The Political Philosophy of Quantification

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Theodore M. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
State Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Individual Freedom

This chapter investigates the political philosophy of quantification. The intellectualist defense of quantification bears on the ethical issues. A system of demonstrably false or untestable dogmas, the product of state power and not of free persuasion, has obvious moral implications to anyone concerned about individual freedom. This point, indeed, has been at the heart of some of the most influential philosophical defenses of science in this century. John Dewey considered science an ally of democracy, and argued that scientific method means nothing more than the subjection of beliefs to skeptical inquiry. Karl Popper held it up as antidote to the century's totalitarianisms. While Popper did not stress quantification in his political philosophy of science, his terms could easily be applied to it. Although it is of course possible to use numbers casually and informally, quantification for public as well as scientific purposes has generally been allied to a spirit of rigor. The chapter then explores objectivity and objectification, as well as French statistics.

scholarly journals SĄMOKSLAS KAIP POLITIKOS MOKSLO IR LIBERALIOS VISUOMENĖS PROBLEMA

Problemos ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvydas Jokubaitis
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Liberal Society

Straipsnis skirtas šiuolaikinės politinės filosofijos nuošalyje likusiai sąmokslo problemai. Sąmokslas yra didelis iššūkis pozityvistinei mokslo sampratai. Karlo R. Popperio sąmokslo teorijos kritika prieštarauja pagrindinėms šio autoriaus metodologinėms nuostatoms. Popperio požiūris į sąmokslo teoriją gali būti apibūdintas kaip nenuoseklus ir vienpusiškas. Sąmokslas yra didelis iššūkis liberalizmo politinei filosofijai. Daugelis autorių mano, kad sąmokslas yra mažai reikšmingas liberalios visuomenės gyvenimo elementas. Tai menkai pagrįstas požiūris. Net pačioje liberaliausioje visuomenėje veikia daugybė slaptų susitarimų, viešai nematomų politinio gyvenimo subjektų ir manipuliacijų viešąja nuomone. Kai kurie dabartinių liberalių visuomenių politinio gyvenimo reiškiniai verčia naujai pažvelgti į sąmokslo fenomeną.Reikšminiai žodžiai: sąmokslas, sąmokslo teorija, pozityvizmas, liberalizmas. CONSPIRACY AS A PROBLEM OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND LIBERAL SOCIETYAlvydas Jokubaitis Summary The article discusses the concept of political conspiracy. This concept is a great challenge to a positivistic understanding of political science. The criticism of conspiracy theory proposed by Karl Popper contradicts the main methodological ideas maintained by the author. His view on conspiracy theory may be described as incoherent and one-sided. Conspiracy is an ambitious challenge to contemporary liberal political philosophy. It is widely asserted that conspiracy is an insignificant element in the political life of a liberal society. This view is hardly substantiated. Even in the most liberal society there are a lot of clandestine agreements, undercover subjects of political life and manipulations of public opinion. Many phenomena of contemporary liberal society encourage us to regard conspiracy from a different perspective.Keywords: conspiracy, conspiracy theory, positivism, liberalism.

Democracy and the Scientific Method In the Philosophy of John Dewey

1969 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph G. Metz
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Political Democracy ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Philosophical Orientation ◽  
Normative Content

John Dewey was both a devoted student of politics and an eminent philosopher. He constructed his theory of political democracy according to his own philosophical orientation. At the same time, he believed that political science should be pursued independently of political philosophy on the assumption that the “scientific method” alone is meaningful in resolving political questions. It is through his philosophy of “experience,” instrumentalism, that Dewey resolved the potential antithesis between philosophy and experimental science as he understood it. It is the scientific method alone, Dewey insists, that can do justice to the integrity of “experience.” Moreover, through its application to political democracy, the scientific method is the link connecting philosophical instrumentalism and democracy. Accordingly, this essay will attempt to show: 1) the threefold relationship among philosophy, science, and democracy provides the key to an understanding of Dewey's political thought; 2) the philosophical antecedents of instrumentalism, being inseparable from Dewey's “scientific method,” provide normative content for his democratic theory; and 3) the purpose of Dewey's application of the scientific method to political democracy is to reshape traditional values in accordance with the philosophical — and not necessarily scientific — antecedents of instrumentalism.

Politics and Morality in the Thought of Karl Popper

1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Minogue
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Open Society ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social

LIKE MANY PEOPLE, I FIND KARL POPPER BOTH FASCINATING and irritating. His vigour and lucidity are irresistible, and no one could complain that he fails to engage with the big questions. The problems begin when we consider his political thought. Some think him one of the great liberal philosophers of the century. I on the other hand, while being fascinated by The Open Society and its Enemies, am repelled by the grossness of its caricaturing of most of the thinkers it touches. The Poverty of Historicism is a marvellous text in the philosophy of the social sciences, but the idea of historicism is a straw man. The paradox seems to be that while there is a lot that refers to the political questions of the day, there is virtually nothing which takes up issues of political philosophy directly. The result is that he seems to me always to be on the wrong foot, and my problem is to discover why.

Karl Popper und das Staatsverständnis des Kritischen Rationalismus

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Open Society ◽  
Social Reformer ◽  
Theory Of Science ◽  
German Politics

Hardly anyone has defended an open society in the political philosophy of the 20th century as passionately as Karl Popper. His understanding of democracy is closely linked with his theory of science and criticism of Plato, Hegel and Marx. As a liberal and a social reformer, he has been a key figure in influencing German politics across party lines since the 1970s. Reviews of Popper’s work can even be found in the theory and teachings of constitutional law (namely those of Peter Häberle) and in Germany’s constitutional court. Even today, Popper’s works can be used to take a stance against not only dictatorships and concepts of ‘communities’, but also against the pseudo-liberal, merciless form of capitalism embodied by so-called ‘Ich-AGs’ (single companies founded by unemployed individuals).

scholarly journals Evolución, Rupturas y Contramarchas en el Constructivismo Kantiano de John Rawls

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (31) ◽  
pp. 103-125
Author(s):  
Fernando Aranda Fraga ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Moral Constructivism ◽  
The Moment

Starting in a paper where he defines his constructivist notion of morality (1980), Rawls begins - at least explicitly - to grow apart from Kant, one of his major mentors up to the moment, especially regarding that first original support given in A Theory of Justice. At the same time, he reveals himself as sympathizing with the political philosophy of John Dewey. In order to accomplish this microproject where he makes explicit the changes affecting his theory, he resorts to a reasoning based on the supposedly variants that, according to Rawls, are present in constructivism. Out of this new version of moral constructivism, he begins drifting apart from the rigorous Kantianism the first community voices had began to criticize in him in the 70’s.

Politics by other means: Justus von Liebig and the German translation of John Stuart Mill's Logic

1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAT MUNDAY
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Chemical Methods ◽  
German Translation ◽  
Complex Figure ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Von Liebig ◽  
The Relationship

Compared with other scientists of the nineteenth century, the German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803–73) was a complex figure. In part, this was because Liebig established such broad borders for his science. Chemical methods, popular and professional publications about chemistry, technological applications, promoting the car and even politics – all were central concerns stemming from Liebig's notion of chemistry as the central science.When Liebig discovered John Stuart Mill's Logic, a work on the philosophy of science, it struck a deep chord within him. Mill's high praise for Liebig's chemistry certainly provided Liebig with a means to promote his own reputation. In addition, Mill's Logic presented science as a central method for the general reform of society, a goal Liebig was himself struggling to define in the early 1840s. In the scientific method, Mill discovered a ‘rule by the elite’, which he could never find nor justify in his political philosophy. This was a rule that greatly appealed to Liebig, and he set out to ensure that Mill's work was translated and published in German. Though many details of this transaction are known, this paper seeks to investigate the relationship between Liebig and Mill's book, and the significance of this relationship for understanding Liebig's role as a gatekeeper and inter-relations between science and politics.

The Political Philosophy of Karl Popper

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lessnoff
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
New Left ◽  
The Political ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Cultural Conservatism ◽  
Dominant Influence

In 1968 there appeared in New Left Review an essay by its editor, Perry Anderson, which attracted considerable attention. Detecting in the student unrest then at its height ‘stirrings of a revolutionary consciousness’, Anderson was concerned to identify (and of course attack) the main elements ofthat British cultural conservatism which, in his view, the burgeoning revolutionary consciousness must overthrow. In brief, his view was that British intellectual life was dominated by a ‘“White”, counter-revolutionary emigration’ from Eastern and Central Europe – men who had fled the instability of their own societies for the continuity and order of the British tradition. Among them Anderson listed, as the dominant influence in social theory, Karl Popper. This was an accolade of sorts, but by no means any kind of intellectual tribute, for Anderson went on to dismiss Popper as nothing more than a ‘fluent ideologue’, incompetent alike in sociology and political theory.

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