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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page discussion of a point from Rosenberg's Philosophy of Social Science. For the purposes of discussion, Rosenberg reduces the fundamental perspective of all social science to one principle, which he refers to as "L." However, he then argues that this principle (L) is not empirically based and does no lead to increasing level of predictability. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khrosss.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
"hard" sciences, empirical studies can discern provable facts that hold true regardless of circumstances. In other words, it is possible to discern scientific "laws" that have guidelines for predicting
the outcomes of certain phenomena. Scientists can use physics to determine precisely how far a missile will go on a certain amount of fuel. Chemists can predict how one substance
will react with another, etc. However the "soft" sciences, the social science, have yet to find this high level of predictability. In exploring why this should be so, Rosenberg reduces
the fundamental perspective of all social science to one principle, which he refers to as "L." However, he then argues that this principle (L) is not empirically based and
does no lead to increasing level of predictability. Rosenberg states that something "like the following oversimplified general statement" appears to provide the foundation for everyday explanations of human action,
as well as "our predictions about how people will behave in the future , and explanations in social science that trade on folk psychology" (31). This principle reads: (L) If
any agent x, wants d, and x believes that a is a means to attain d under the circumstances, then x does a (Rosenberg 31). Many people believe that
it is (L) that connects human behavior with the environment via "desires and beliefs" that the environment fosters in us (Rosenberg 31). However, Rosenberg argues that (L) is false,
because there are so many ways to construct exceptions to this behavioral principle. For example, what if there is something else that x wants even more then he wants
d. Furthermore, what if the actions to obtain his first desire and, also, what he wants even more are incompatible (Rosenberg 32). Furthermore, what is x does not believe
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