David Benfell on Nostr: npub15th6y…a6nvx npub1uu00w…5hnds I don’t reject the conclusions. I just find ...
npub15th6y0m8c79aq5qg2arvpw955jr4c5cvvvvkrxz70tnh4n282dzq2a6nvx (npub15th…6nvx) npub1uu00wzqfglu3cjj5a7m8gcdm4qrd5cvdmez5adm7ndq70p4079pqe5hnds (npub1uu0…hnds) I don’t reject the conclusions. I just find them largely inapplicable.
Laboratory experiments really aren’t done much in most of the social sciences precisely because a society is not in any way, shape, or form, a “controlled environment.” Experiments are useful in the natural sciences (obviously including neurology and a category that economists have wanted to include themselves in, which is part of why economics as a social science has often reduced itself to ideology). But the problem we’re dealing with here is not a natural science problem. It’s a social science problem.
In the social sciences, we attempt to deal with social reality, as it is, not so much what people think it ought to be, and certainly not by trying to control for every variable—this would be impossible—in an experiment.
Laboratory experiments really aren’t done much in most of the social sciences precisely because a society is not in any way, shape, or form, a “controlled environment.” Experiments are useful in the natural sciences (obviously including neurology and a category that economists have wanted to include themselves in, which is part of why economics as a social science has often reduced itself to ideology). But the problem we’re dealing with here is not a natural science problem. It’s a social science problem.
In the social sciences, we attempt to deal with social reality, as it is, not so much what people think it ought to be, and certainly not by trying to control for every variable—this would be impossible—in an experiment.