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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 25. 6 October 1972

The Scientists (Social) Screen

The Scientists (Social) Screen

Why are the social sciences so mystifying to some who seek explanations for the enormity of 20th century brutality? Perhaps part of the mystery is due to the 'smoke-screen of jargon' (See Andre Deutsche's, The Social Sciences as Sorcery - as reviewed in Behaviour Time 25-9-72)

However the problems of the social sciences run deeper than the abstruse language of some of its high priests; The problem has its roots in the evasion of the principle, "Cognition preceeds Communication". Or, more plainly, nothing meaningful is likely to be communicated unless teacher knows what he is talking about. Although this principle seems trivial, it does not seem to be any more obvious to some (especially in politics) than one other well-known axiom: Aristotles first law, the law of Identity, "A thing is what it is".

In trying to comprehend social and political behaviour, it is clear that the first tool one needs is the possession of your own mind and a well-oiled faculty of cognition The process of integrating sensation into perception is, normally (unless inhibited by Schizo/acid/TM etc), an automatic process; But the process by which perception is integrated into cognition is not. This second level of integration depends not only on the choice to engage in the activity of thinking, but also on the integrity of the axioms implicit in one's approach. For instant not even by dint of 'dialectic' logic can one disprove the truth of the law of identity without implicitly assuming it in every word uttered. In this case, Aristotle's three principles of though cannot be disproved, but they can and often are ignored.

Nextly, the social sciences are being retarded in those areas where the almost obsessive efforts to collect data on the most minute behaviouristic details anchors one student's understanding of politics to the significance of marginal voting oscillations, and another's understanding of human psychology to the pecking order of pidgeons in a Skinner Box. Skinnerian psychology's obsession for rats as a guide to human psychology has been appropriately termed, "The ratomorphic approach" (by Arthur Koestler, The Ghost in the Machine 1st chap.). The system is weak to the degree that the concern for detail leads the social scientist to ignore the study of his principles and his objectives. Perhaps the cause of the most competent minds seeking refuge in the physical sciences is their contempt for the arbitrary and futile atmosphere in the humanities, always now under the bleak shadow of existentialism. On the other hand, as the standard of the humanities drifts downward, those who dislike the stiff intellectual competition in subjects like Maths, Physics and Engineering will drift into the humanities. In the long run both parties will be the poorer for their specialisation.