Epistemology of the Human Sciences: Restoring an Evolutionary Approach to Biology, Economics, Psychology and Philosophy

Praise for Epistemology of the Human Sciences
Epigraph Source Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Tables
1 Preface
	Note
	References
2 Understanding, Explaining, and Knowing
	The Nature of Understanding
	From Axiomatics to Hypothetico-Deductive Method
	Learning and the Limited Role of Experience
	Where Does the Illusion of Certainty Come From?
	Mathematics and Other Notational Forms of Linguistic Precision
	How Does Meaning Relate to Understanding?
	The Use of Mathematics in the Social and Physical Domains
	Measurement
	Understanding and Knowledge Are Functional Concepts Not Subject to Natural Law Determinism
	Pitfalls and Promises of Ambiguity and Ignorance
	A Bucket or a Searchlight?
	Note
	References
Part I Knowledge as Classification, Judgment, and Mensuration
3 Problems of Mensuration and Experimentation
	Physics and the Cat
	Another Fundamental Problem: Experimental Science Requires Classical Level Apparatus
	Historical Excursus: The Nature and Role of Experiment in Classical Science
	Change Is Inevitably Scale-Dependent, and Theoretically Specified
	Note
	References
4 Problems of Measurement and Meaning in Biology
	The State-of-the-Art (Isn’t the Best Science)
	Probability Absolutes and Absolute Probabilities
	Replicability Is Scale Dependent
	What is an Organism?
	Phenomenalistic Physics is Incompatible with the Facts of Biology and the Nature of Epistemology
	Note
	References
5 Psychology Cannot Quantify Its Research, Do Experiments, or Be Based on Behaviorism
	A: Psychology Has Neither Ratio Measurement Nor Experimentation
		The Psychology of Robots Has Nothing to Do with the Psychology of Subjects
		No One Has Ever Discovered a Natural Law in Psychology
		Social Science Is Just Fine with Demonstration Studies
	B: Epistemic Fads and Fallacies Underlying Behaviorism
		The Failure of Phenomenalism
		Excursus: Consciousness Alone Is Not the Issue
		The Spell of Ernst Mach
		The Haunted Universe Doctrine of Behaviorism
		Control at All Costs
	Note
	References
6 Taking the Measure of Functional Things
	The Role of Statistical Inference in Contemporary Physics
	How Shall We Study Co-occurrence Relationships?
	In Defense of Miss Fisbee
	References
7 Statistics Without Measurement
	Nonparametric Statistical Procedures Work with Nominal, Ordinal, and Some Interval Data
	Generalizability, Robustness, and Similar Issues
	Back to the Drawing Board, at Least for a While
	Testing a Theory in Psychology is Paradoxical for Those Who Do not Understand Problems of Scaling and Mensuration
	Back to History for a Moment
	References
8 Economic Calculation of Value Is Not Measurement, Not Apriori, and Its Study Is Not Experimental
	Austrian “Subjectivism” Begins with the Impossibility of “Physical” Mensuration
	Behavioral Economics Is Just Applied Social Psychology
	What Has Been Called “Experimental Economics” Is Actually Constrained Demonstration Studies
	This Is Your Problem as a Consumer of “Scientific” Knowledge
	Scaling Procedures Crucially Influence the Progress of Science
	Probability Theories Help Nothing Here
	Human Action Is Not Given Apriori
	Productive Novelty Cannot Occur in an Apriori System
	Creativity Is Tied to Ambiguity
	Note
	References
Part II What can be Known, and What is Real
9 Structural Realism and Theoretical Reference
	Structural Realism and Our Knowledge of the Non-mental World
	Acquaintance and Description
	From Phenomenalism to Structural Realism
	Science and Structure
	From Structure to Intrinsic Properties
	Science and the Search for Structural Descriptions
	Acquaintance Is Not Knowledge
	References
10 The Mental and Physical Still Pose Insuperable Problems
	A: The Classic Problems
		Sentience and Qualia
		The Problem of Functionality Again
	B: Consciousness, Objectivity, and the Pseudo Problem of Subjectivity
		Our Individual Consciousness Can Never Be Causal Within Our Own Bodies
		Consciousness Does Not Exist in Time
		Consequences of the Fact That Acquaintance Is Not Knowledge
		The Traditional Problem of Objectivity Is Backwards
		Excursus: The Chicken and Egg of Subjectivity and Objectivity
	C: Clarifications of False Starts and Important Issues
		Austrian Subjectivism Is a Misnomer and Often a Red Herring
		Awareness of Our Own Internal Milieu
		Is “Silent Consciousness” of Epistemic Importance?
		Excursus: Chance, Constraint, Choice, Control, Contingency
		Rate-Independent Formal Concepts Are Not Objects of the Laws of Nature
	D: Knowledge Depends Upon the Functional Choices of Nervous Systems
		Boundary Conditions Harness the Laws of Nature
		Initial Conditions and Boundary Conditions
		Information Structures Are Constraints, but Not Just Boundary Conditions
		Physical Information (Differences or Bits) Does Not Explain Meaning
		Functionality Is Fundamentally Ambiguous Until Its Derivational History Is Specified
		Old Wine in Better Bottles
	Notes
	References
Part III There are Inescapable Dualisms
11 Complementarity in Science, Life, and Knowledge
	Observers and the Observed
	Subjects Make Choices
	Life Began with Functional Instruction
	Symbols and Meanings Are Rate-Independent
	Physicality Can Only Be Disambiguated—And Hence Understood—By Concomitant Functional Analysis
	Physics Is Only a Beginning
	Context Sensitivity and Ambiguity
		Emergence Beyond Physicality
	Semiotic Closure as Self-Constraint: Agency as a Matter of Internal Determination
	Notes
	References
12 Complimentarities of Physicality and Functionality Yield Unavoidable Dualisms
	Downward Causation
	If Laws Do Not Cause Emergence, What Enables It?
	Evolution and the Competitive Basis of Cooperation
	Epistemology Originated In and Is Shaped by Selection Pressure in Open Systems
	Adaptive Systems in Learning and Cognition
	Economic Orders Are Not Agents and Do Not Have Expectations
	Recapitulation: Adaptive Behavior Shows Apparent Teleology Does Not Violate Causality
	The Laws of Nature Are Not the Same as the Rules of Behavior
	Another Recapitulation: The Physical Sciences Also Require a Duality of Descriptions
	References
Part IV Complexity and Ambiguity
13 Understanding Complex Phenomena
	Explanation of the Principle
	A Precise But Unspecifiable Definition of High Complexity
	Limits of Explanation: Complexity and Explanation of the Principle
	The Superior Power of Negative Rules of Order
	Negative Rules of Order Constrain the Social Cosmos
	Science Is Constrained by Negative Rules of Order
	Negative Rules of Order in Society
	Excursus: The Context of Scientific Inquiry
	Excursus: Notes on the Methodology of Scientific Research
	Note
	References
14 The Resolution of Surface and Deep Structure Ambiguity
	The Inevitable Ambiguity of Behavior
	Deep Structure Ambiguity Is Fundamentally Different from Surface Structure Ambiguity
	Why Is Behavior in Linear Strings?
	Excursus: Ambiguity and Dimensionality
	Dimensionality of the Mind
	Surface Structures, Deep Structures, and the Ambiguity of Dimensionality
	References
Part V The Corruption of Knowledge: Politics and the Deflection of Science
15 Political Prescription of Behavior Ignores Epistemic Constraints
	Progressivism and the Philosophy of Rationalist Constructivism
	Liberalism and the Division of Labor and Knowledge
	The Data Relevant to PoliticalTheory Is Economic, Psychological and Sociological
	Science Is No Longer a Spontaneously Organized Endeavor
	The Moral: The Constructivist Desire to Make Everything Subject to Explicit or “Rational” Control Cannot Work
	Evolved Social Institutions Are Indispensable Knowledge Structures
	Sociology Has Lost Sight of Earlier Insights
	Notes
	References
Part VI Appendix: The Abject Failure of Traditional Philosophy to Understand Epistemology
16 Induction Is an Insuperable Problem for Traditional Philosophy
	Is There a Foundation to Knowledge?
	From Certainty to Near Certainty or Probability
	The Retreat to Conventionalism in Sophisticated Neo-Justificationism
	Hermeneutics and the New Pragmatism
	Realism Is Explanatory, Instrumentalism Is Exculpatory
	Notes
	References
17 Rhetoric and Logic in Inference and Expectation
	The Functions of Language
	Criticism Is Argument, Not Deduction
	Theories Are Arguments, and Have Modal Force
	Adjunctive Reasoning in Inference
	Science Is a Rhetorical Transaction
	Notes
	References
18 Rationality in an Evolutionary Epistemology
	Comprehensive Views of Rationality
	Critical Rationalism Starts with the Failure of Comprehensive
	Comprehensively Critical Rationalism
	Rationality Is Action in Accordance with Reason
	Rationality Does not Directly Relate to Truth or Falsity
	Action in Accordance with Reason Is a Matter of Evolution within the Spontaneous Social Order
	Rationality and Its Relativity
	Rationality Is Neither Instantly Determined Nor Explicit
	Like the Market Order, Rationality Is a Means, not an End
	Comprehensively Critical Rationality is Rhetorical (and so Is All Knowledge Claiming)
	Rationality in the Complex Social Cosmos
	The Ecology of Rationality
	Science and Our Knowledge Must be Both Personal and Autonomous
	Rationality and The “New” Confusion About Planning in Society
	Note
	References
References
Name Index
Subject Index