Page 5 of 25 [ 395 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ... 25  Next

GoonSquad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 May 2007
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,748
Location: International House of Paincakes...

27 May 2017, 11:31 am

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
Gad Saad had some very interesting things here to say about the internal cohesiveness or lack of it across the social sciences.


So, he's not wrong when he says that social sciences are sciences because the people who study them use the scientific method in order to find objective truth...


There's the thing, psychology, sociology, etc. are soft sciences because we simply cannot boil them down to the cold equations, yet. I firmly believe that all human behavior, thought processes, emotional states, etc. correspond to physical brain states. Unfortunately, we simply do not have the technology to measure these brain states at this time. Therefore, social science remains soft and slippery and depends on a lot of theory and supposition that we can only test indirectly.


That being said, the best theoretical frames do build on the things we know about the brain's "firmware" that all humans seem to possess. For example, humans seem to be hardwired for antipathy toward those they consider different and affinity toward those they consider similar. Humans also have a strong survival drive, they seem to be hardwired for religion, etc.

But, that's about as far as we can go toward internal cohesiveness at this point. Because the social sciences are so soft slippery and theory dependent, there are a lot of fringe/nutty theories out there (like the one you linked to previously). However, that's not representative of main stream social science. When people point to that kind of "social science", it's basically just a bunch of strawman nonsense, put out by anti-intellectual cultural warriors trying to gin up the sort of hysterical reactions we see in this thread.


_________________
No man is free who is not master of himself.~Epictetus


techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,149
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

27 May 2017, 1:24 pm

I wouldn't at all cast aspersion on anyone who is, as you say, trying to do science and keep the noise out of their office.

OTOH I do think, with the theory of evolution, there's a strong case to be made for where we came from and for what purpose our initial apparatus was built for (or what kind of conditional bludgeoning it survived - however you want to look at it). From there we see increasingly complex interactions of instinct with structures and it gets messy enough that it's difficult to follow. It sounds like the big five personality types might be a way to repel back in because they give some type of grid to organize the field of research into.

At the same time I won't lie - I don't know everything that's going on the field, just that I do think it would be less wild-west if there could be one major dedicated project to flesh out in further details , in the same way that the physicists have General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics to explore for congruencies.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


GoonSquad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 May 2007
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,748
Location: International House of Paincakes...

27 May 2017, 3:32 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:

At the same time I won't lie - I don't know everything that's going on the field, just that I do think it would be less wild-west if there could be one major dedicated project to flesh out in further details , in the same way that the physicists have General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics to explore for congruencies.


There are fields, such as human behavior in the social environment--basically a mash up of psychology and sociology-- that do try to flesh out details and provide a better foundation to social sciences in general. The problem is, as stated before, the subject is just really soft and slippery, because beyond some very basic firmware, human psychology is too plastic and varied.

We know that humans tend to favor those who are similar to them and dislike those who are different. But what we define as similar and different is highly variable from person to person and culture to culture.

We also know that survival drives are strong in humans and greatly affect behavior, but survival strategies employed depend greatly on the nature and size of social units.

Communal economics dominate human societies at a tribal level, but beyond that economics become much more individualistic and market based as a natural progression, etc.

The more complex human societies get, the harder it is to pick out those basic drivers of human behavior and understand how they manifest and drive social forces.

We've only been studying human societies for about a hundred years or so. It will take more time to develop a General Relativity and/or Quantum theory for social sciences, but people are working on it.


_________________
No man is free who is not master of himself.~Epictetus


Darmok
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Dec 2015
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,030
Location: New England

04 Jun 2017, 3:01 pm


_________________
 
There Are Four Lights!


Drake
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,577

04 Jun 2017, 7:35 pm

8)

Unfortunately even that spoof probably would be the top choice of uni if it were real to some people.



mr_bigmouth_502
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Dec 2013
Age: 30
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 7,028
Location: Alberta, Canada

05 Jun 2017, 6:23 am

A friend of mine insists that there is, but I'm not sure whether to believe it or not.


_________________
Every day is exactly the same...


ashbashbeard
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 2 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 43
Location: UK

07 Jun 2017, 8:25 pm

Academics have always encouraged criticism in a system that tries to hold the status quo, and naturally that tends to be a "left" thing to do.

You'll see this with scientists etc. too - they also tend to be left for similar reasons.

Is it a problem? No.



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,149
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

07 Jun 2017, 8:58 pm

Wow. This is Noam Chomsky commenting on postmodernism. He didn't have a single nice thing to say about it.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


Darmok
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Dec 2015
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,030
Location: New England

14 Jun 2017, 12:42 pm

Cambridge University examiners told it is sexist to use the word 'genius' to describe students
History faculty academic claims the department wants to use more 'transparent' language to help eradicate gender inequality

Cambridge University examiners have been warned against using words such as “flair”, “brilliance” and “genius” when assessing students’ work because they are associated with men, an academic has revealed.

Lucy Delap, a lecturer in British History at the top-ranking institution, said History tutors are discouraged from using the terms because they “carry assumptions of gender inequality”.

She told The Telegraph: “Some of those words, in particular genius, have a very long intellectual history where it has long been associated with qualities culturally assumed to be male.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/educa ... 87401.html


_________________
 
There Are Four Lights!


DarthMetaKnight
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,105
Location: The Infodome

16 Jun 2017, 10:20 am

If conservatives want everyone to stop "vilifying" them, then they should stop claiming that poor people are "just stupid and lazy".

You reap what you sow.


_________________
Synthetic carbo-polymers got em through man. They got em through mouse. They got through, and we're gonna get out.
-Roostre

READ THIS -> https://represent.us/


Darmok
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Dec 2015
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,030
Location: New England

17 Jun 2017, 11:31 pm


_________________
 
There Are Four Lights!


friedmacguffins
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,539

18 Jun 2017, 11:25 am

I read books, beyond my years, in the public library and school book sales, from a very early age. I was hopeful of newish storefronts and a (then, analogue) radio college (more than one story tall) making my suburb into a sophisticated city scape. I enjoyed the technological promises, being made by secular humanists, that have since fallen to decay.

I read cynical, anti-abolitionist literature, and from monarchists, and, to my surprise --
College was not always a state market control. It was more akin to the Greek forum or public library, a free marketplace of ideas, where fringe science and religion were discussed contemporaneously, like in a world fair, or on the internet.

Maths, penmanship, and rote disciplines would have been taught in primary schools, or by tutors, or not at all. They still survived, in fair health.

Our agitprop is intended to demoralize. Courses name specific products, much along the lines of an info-mercial. This is corporatism. It wants you to be a needy cog in greater, overall machine. There is no social contract, including the dignity of labor and a rightful place to exist.

The mags, calling for labor rallies, were all owned by champagne socialists, in the Hamptons.It's patterned, purposeful, mundane, and it's leftist. I am proposing one of the least spectacular things, I could imagine. I feel that college is an investment, and the more-conniving bourgeoisie do not take risks, without legal guarantees. I am not steering you away from anything, per se. I am saying, do you you take it literally, or discuss it, in the abstract. Also, what are the guaranteed outcomes. In other words, is it part of a job offer or contract.

Yes, it is a leftist institution.

But, is leftism offering you anything concrete.

You do not have to concede to propaganda, personally. When asked, you can answer, according to this leftist or that leftist.



techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,149
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

18 Jun 2017, 11:30 am

Good advertisement for silly-string here.

Also yeah - I know Antifa is not academia, still bizarre stuff and germane to the topic of leftism.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


friedmacguffins
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,539

18 Jun 2017, 11:45 am

A banking interest or teacher tells you where to go or what to do. This is academia and business, telling you to wallow in your own crapulence -- never to be sharp and in-control.

Secure your own safespace, and show decorum. Stampeding animals have more organization than that.



Darmok
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Dec 2015
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,030
Location: New England

13 Jul 2017, 9:35 pm

Feminist geographers encourage colleagues not to cite research of white men

Two feminist geographers are encouraging their colleagues to be more mindful about citing the research of white males because doing so contributes to “the reproduction of white heteromasculinity of geographical thought and scholarship.”

Writing in “Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography,” Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne argue that considering an author’s gender, race or sexuality prior to citation can be an effective “feminist and anti-racist technology of resistance that demonstrates engagement with those authors and voices we want to carry forward.”

The authors point out that whether an academic’s research is cited by his peers has significant implications for promotion, tenure and influence. Therefore, to cite only white men “does a disservice to researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism.”


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... white-men/


_________________
 
There Are Four Lights!


Chronos
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Apr 2010
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,698

14 Jul 2017, 5:13 pm

Darmok wrote:
Feminist geographers encourage colleagues not to cite research of white men

Two feminist geographers are encouraging their colleagues to be more mindful about citing the research of white males because doing so contributes to “the reproduction of white heteromasculinity of geographical thought and scholarship.”

Writing in “Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography,” Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne argue that considering an author’s gender, race or sexuality prior to citation can be an effective “feminist and anti-racist technology of resistance that demonstrates engagement with those authors and voices we want to carry forward.”

The authors point out that whether an academic’s research is cited by his peers has significant implications for promotion, tenure and influence. Therefore, to cite only white men “does a disservice to researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism.”


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... white-men/


Whether or not actual paper says what the article in your link claims, I don't know. The journal wants over $200 for full access to the paper, so it's contents will remain a mystery. However, remember that academics have to keep publishing papers to stay relevant and advance their career. The papers are part of their product line, and it costs money to do very in depth, ground breaking research, that most academics just don't have, so they churn mountains from molehills, make things horribly complex, and hope they can fly on pretentiousness.

However, it's true that many fields of study have a male bias. This is not misogyny, but a product of cultures long past.

Take physical anthropology for example. Surely most of our non-human ancestors were not males. Surely the sex rations were roughly balanced, yet the artist depictions of them are almost always male, and the terms for them, "homo" is related to the Latin word for man, which is male, and "cavemen" is the general rather than "cavewoman", and phrases such as "The history of man", "primitive man", "modern man" abound. Even this newly discovered hominid Denisovan is called "Denisovan man".

Surely, you have seen this....

Image

More often than this...

Image

Or this...

Image

If an alien were to come here and start investigating the evolution of human kind using our data, they might assume that females were a recent development.

Why are males so thoroughly over represented in the field of physical anthropology? Because until recently, most anthropologists were men, who grew up in what we would call a patriarchal society and would not reasonably think to draw a cavewoman or describe humanity in female terms.

It's not misogyny but rather being an innocent product of one's society. You will notice that most of the renderings of modern humans are also caucasian even though Asians comprise the largest single human "racial" demographic. Why not draw an Asian? Because most of the people who made the drawings were caucasian and likely grew up in predominantly caucasian societies.