Class 14 - Methodological debates.pdf

CLASS 14 / Part III: Methodological Debates: Positivism, Interpretivism and Critique Ø SUMMARY: Ø Interpretivism Ø Structure of interpretative research Ø Advantages and disadvantages of interpretative research Ø Sociological generations of interpretivism Ø Critique Ø Sources of critical social scien...

CLASS 14 / Part III: Methodological Debates: Positivism, Interpretivism and Critique Ø SUMMARY: Ø Interpretivism Ø Structure of interpretative research Ø Advantages and disadvantages of interpretative research Ø Sociological generations of interpretivism Ø Critique Ø Sources of critical social science Ø Teleological critique and its foundations Ø Immanent critique CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø The structure of interpretative research (description, interpretation, reflexivity): Ø 1st research strategy: genealogy Ø “eventifying history”: history as succession of formative “events” – history as discontinuity in being Ø the study of the present as the “history of the present” – what were the conditions of emergence and the lasting effects leading to the formation of the present (Nietzsche: avoids “backwards inference”) CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø The structure of interpretative research (description, interpretation, reflexivity): Ø 1st research strategy: genealogy Ø Avoids “historical illusion” – the imposition of contemporary ideas and interests onto the past (especially normative ones) Ø Develops historical reflexivity: the capacity to understand what can be taken for granted and what cannot be taken for granted in the present experience of the world CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø The structure of interpretative research (description, interpretation, reflexivity): Ø 2nd research strategy: anthropology Ø knowledge, problematization and understanding of concrete experiences of life, society and the person across time and space Ø The study of “foundationals” in social relations: the conditions and effects of order and disorder Ø the search for “human nature” by reflecting on the basic human characteristics and phenomena CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø The structure of interpretative research (description, interpretation, reflexivity): Ø The Platonic and Christian twist to interpretative research (including the use of genealogy and anthropology): Ø looking for the “experience beyond experience” – understanding the good, the beautiful and the true – with the awareness that a meaningful life and social order cannot be achieved without participation in the real ( see also slide on Platonic / Christian “truth”) CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø The structure of interpretative research: Ø Research sources: Ø Everything that advances knowledge in the largest sense of that term, with objects and the world becoming a “text” to interpret, understand and analyse Ø Texts, verbal and non-verbal communication, observation, experience, participation Ø Research tools: Ø All quantitative tools establishing “raw” facts Ø All qualitative tools providing for meaning and interpretation (i.e. ethnography etc.) CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø Advantages of interpretative research: Ø Not coarsed by method and scientific dogma Ø Disadvantages of interpretative research: cannot be “reified” or “verified”– relies on personal wisdom and insight and hence on personal “spiritual” power Ø More often that not, it cannot be directly “instrumentalised”, “monetized” Ø CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø Early examples of interpretative authors: Ø Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859); Ø Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900); Ø Wilhelm Dilthey (1833 – 1911); Ø Max Weber (1864 – 1920); Ø Gabriel Tarde (1843 – 1904); Ø Georg Simmel (1858 – 1918); Ø Marcel Mauss (1872 – 1950) CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø Sociological generations of interpretative authors: Ø WWI generation: Ø Karl Löwith (1897 – 1973) Ø Eric Voegelin (1901 – 1985) Ø Alfred Schutz (1899 – 1959) Ø Norbert Elias (1897 – 1990) Ø Franz Borkenau (1900 – 1957) Ø Hans – Georg Gadamer (1900 – 2002) Ø Enrico Castelli, Frances Yates, Edgar Wind etc. CLASS 14: Interpretivism Ø Sociological generations of interpretative authors: Ø WWII generation: Ø Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984) Ø Reinhart Koselleck (1923 – 2006) Ø Victor Turner (1920 – 1983) Ø Rene Girard (1923 – 2015) Ø Colin Turnbull (1924 – 1994) Ø Alessandro Pizzorno, Schmuel Eisenstadt, Mary Douglas, Michel Henry, Pierre Hadot etc. CLASS 14 – Interpretivism Ø Bibliography: Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Alexis de Tocqueville: The Old Regime and the Revolution; On Democracy in America I and II F. Nietzsche: Genealogy of Morals W. Dilthey: Introduction to the Human Sciences M. Weber: Economy and Society M. Heidegger: Being and Time G. Gadamer: Truth and Method C. Taylor: Philosophical Arguments P. Rabinow & W. M. Sullivan: Interpretive Social Science; Ø and: Interpretive Social Science. A Second Look. CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Source of critical social science in the critical rationalism of Enlightenment thought: Ø Critical rationalism: mixes the application of reason to social, economic, political issues with a concern for progress, emancipation and improvement, and is thus critical of the status quo Ø Immanuel Kant and his crucial role: Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Critique of Practical Reason (1788), Critique of Judgment (1790) Ø Teleological critique and immanent critique CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Teleological critique: Ø Telos (gr.): aim, purpose, goal Ø Aristotle’s teleological philosophy of nature: Ø nature is seen as a goal and purpose; Ø nature is good because as a goal and purpose it is self-sufficient; Ø self-sufficiency is good and natural CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Teleological critique: Ø Kant applies the idea of telos to the nature of history, giving birth to various forms of: Ø Modern secular teleology: the idea that a course of events was destined or pre-determined to take place; that what happens in history has a final purpose inbuilt into it. Ø Kant’s teleological philosophy of history: Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose (1784); An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment (1784); Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795): CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Teleological critique: Ø Kant’s teleological philosophy of history: Ø history is seen by Kant as a linear, stadial development towards rational progress; Ø Kant’s teleology is a progressive philosophy of history, where history is interpreted in ultimate terms as infinite progress / infinity of progress Ø The goal / destiny of human nature is rational progress and enlightenment Ø What drives history is rational progress CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Teleological critique: Ø Hegel’s teleological philosophy of history: Ø History as the succession of: Ø thesis (forces of affirmation); anti-thesis (the inherent forces of contradiction within thesis); the synthesis / the speculation (the overcoming of the dialectics between thesis and anti-thesis in a new whole) Ø Hegel: what drives history is the struggle for recognition among human beings (thymos) Ø History moves towards the fulfilment of the World Spirit; history’s purpose is the revelation of the Idea CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Teleological critique: Ø Hegel’s teleological philosophy of history: Ø Contemporary example of a Hegelian teleological view of history: Ø Francis Fukuyama‘s: The End of History and the Last Man (1992): Ø We have reached the end of history as the struggle for recognition reaches its end in liberal democracy Ø liberal democracy is the fulfilment of the Idea / World Spirit CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Teleological critique: Ø Marx’s teleological philosophy of history: Ø What drives history is class conflict (not rational progress; not the struggle for recognition) Ø History is created by the dialectics (internal contradictions) between the modes of production (thesis) and the forces of production (antithesis) Ø The purpose of history is given by communism which, with the abolition of class struggle and conflict, provides the solution to dialectics and brings about the end of history CLASS 14 – Critique Ø The foundations of teleological critique in the social sciences: Ø The concept of “telos” applied to history Ø the critical vantage point (the outsider position) from which the theorist claims to see the past and the future: Ø Deviations of concrete social and political conditions from the teleological model are explained away with the difference between “the actual” and “the potential”: CLASS 14 – Critique Ø The foundations of teleological critique in the social sciences: Examples of how analyses undertaken from the critical vantage point interpret deviations of reality: Ø critical socialist analyses of “actually existing socialism” in Eastern European were underpinned by conceptions about an ideal type socialism (Eastern European was not “real socialism”) – solutions to problems to be found in real socialism Ø capitalist analyses of the West: existing capitalism is not real capitalism – solutions to problems to be found in real capitalism CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Immanent critique: Ø The application of critical reason to existing (immanent) conditions of social and political life, from the perspective of what exists at the present moment Ø Refuses teleological forms of thought as “metaphysical speculations” CLASS 14 – Critique Ø Immanent critique: Ø History either has no final purpose to it, or it is beyond our possibilities to determine it theoretically Ø There is no theoretical “teleological solution” to our problems; solutions are only political and practical + any social and political system comes with its costs Ø i.e. you favour stability / security (socialism), you pay the cost of less freedom Ø i.e. you favour freedom and affirmation (capitalism), you pay the cost of less stability and security