"Rigorous" sociology

Social scientists are sometimes tempted to “improve” the methodologies of the social sciences to allow them to be “fully scientific” in the way that chemistry or physics were depicted by neo-positivists. This fails to give adequate attention to the methods of validation used in comparative historical sociology, and privileges "the unity of science". A review of Klarita Gërxhani, Nan D. de Graaf, and Werner Raub's recent handbook.

#sociology
https://undsoc.org/2024/06/04/rigorous-sociology/

Assessing causes in the past (Kreuzer)

In The Grammar of Time Kreuzer tries to bring the problem of historical-causal reasoning under the rubric of comparative historical analysis (CHA).

"CHA scholars use the past to formulate research questions, describe complex social processes, and generate new inductive insights. And, like social scientists, they compare those patterns to formulate generalizable and testable theories." (1)

Here are a few thoughts.

#sociology
https://undsoc.org/2024/06/02/assessing-causes-in-the-past-kreuzer/

Popper and Parfit: the minds of philosophers

The recent biography of Derek Parfit by David Edmonds can usefully be read in conjunction with Karl Popper's autobiography. An impression offered here -- it seems as though Popper is the deeper philosopher, and that Parfit was a person obsessed with puzzles and problems that were technically complicated but had little real impact on issues that matter.

#philosophy

https://undsoc.org/2024/04/06/popper-and-parfit-the-minds-of-philosophers/

Hobsbawm’s limitations

We need both more and less from a historian than what Hobsbawm offers. Hobsbawm’s corpus is fundamentally an extensive interpretation based on a reading of secondary sources, in order to make a coherent Marxist story. But we don’t want our knowledge of history to be “pre-digested”; we want an evidence-based account open to contingency and details that do not fit the model.

#history

https://undsoc.org/2024/03/22/limitations-of-hobsbawms-historical-writing/

E.P. Thompson's break with Stalinism

E. P. Thompson was one of the great social historians of the 20th century and a committed socialist throughout. Thompson was a member of the British CP until 1956. He remained a staunch advocate of English socialism throughout his life. But as a Communist, he showed an unwelcome degree of intellectual and political independence. He broke with the CPGB in 1956. But did he adequately confront the crimes of Stalinism?

#history

https://undsoc.org/2024/02/28/e-p-thompsons-break-with-stalinism/

Defining disciplinary research in the social sciences

Does the framework of "disciplinary matrix" work well in studying different research communities in the social sciences? Does sociology consist of distinct "paradigm-driven" sub-disciplines? Kuhn's theory of paradigms doesn't work very well in the social sciences, which requires instead eclectic theories, piecemeal explanations, and a patchwork of inquiries at a range of levels of description.

#sociology

https://undsoc.org/2024/01/31/defining-disciplinary-research-in-the-social-sciences/

Mistakes by organizations

Everyone makes mistakes ... but do organizations make mistakes in the same way that individuals do? No -- organizational mistakes are most often the result of dysfunctions such as principal-agent problems, conflicting cognitive frameworks, conflicting local priorities, external pressures on decision makers, poor communication and information-sharing. Orgs are not unified intentional actors ...

#sociology

https://undsoc.org/2023/12/18/mistakes-by-organizations/

Brecht on Galileo on science

Bertolt Brecht's play *The Life of Galileo* expresses a powerful critique of the role played by scientists in a class society. His Galileo expresses self-contempt for the fact that "science" is the companion to "class oppression", and that his own career facilitated that alliance. "I handed my knowledge to those in power for them to use, fail to use, misuse — whatever best suited their objectives."

https://undsoc.org/2023/11/02/brecht-on-galileo-on-science/

Thinking about social class

Are Marx's theories about the nature and importance of social class still insightful? They are, at many levels: exploitation, inequality, ideology, political behavior, influence on policy, sources of collective action, ...

https://undsoc.org/2023/10/31/thinking-about-social-class/