Yiyu

Wang
PHIL 466
Prof. Alison Wylie
May 1 2015
The Unsuitable Empirical Method in Social Studies

In The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy, Peter Winch

raised the controversy over the scientific approach in social studies. Unlike his

contemporaries, Winch rejected the idea of taking a scientific approach in social

inquiry by arguing that social inquiry concerns with a conceptual question while the

scientific method only answers an empirical question. Although Winch considered

social inquiry and natural science as two dichotomous categories of study, he did

not reject the empirical method altogether. This essay is going to unfold what Winch

defined as an empirical method and why statistics, as a form of empirical method in

Winchs account, is not compatible with social inquiry.

Winch described that the empirical inquiry is looking for uniformities in

human behaviors based on statistical generalizations. The ultimate goal is to

establish a causal explanation and to make predictions. In this type of scientific

method, uniformity is one of the most predominant characteristics. The concept of

uniformities is based on the assumption that human behaviors are regulated by the

same set of rules across the universe. The assumption embodies a leap that the

knowledge obtained in a context is generalizable to another context. Many

philosophers including John Stuart Mill believe that statistical generalization is the

key to unlock the meaning of social phenomenon and provide a causal explanation

since this is the only way to receive the unanimous assent of all who have attended

the proof (Winch, 64). Such an account implies that social knowledge is universal,

which can be obtained through pure empirical methods like natural science. It
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therefore implicitly suggests that social contexts and social members as irrelevant.

This is the point Winch found problematic and rejected it in the book.

In Chapter 3, The Social Studies as Science, Winch stated that Mill, and those

who also believe that natural science method is applicable to social studies, all make

a category mistake. By this claim, Winch denied the statistical foundation of Mills

argument. Mills idea states that we should grasp social phenomenon through

empirical, specifically, statistical generalization. The argument runs as follows.

Uniformities should only be studied by science, and there are uniformities in human

behaviors, which exist in the form of the laws of mind. The laws of mind are similar

to scientific laws because they both essentially are statements of uniformities. The

only reason that we are unable to formulate the uniformities in terms of statistical

laws is owing to the complexity of the variables in the social phenomenon (Winch,

64).

On the other hand, Winch had already examined the reasons why social

inquiry is conceptual and thus should be treated as a different kind of study as

natural science in Chapter 2, The Nature of Meaningful Behavior. He elaborated that

a social action only counts as meaningful if it is recognized by others within a

community. Recognition and response from other community members is crucial,

this is to say that the interaction between each human being and their relation to the

environment is accountable for understanding social phenomenon. Social actions

are governed by a set of rules that are fully context dependent. These social rules,

unlike scientific rules that are universal, more closely resemble social conventions

that are mutually agreed by a community. Therefore, Winch considered removing

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the social context as a failure to recognize the human agency, and this is the wrong

type of empirical method to be used in social studies. This leads to Winchs ultimate

argument that social study is conceptual and thus incompatible with the empirical

method, namely, Mills statistical laws. By this, Winch showed that Mills approach

neglects the relation between the individuals and the social contexts, in which the

meaning of the social action dwells.

Moreover, in the later chapters Winch rejected Webers Verstehen method.

Webers account of social inquiry suggests that the interpretative method is

incomplete and needs statistical evidence to supplement. Winch rejected this idea

because Statistics, though they may suggest that is so, are not the decisive and

ultimate court of appeal for the validity of sociological interpretations in the way

Weber suggests. What is then needed is a better interpretation, not something

different in kind. The compatibility of an interpretation with the statistics does not

prove its validity (Winch, 106) Weber also committed the category mistake for

applying the empirical logic in a pure priori process in social studies. In Winchs

understanding, the sociologists cannot grasp the meaning of a social phenomenon

without an insiders understanding of the social context and the logic of an action.

By expressing this, Winch has strongly advocated that humanistic components are

indispensable in social actions, which is contrary to the scientific investigation,

which struggled to exclude any human influence. It is worth noticing that Winch

rejected the statistical evidence here because data is collected in the way that

human elements of the phenomenon are often eliminated. The investigation that

fails to take social context into consideration is superficial and misleading without
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insiders insight of the social context. Statistical evidence must be guided by a

presupposed reflective understanding of the society or a particular mode of society.

Therefore, Winch only rejected the idea of using the so-called scientific mode of

data for interpreting social phenomenon rather than rejecting empirical methods

entirely.

In conclusion, Winch described the empirical method as a method that

removes the human agency and social contexts. The logic of natural science is

incompatible with social inquiry because the former is an empirical investigation

that does not go beyond evidence, while the latter is a conceptual process that

involves making interpretations. Therefore, the empirical evidence without

consideration of human aspects, such as statistics, does not make sense in

explaining social phenomenon. Since the book has been published, many

philosophers of social science tried to dismiss Winchs provocative idea and todays

social science is still not quite look like what Winch describes. However, I think this

book definitely serves the purpose to reflect on examining the foundation of todays

social science, and the methods that are taken fro granted.

Work Cited

Winch, Peter. The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy. London:

Routledge, 2008. Print.