Social science is more deeply implicated in modernity than natural science.
Evidence
Because of the close relation between the Enlightenment and advocacy of the claims of reason, natural science has usually been taken as the preeminent endeavour distinguishing the modern outlook from what went before. Even those who favour interpretative rather than naturalistic sociology have normally seen social science as the poor relation of the natural sciences, particularly given the scale of technological development consequent upon scientific discoveries. But the social sciences are actually more deeply implicated in modernity than is natural science, since the chronic revision of social practices in the light of knowledge about those practices is part of the very tissue of modern institutions. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 104
Categorization
- XREF: The reader’s whole project treats sociology as the lens on institutional trust—this passage legitimizes that move: expert social-scientific knowledge is the tissue of modern institutions like Darlington Hall’s hierarchy. — connects to: Social knowledge alters its subject, unlike natural-science observation — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 116; Modern dangers are produced by socially organized knowledge, not nature — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 262; Social science interprets the interpretations that culture makes of life — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 250 (+2 more)
- ADDENDUM: Connects to ‘Grafting & Growth’ in that both treat an apparently peripheral system as structurally central—here social science, there trees, as infrastructure.
Related
- Social science knowledge changes the social world it studies. (similarity 0.88)
- Modern dangers are produced by socially organized knowledge, not nature (similarity 0.81)
- Knowledge of the social world makes that world inherently unstable (similarity 0.81)
- Social knowledge alters its subject, unlike natural-science observation (similarity 0.81)
- New social knowledge alters the social world rather than merely describing it (similarity 0.80)
- Modernity institutionalises doubt, making all knowledge claims inherently circular (similarity 0.80)
- Knowledge of social life does not produce greater control over fate (similarity 0.80)
- Under modernity no knowledge is certain, in any science. (similarity 0.80)
- Classical social theory defined modernity by the application of scientific rationality over tradition (similarity 0.79)
- Modernity’s trust requires the awareness that human activity is socially created, not divinely given. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Social science knowledge changes the social world it studies.
#expands(0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 103 - Social knowledge alters its subject, unlike natural-science observation
#expands(0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 116 - Social science interprets the interpretations that culture makes of life
#expands(0.70) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 250 - Modern dangers are produced by socially organized knowledge, not nature
#corroborates(0.55) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 262 - Scientism and social science are distinct, and pragmatism extends scientific inquiry’s ethic
#expands(0.50) — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 133