Social knowledge alters its subject, unlike natural-science observation

Evidence

Knowledge claimed by expert observers (in some part, and in many varying ways) rejoins its subject matter, thus (in principle, but also normally in practice) altering it. There is no parallel to this process in the natural sciences; it is not at all the same as where, in the field of microphysics, the intervention of an observer changes what is being studied. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 116

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the definition of reflexivity by contrasting it with the observer effect in microphysics.
• XREF: Distinguishing reflexivity from the natural-science observer effect — useful precision for the reader’s theoretical mapping. — connects to: Social science is more deeply implicated in modernity than natural science. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 104; Social science knowledge changes the social world it studies. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 103; Knowledge of social life does not produce greater control over fate — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 111 (+9 more)

Related

• New social knowledge alters the social world rather than merely describing it (similarity 0.88)
• Social science knowledge changes the social world it studies. (similarity 0.88)
• Knowledge of social life does not produce greater control over fate (similarity 0.84)
• Knowledge of the social world makes that world inherently unstable (similarity 0.82)
• Social science is more deeply implicated in modernity than natural science. (similarity 0.81)
• Modernity is defined by wholesale reflexivity, not merely love of the new. (similarity 0.80)
• Enlightenment-based sociology fragments because theories depend on observers’ beliefs about human nature (similarity 0.79)
• Sociology’s method-driven path has failed to deliver its Enlightenment promises (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• New social knowledge alters the social world rather than merely describing it #corroborates (1.00) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 363
• Deliberation mechanisms create new social realities that information alone cannot #exemplifies (0.70) — , The Rod and the Child, 7390
• Social relations reduce to structures of knowledge in Schutz’s extreme sociology #expands (0.55)
• Social science interprets the interpretations that culture makes of life #expands (0.50) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 250