Received: from smtpgate.uvm.edu (smtpgate.uvm.edu [132.198.101.121]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with SMTP id FAA22786 for ; Fri, 17 Oct 1997 05:37:14 -0600 (MDT) Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 05:37:14 -0600 (MDT) Received: from T. (207.123.169.186) by smtpgate.uvm.edu (LSMTP for Windows NT v1.1a) with SMTP id <0.7B3D1F60@smtpgate.uvm.edu>; Fri, 17 Oct 1997 7:37:12 -0400 Message-Id: <1.5.4.16.19971017073640.39bfafea@pop.uvm.edu> X-Sender: tryoung@pop.uvm.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: TEACHSOC@poplar.lemoyne.edu From: TR Young Subject: Truth Values of Social Theories: Five Points of Critique Cc: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu Brian Rich, on the Teachsoc network, has suggested that those of us who teach about social theory might like to take up the issue of "pure theory" as abstract explanations and/or interpretations that are neither empirically-grounded nor falsifiable. I enjoy doing just. The sociology of knowledge; politics of sociology; philosophy of science and some threads of the postmodern critique have many useful lessons for those of us who deal in abstract explanantions aka Grand Theory. As one goes through this critique, one should keep in mind that I regard theory as most valuable to human understanding and to the human condition. A. The truth value of all theories; physical, biological, social as well as psychology is variable. 1. Information is lost as the incredible complexity and richness of social life are translated into words; still more information is lost as words are transposed into numbering systems..numbers carry far less information than do words. Still more detail, variation, nuance and historicity of human/social behavior is lost as numbering systems are used as grounding for statistical summaries; more information is also lost when statistical summaries are turned into statements about validity and significance. In an important sense, the elegance, scope and insights provided by theory depends upon systematic discarding of the rich and complex detail of human interaction, human inter- pretation as well as human transformations of empirical data. 2. The truth value of much social theory depends upon faith, belief, hope and the hard, hard work of human beings in fulfilling the social prophecies upon which all social theory rests. For example, one may well generate a truthful statement from empirical research that minority groups and ethnic groups are: a. more criminal b. less ambitious c. less intelligent d. steeped in a culture of poverty However the theoretical statement ignores all the institutional arrangements that are set in place and which are assiduously cultivated by layer upon layer of institutional workers which produce these data. A colleague from the USA got up in an International Meeting of Criminologists in Havana some years ago. She made the statement the Afro-Americans were 'objectively' more criminal than Anglos. What she didn't say was that Afro-Americans, caught up in racist institutions in the USA, are more criminal that those of African ancestry in other countries in which racism was less efficacious in shaping the life course of human beings. For example, differences in academic achievement of Asian Americans in teaching depends upon the hopes of parents, the faith of parents in their children as well as the hard, hard work of teachers, mothers sibs and tutors. More than we like to admit perhaps, social theory rests upon the larger self-fulfilling prophecies which ground the production and reproduction of gender, family, politics, business and religious social life. B. The Truth Value of some theories is fractal. 1. Chaos theory teaches us that there are five dynamical regimes; rather than one as formal, axiomatic social theory presumes. 2. Simple systems [i.e., those with three or fewer interacting variables] do behave with considerable regularity. It is upon this regularity that 'Superb' theories, depend. 3. Complex systems display three additional dynamical regimes upon which some fractally true theoretical statements may be grounded. In these dynamical regimes, the SAME set of variables may take quite different courses; that is to say, causality closes and opens as dynamical regimes come and go... For example, that which produces crime in one dynamical regime may not produce crime with an slight change in the setting of a key variable...thus a small change in interest rates may produce a huge increase in corporate crime. So much for eternally valid, universally covering theory in complex social systems. 4. There is a fifth dynamical regime, called deep chaos, in which entirely new correlations between the same set of variables develop. In biology, entirely new species are developed with small changes in genetic splicings. in physiology, the fate of members of a population become unpredictable. In sociology, entirely new religions, new genders, new political systems and new understandings emerge out of deep chaos. C. As social systems slide from dynamical regime to ever more chaotic regimes, the usual tools of truth telling are lost: replicability, predictability, statistical correlation and inference as well as mapping the dynamics of a system in path analysis. Objectivity thus does not produce certainty but rather, variable certainty...a certainty which varies as new dynamical regimes emerge with small changes in key parameters. In all this, human agency is possible; but the moments at which human agency is most efficacious are few and require collective action. [mmmm]. D. Postmodern Critique. The thing to remember is that some postmodern theory is entirely nihilist...giving up on the knowledge process; giving up on theory as hopelessly contaminated by human interests, human desire, human fallibilities, human ignorance and cultural biases. Yet there is affirmative postmodern critique which says that a very useful knowledge process can be instituted if we admit our biases; if we are more modest in our truth claims; if we accept the social action which produces limitations on women, minorities, ethnic groups and which drives the variable truth value in statements about healing, hurting, and helping. E. The philosophy of knowledge is far more difficult than ever Bacon, Newton, LaPlace, Descartes, Comte, Marx, Durkheim, Hegel or Weber ever imagined. Yet knowledge is possible even if grand theory is demoted from its high seat in the mansions of knowledge. So teach on, teach on...for gladly must we lern and gladly teche...those of us who do social theory in the 21st century. TR Young TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com TR.Young@uvm.edu