Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
III. Methods and tools
8.3 shows one of the foundational stories of
Box
being disputed by other disciplines
economics
To what extent is this kind of disagreement
1.
different disciplines desirable?
between
Which factors determine whether it
2.
unproductive?
becomes
following words of wisdom and warning
The
Wade Davis conclude this section.
from
we drift towards [a] blandly amorphous generic
as
view not only would we see the entire range
world
about human nature and societies
Explanations
come from the human sciences tend to be
that
as having authority and legitimacy. This is
seen
we believe there is something about the
because
through which they are produced
methodology
warrants it. This section takes a closer
that
at the knowledge production practices,
look
methods and tools used by the different
the
and their associated challenges
disciplines,
strengths.
and
human sciences study human phenomena
The
the goals of understanding and
towards
Would you say it is useful for students
3.
critically explore and understand the
to
assumptions of a discipline before
founding
on to acquire knowledge in that
going
Does having more knowledge in a
4.
make it easier or harder to
discipline
the assumptions on which it
question
built? was
and preserving a plurality of
Cultivating
in the human sciences keeps alive
perspectives
kind of moral imagination. Davis warns that
a
is being impoverished by the promotion
this
narrow and singular interpretations of
of
nature.
human
patterns of activity, making
explaining
about outcomes and guiding policy
predictions
As an AOK, this study can
interventions.
impact human life in the present and
profoundly
However, in the last decade there has
future.
a growing awareness, particularly within
been
behavioural sciences, that only a very small
the
of humankind is being systematically
section
a 2003–07 study “of the top psychology
studied:
found that 96% of subjects were from
journals
industrialized countries—which house
Western
12% of the world’s population” (Henrich
just
al 2010a). There is even a WEIRD acronym for
et
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and
it:
As well as forming the acronym,
Democratic.
authors contend that “weird” is an accurate
the
8
For ref lection
Critical explorations
discipline?
in the human sciences.
the human imagination reduced to a more narrow
of
of thought … we would wake from a dream
modality
day having forgotten there were even other
one
possibilities.
(Davis2003)
I I I . M E T H O D S A N D T O O LS
III.1 Who are the humans in the human
sciences?
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