Big Data’s correlational mode is displacing causal and spirit-driven knowledge

Evidence

Big Data opens up the prospect of absolute knowledge. Everything can be measured and quantified; the things of the world reveal correlations that were previously hidden. Even human behaviour is supposed to admit exact prediction. A new age of insight is being announced. Correlations are replacing causality. That’s-how-it-is stands where How so? once wavered. The data-driven quantification of reality is driving Spirit from the realm of knowledge. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 158

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to debates on correlation-vs-causation that run through social science methodology literature. — connects to: Big data correlations alone cannot deliver causal knowledge to prediction systems — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 930; Syllogistic knowledge is narrative, while Big Data is purely additive — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 162; Big Data logic rejects theory-driven hypothesis testing in favor of raw pattern extraction — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 394 (+5 more)

Related

• Correlation knowledge without causality is, for Hegel, primitive ignorance (similarity 0.90)
• Correlational knowledge lacks the necessity that causal knowledge requires (similarity 0.90)
• Correlations without an encompassing concept yield no real knowledge (similarity 0.89)
• Big data correlations alone cannot deliver causal knowledge to prediction systems (similarity 0.86)
• Big Data logic rejects theory-driven hypothesis testing in favor of raw pattern extraction (similarity 0.85)
• Syllogistic knowledge is narrative, while Big Data is purely additive (similarity 0.85)
• Big Data is blind to the singular event that actually shapes history (similarity 0.84)
• Large samples produce significant correlations that explain little variance (similarity 0.81)
• Aggregate correlations cannot reveal the belief structures of individuals (similarity 0.79)
• Good theory explains data but cannot remain at data’s level (similarity 0.79)
• A purely data-driven human science has lost the thinking that defines it (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Big data correlations alone cannot deliver causal knowledge to prediction systems #corroborates (0.92) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 930
• Correlational knowledge lacks the necessity that causal knowledge requires #corroborates (0.90) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 159
• Big Data logic rejects theory-driven hypothesis testing in favor of raw pattern extraction #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 394
• Correlation knowledge without causality is, for Hegel, primitive ignorance #corroborates (0.82) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 159
• Aggregate correlations cannot reveal the belief structures of individuals #complicates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1933
• Syllogistic knowledge is narrative, while Big Data is purely additive #expands (0.75) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 162
• Big Data is blind to the singular event that actually shapes history #expands (0.75) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 176