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Social Science and Social Engineering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Philip M. Hauser
Philip M. Hauser*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

There should be no disagreement with the proposal for research into the role of applied social science in the formation of policy. The relation between social science and the formation of social policy and social action is, in fact, one of the more important areas of study in the general field of social control. The outline for research prepared by Mr. Merton constitutes a good framework for the investigation of important aspects of the relationship between social science and the world of practical affairs. But there is room for vigorous disagreement with a fundamental assumption about the role of applied social science with which he starts, and there are various broad considerations of importance in framing the proposed study which merit mention or greater elaboration. It is to these matters that this essay is addressed.

Type
Symposium: Applied Social Research in Policy-Formation
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 1949 , pp. 209 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association 1949

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References

Notes

1 See Talcott Parsons' “The Science Legislation and Role of Social Sciences,” American Sociological Review, December, 1946, 653–666. Murray R. Benedict, “The Social Sciences in Experiment Station Research,” paper presented at the meeting of the Land Grant College Association, Washington, D. C., November 8, 1948.

Louis Wirth, “Responsibility of Social Sciences,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia, January, 1948, 143–151. John Dewey, “Liberating the Social Scientist: A Plea to Unshackle the Study of Man,” Commentary, IV, No. 4, October, 1947, 378–385.

2 For an apposite discussion of the relation of existential, instrumental and value judgments to social science see Emile Benoit-Smullyan, “Value Judgments and the Social Sciences,” The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. XLII, No. 8, April 13, 1945, 197–210; also, George Lundberg, “Can Science Save Us?”, Harper's, December, 1945.

3 It may be noted that the policy maker or action agency is also confronted with the problem of values in selecting the researcher from among potential investigators with different value systems. Within the limits of feasibility, the policy maker may seek to have available the findings of independent researches conducted by scholars with different value systems in order to control values as a variate in the research activity.

4 See Louis Wirth, op. cit.

5 Hans J. Morganthau, Scientific Man Vs. Power Politics, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1946

6 Louis Wirth, “Consensus and Mass Communication,” American Sociological Review, February, 1948, 1–15.

7 George Gallup, Accuracy of Modern Polling Techniques in Making Election Forecasts, issued by American Institute of Public Opinion, Princeton, New Jersey, 1948.

8 The Social Science Research Council undertook an evaluation of the 1948 pre-election polls and forecasts. See forthcoming report of its Committee on Pre-election Polls and Forecasts. Mimeographed summary statement released December 27, 1948, Social Science Research Council, New York.

9 For elaboration of some of these points see Philip M. Hauser, “Are the Social Sciences Ready?”, American Sociological Review, Vol. XI, No. 4, August, 1946, 379–384. See, also, Donald G. Marquis, “Research Planning at the Frontiers of Science” The American Psychologist, October, 1948, 430–438.

10 For discussion of these points see Philip M. Hauser, “Orientation of the Social Sciences to One Another,” The Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Addresses at the Installation of Paul H. Appleby as Dean, Syracuse University, May 11, 1947.

11 Wirth, “Responsibility of Social Science,” op. cit.

12 For elaboration of this point see E. A. Goldenweiser, “Translating Facts into Policy,” National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, 1946.

13 E. A. Goldenweiser, “Research and Policy,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 39, March, 1944.