Testament for Social Science (RLE Social Theory)

An Essay in the Application of Scientific Method to Human Problems

Barbara Wootton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000155907
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The contrast between man's amazing ability to manipulate his world and his pitiful incompetence in managing his own affairs is now as commonplace as it is tragic. It is by rigorous devotion to scientific method that we have made our conquests over the material environment; it is obvious that this method is not normally applied to the field of relations of human beings, individual and collective. These are conducted in a quite different way, governed by a medley of primitive impulses set in a framework of a traditional morality that varies from place to place and age to age. In these matters science plays little part; yet more than a century has passed since Auguste Comte said that the rational reform of society must be brought about by the application of scientific method to social problems. It is, therefore, the first purpose of this essay to ask how far social problems might be tackled by the methods of science.

INDEX

Ability, artistic, measurement of, 167

Absolutes, of religious morality, 132

Acquired characters, inheritance of, 100–1

Activity, directive, 136

Action, on partial knowledge, 60

Aesthetic experience, 172

Aesthetics, 6

Agnosticism, 97–8, 116

Aims, party, 59–60

Anthropocentrism, 118, 131

Anthropology, 2, 6, 12

social, 91, 191

Argument, verbal, 52–3

Aristode, 30, 88

Art, physical reactions to, 166

Arts, relation to sciences, 54–5

Asceticism, 145

Associations, 16–19

in social sciences, 20 ff.

Astrology, 51, 107

Augustine, St., 95

Bacon, 15

Barnes, Rt. Rev. E. W., 101, 112

Barth, Karl, 189

Behaviour, indeterminacy in, 20–1

recording of, 12

and sense-experience, 8–9

Benedict, Ruth, 148, 192

Bentham, 70

Bias, in sampling, 50

Biology, 6

analogies from, 72 ff.

and moral standards, 134 ff.

Blood feud, 127

Bronowski, 18

Butler, Samuel, 21

Butterfield, Herbert, 117

Campbell, Norman R., 7,15,110–21

Cantril, Hadley, 39

Cartwright, 49

Category, meaning of, 105–7

Causation, 15, 18, 21

Christ, 99–100

Christianity, 87, 101–2, 118, 132

Civilisations and individuals, confusion, 73 fF.

Clapham Committee, 45

Class structure of society, 82–4

Cohen, Morris R., 33

Comfort, Alex, 129

Commons, House of, speeches, 56

Communism, 189–90

Communist Manifesto, 84, 86

Complexity of situations, 22–3, 24

Comprehensiveness, party claims to, 64

Comte, A., 2

Conferences, verbalism at, 56

Conscienc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• I. Introduction
• II. Scientific Method in the Social Sciences
• III. Pre-Scientific Mental Habits
• IV. Two Blind Alleys
• V. Science and Metaphysics
• VI. Science and Morals
• VII. Science and the Arts
• VIII. Conclusion
• Index