Jan 8, 2022 02:31 AM
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2...-a-theory/
EXCERPT: Awhile ago we had a discussion about racism, in the context of a review of a recent book by science reporter Nicholas Wade that attributed all sorts of social changes and differences between societies to genetics.
[...] As with Freudian psychiatry, Marxism and neoclassical economics, the logic of racism can explain anything; it is unfalsifiable.
In his book, Wade looked at economic inequality today and ascribed it to race. The study of differences in societies is interesting and I think Wade finds it interesting too (in his book, he has some conflicting lines, at some points talking about how culture is all-important and at other places disparaging those social scientists who are interested in culture). Cramming everything (including interest rates and, in another book, ping pong) into a racial framework is not so convincing to me, for the reasons I stated in my review of his book.
Philosopher of science Karl Popper and others have criticized such theories as being nonscientific because they are non-refutable, but I prefer to think of them as frameworks for doing science. As such, Freudianism or Marxism or rational choice or racism are not theories that make falsifiable predictions but rather approaches to scientific inquiry. Taking some poetic license, one might make an analogy where these frameworks are operating systems, while scientific theories are programs. That’s why I wrote that I can’t say that Wade is wrong, just that I don’t find his stories convincing.
Just to be clear: I’m not saying that racist theories can’t be scientifically tested and falsified. For example, a race-based model could be used to make a prediction about the comparative future economic performance of different groups, and then this prediction could be evaluated. Similarly, Freudian theories can be used to make testable, falsifiable predictions. The Popperian point is that, although they can be used to make falsifiable statements, these frameworks can retroactively explain anything and thus are unfalsifiable in that larger sense.
This can be seen in many popular works of racism including the book by Wade... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: Awhile ago we had a discussion about racism, in the context of a review of a recent book by science reporter Nicholas Wade that attributed all sorts of social changes and differences between societies to genetics.
[...] As with Freudian psychiatry, Marxism and neoclassical economics, the logic of racism can explain anything; it is unfalsifiable.
In his book, Wade looked at economic inequality today and ascribed it to race. The study of differences in societies is interesting and I think Wade finds it interesting too (in his book, he has some conflicting lines, at some points talking about how culture is all-important and at other places disparaging those social scientists who are interested in culture). Cramming everything (including interest rates and, in another book, ping pong) into a racial framework is not so convincing to me, for the reasons I stated in my review of his book.
Philosopher of science Karl Popper and others have criticized such theories as being nonscientific because they are non-refutable, but I prefer to think of them as frameworks for doing science. As such, Freudianism or Marxism or rational choice or racism are not theories that make falsifiable predictions but rather approaches to scientific inquiry. Taking some poetic license, one might make an analogy where these frameworks are operating systems, while scientific theories are programs. That’s why I wrote that I can’t say that Wade is wrong, just that I don’t find his stories convincing.
Just to be clear: I’m not saying that racist theories can’t be scientifically tested and falsified. For example, a race-based model could be used to make a prediction about the comparative future economic performance of different groups, and then this prediction could be evaluated. Similarly, Freudian theories can be used to make testable, falsifiable predictions. The Popperian point is that, although they can be used to make falsifiable statements, these frameworks can retroactively explain anything and thus are unfalsifiable in that larger sense.
This can be seen in many popular works of racism including the book by Wade... (MORE - missing details)