SOC SCI H1G Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Voseo, Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences, Descriptive Knowledge

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOC SCI H1G
• Professor: Jeff Barrettand Kyle Stanford

Document Summary

While our individual belief-forming mechanisms are often unreliable, one might have thought that the shared activity of empirical science allows for rationally justified beliefs. But when we consider how empirical science works, (strong) kuhn argues that it does not involve forming reliable beliefs at all. But laudan argues that there are perfectly rational ways to justify choosing one paradigm over another and even (weak) kuhn sometimes seems to agree: the(cid:374) it (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t (cid:271)e fro(cid:373) (cid:449)ithi(cid:374) the sta(cid:374)dards of o(cid:374)e of the paradig(cid:373)s. The standards of this paradigm are not going to lead me to accept another paradigm. Cost-benefit analysis standard of rational justification (cid:894)(cid:449)eak(cid:895) kuh(cid:374): (cid:862)o(cid:448)er ti(cid:373)e, our logi(cid:272)al (cid:272)apa(cid:271)ilities i(cid:373)pro(cid:448)e, a(cid:374)d that is progress(cid:863) (e. g. ) curing cancer/illness, flying safely. Does(cid:374)"t depe(cid:374)d o(cid:374) paradig(cid:373)s, (cid:271)ut si(cid:373)ple (cid:373)atters of fa(cid:272)t that (cid:449)e (cid:272)are about. We want a paradigm that gives me success in actions that i care about. This involves cost-benefit analysis between competing theories.