Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors

From Harvey Mansfield, at Wall Street Journal (and here, in case it's behind the paywall).

Substituting "political science" for "economics" at the essay also works. (Recall this post.)
Posted by AmPowerBlog at 12:00 PM
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5 comments:

Estase said...

I think that the emphasis on economic modeling in political science has gone way too far. The trend is against any notion that political science should borrow from its mother, PHILOSOPHY, and as one who endured a 300-level international relations course, as well as majored in Poli Sci, many of the phony equations that get so much attention are absolute nonsense from an algebraic standpoint.

May 31, 2011 at 1:29 PM
Bruce said...

But doesn't the nature of philosophy as being relativistic marginalize any conclusions that are drawn, whereas an economic model will at least provide a tactile path from point A to point B?

June 1, 2011 at 5:43 PM
Cornelius said...

Economic modeling is an important development in political science. It has improved the discipline by making it more rigorous. I see nothing wrong with it, as long as it doesn't become a dominant paradigm in political science.

June 9, 2011 at 3:41 AM
Estase said...

Philosophy is not necessary relativistic, just because some philosophy undergraduates like to pretend to be relativists. Economics is not purely objective itself--otherwise all economists would agree on what causes economic growth.

June 17, 2011 at 12:40 PM
Estase said...

Just because some philosophy undergrads pretend to be relativists doesn't mean philosophy is relativistic. If economics were purely objective, economists would agree on how to grow an economy, which they don't.

June 17, 2011 at 12:43 PM

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