Methodology and the Humane Sciences
Moral realities -- and responsibilities – emerge at each level of
understanding and transcend those of the previous levels.
Level 1 - Talking about it. This is 19th century physics: if you know the
position and velocity of every subatomic particle, forecasting the future and
explaining the past is merely a matter of "doing the sums." Then came
Einstein, Heisenberg, Goedel...
Level 2 - Talking about them. Rocks and stars don't learn, they don't exhibit
mental behaviors. Welcome to behaviorism which, interestingly, dominated
psychology in both the United States and the Soviet Union following World
War One.
Level 3 - We are talking about them. We must now also think about how we
-- the detached observers -- are thinking. Enter Thomas Kuhn's heresy of
"paradigms." There can be no such things as immaculate perceptions or
conceptions, the “view from nowhere,” finite “data” bases. “Mental models”
matter very much.
Level 4 - We are talking about you. Time to transcend bench science -what we think and say affect you. As Keynes once reminded us, “It is ideas,
not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.” E.g., self-fulfilling
prophecies are really “real.”
Level 5 - We are talking with you. This is "dialogue" in the rigorous sense
used by the late David Bohm. We are now obliged to look directly in the
mirror. Now we can review together our socially constructed realities. “Ought”
and “is” become fused as implicit--even disguised--choices are revealed.
Level 6 - We all are talking about us. “Reality” must always transcend our
understandings. It is far better -- and a wiser wager -- to look upwards,
together, rather than down. At this level of understanding, “faith” becomes
meaningful -- “real.” Whereas regressing into “objectivism” leads us into the
nihilistic abyss of reductionism, of “nothing-but-ness.”