Startup, Richard

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OSU Journals (Oklahoma State University)

FREEINQUIRYinCREATIVESOCIOlOGY Volume10No1May1982 17THE SOCIOLOGY OF UNCERTAIN KNOWLEDGERichard Startup, UniFREE INQUIRY in CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY Volume10No1 May1982 18FREE INQUIRY in CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY Volume10No1 May1982 19nationso n.There is an important associaIn any cultural context there is a conFREE INQUIRY in CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY Volume10No1 May1982 20IND ION, THEORY, ,. PRAXISIn con induetion""we will develop theview that we must account for certain· elabo-.formations as attempts to copeAnalytical hersi ·s unju ble. Butprinciples of induction, theyVolume10No1 May1982 21Scientific theories mayate societies, but there .need to operatedi ishTtTthe theory of k hoconstructed and how it changes.Ayer, A. J. 1963. Con of a Person anderEssays.. n's s.Brown, Harold. 1978a."Need There Be aFREE INQUIRYin CREATIVE SOCIOLOGYcontrast two situations when an inductive con-clusion might be reached. 1) A situation whena thing of a certain sort, "A" has been found tobe associated with a thing of another sort, "B",and has never been found dissociated from athing ort "el1, and 2). a situation thephe is a gener lion romvid cases, but can be subsumed under sci-entific theory. It is frequently suggestewe can have mdre fidence in induunder the second condition. In one iderespect, there is'no reason to be mo'e case than in thr a scientific theory, the em~pirical theory can only be a fi-nite number of observations.Weeshed on the persistent be-lief th is more'j iedforinduc-tion? At this point, 'it is signfi t to note thatthe first condition merely concerns a protion form and an infinite number of indu.of that form could be made. The second.tion involves refe ce to scientific thwhich,in'any cultural context, . afinite ber. dividual generalization isformed 'us; ts. which linkparticular s eories. Scientiare not r .formed as generali2ed re-flection on the work. They link inti topraxis. There is practi d for humans toform principles . em to choo be-tween real alte s. They seek to 0with s which m it more "likely thatthey will reach' r objectives. This is :thesential context of sc tific theory..Theyessentially the co ive principles whichexplicit in a speci .Iture, to enable humansto cope with uncertainty. When the problem isbasically one of knowing what is likely to hap-pen, this is solved by reference to pure sci-ence. e..... essentiallyone ofdeing what means. to 'adopt to reach a given ob-jective, n the reference is to appl i-ence. Ifpeople d according to the la-tion of random generalization, there would besocial chaos. Since there are an infi s-sible genera s that be formedwhich woul chaotic his sense~ fo i-cal pu es, our confidence in inductions isnot merely limited; it is zero. On the other hand,since we are assured that acting according toscientific princples is best, our confidence ismaximal in -acting on inductions.FREE INQUIRYinCREATIVESOCIOlOGY Volume10No1 May 1982 22LARSON (From p 16)archton. D.C.: USGPO.--, 19timization and the Fear ofCrime." J in Crime and Delin-quency16 (January): 80-97.. 'F., Schussler, and, H. L.Costner . in Sociol-ogy. Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Miflin.Shichor, 0., D. L. Decke R. M~·O'Brien1'979. ulation .Density and Criminal Vic-timization." Criminology 17 (August): 184-193.Skogan, W. g. 1977. {'The Chan Distri-bution of Big-City Crime: A'·Multi- Time-Series Ana " Urban Affairs Qtrly 13 (Sep-tember): 33·48.L. 1973. "Urbanism as a Way of'Life."lorHal.~bsl<y, Sociology of the City,New York: Scribner's 302-319.

The sociology of uncertain knowledge

https://ojs.library.okstate.edu/osu/index.php/FICS/article/download/793/729

The sociology of uncertain knowledge

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