to a larger
cultural context
![Page 33: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Science or relativism?
• Do we get more understanding? • Can we acquire knowledge trough empathy?• Is this scientific?
![Page 34: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Epistemology: Empathy as knowledge?
![Page 35: Unit 5. Empathy, truth and method](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062319/554e285eb4c90571798b51e1/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Criticism
• Do we risk relativism if we don’t use the rules of the empirical method? (remember Popper)
• Anything goes? (remember Feyerabend)