Study Questions for Examination #4
Class #24: Transition to Pragmatism
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What is constructive alternativism? How is it related to the following quote
by Einstein: “the whole of science is nothing more than the refinement of
everyday thinking.”
What is the correspondence theory of truth? What is realism? Is science a
search for the truth?
What are the three basic components of unrepresentative realism?
What is Pierce’s pragmatic maxim? How is it related to the story from
William James concerning the squirrel going round the tree?
Write a short essay summarizing and interpreting the following passage:
“We can appraise our theories from the point of view of the extent to which
they successfully come to grips with some aspect of the world, but we cannot
go further to appraise them from the point of view of the extent to which they
describe the world as it really is, simply because we do not have access to the
world independently of our theories in a way that would enable us to assess
the adequacy of those descriptions.”
Class #25: Introduction to Pragmatism
1. What does it mean to say that a text deconstructs? Provide an example.
2. Why does Cherryholmes believe that readings are always contested? How are
such “contests” related to equivocality?
3. Discuss the following statement from Cherryholmes: “tracing consequences is a
cognitive, social, political, and artistic enterprise.” In the course of your
discussion, please address each of the four characteristics of the enterprise (e.g.,
cognitive, social, etc.).
4. What does it mean to say that pragmatism is characterized by the following
features: fallibilistic, contextual, contingent, and holistic?
5. Why is pragmatism anti-foundational according to Cherryholmes?
Class #26: Truth, Meaning and Pragmatism
1. Discuss the relationship between truth and meaning posited by Cherryholmes.
2. What is the difference between truth and Truth according to Cherryholmes? What
does it mean for a pragmatist to pursue truth rather than Truth?
3. Provide an interpretation of Figure 1.1 from Cherryholmes.
4. Interpret the following:
To read at all, we must read the book of ourselves in the texts in front of
us, and we must bring the text home, into our thoughts and lives, into our
judgments and deeds. We cannot enter the texts we read, but they can
enter us. . . reading requires us to make the text our own in thought, word,
and deed.
5. What are the basic tenets of the modernist’s foundational epistemology? Relate
these tenets to the basic characteristics of the Enlightenment.
Class #27: The Linguistic Turn [20 points]
1. What is the linguistic turn? Why is it important to the scientific study of politics?
2. Identify and discuss three issues that must be resolved in order to speak correctly
about the world.
3. Rorty says that it is possible to view social science as continuous with literature
(fiction). What implications follow from viewing social science research as a
story?
4. According to Cherryholmes, how do we become better artists of ordinary
experience?
Class #28: Correct Inductive Inference
1.
What are the premises of the inductively correct argument?
2.
What is the conclusion of the inductively correct argument?
3.
Compare and contrast Type 1 and Type 2 errors.What is validity?
4.
How does the correct inductive inference differ from the “affirming the
consequent” argument?
5.
Discuss the pragmatist approach to truth
Overall Questions
1.
W. V. O. Quine observes: “Each man is given a scientific heritage plus a continuing
barrage of sensory stimulation; and the considerations which guide him in warping his scientific
heritage to fit his continuing sensory promptings are, where rational, pragmatic.” What follows
are a series of questions related to various portions of his observation.
1. “Each person is given a scientific heritage”
a. What is the heritage?
b. Where does it come from?
c. How is it spread? (meme)
2. “Each person has a continuing barrage of sensory stimulation”
a. How much sensory stimulation is actually received?
b. What is the process of perception?
c. How does the perceptual “excerpt” fit into the construction of the analog
world?
3. “Considerations that guide a person in warping his scientific heritage to fit his
sensory promptings”
a. How does this fit into the construction of a narrative?
b. How do we attach meaning?
c. What role does the tree of talking play in creating a text?
4. “Where rational, pragmatic”
a. Tracing the consequences – how is it related to rational choice?
b. What does it mean to be a pragmatic realist?
c. What sorts of arguments are persuasive?
. 2. Using the following quotation as a point of departure,
“The scientist who supposes that he is single-mindedly dedicated to the search for truth
deceives himself . . . He seeks system, simplicity, scope; and when satisfied on these
scores, he tailors truth to fit. He as much decrees and discovers the laws he sets forth, as
much designs and discerns the patterns he delineates.”
write a six paragraph essay that focuses on the following topics:
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Paragraph #1 – [Focus: “scientist . . . search for truth”] Possible topics include:
purpose of science
Paragraph #2 – [Focus: “system, simplicity, scope] Possible topics include: nature
of real world (i.e., complexity, cause and effect), theory.
Paragraph #3 – [Focus: “when satisfied . . . tailors truth to fit”] Possible topics
include: the real world/theory connection (e.g., realism, relativism, unrepresentative
realism)
Paragraph #4 – [Focus: “decree and discover laws”] Possible topics include:
systems thinking, templates.
Paragraph #5 – [Focus: “discern patterns”] Possible topics include: problem of
induction, Hume’s paradox, theory dependence of observation.
Paragraph #6 – [Focus: “deceives him/herself”] Conclusion – to what extent is the
traditional conception of science based upon self-deception?