Carnapian explication and ameliorative analysis: a systematic comparison

Novaes, Catarina Dutilh

doi:10.1007/s11229-018-1732-9

Cited by 50 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…While our studies lend support to the claims made by Coady, Basham, and Dentith that conspiracy theory should be ameliorated, they also put pressure on their specific proposal of eliminating the evaluative concept of conspiracy theory altogether, even granting that in conceptual amelioration the engineered concept need not be necessarily similar to the ordinary one in meaning-amelioration opting instead for the continuity with the ordinary concept's function or functions in our practices and discourses (Haslanger 2012:224-225;Dutilh Novaes 2020). The predominance of the evaluative concept conspiracy theory, and its independence from the descriptive one, shows that the choice of some academics to focus on conspiracy theories as a problem, and the attempt to explain belief in such theories in terms of psychological or sociological factors is not necessarily a choice driven by hidden political motives to silence the investigation of conspiracies in our societies.…”

Section: Engineering Conspiracy Theorymentioning

confidence: 93%

What is a Conspiracy Theory?

Napolitano

Reuter

2021

Erkenn

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In much of the current academic and public discussion, conspiracy theories are portrayed as a negative phenomenon, linked to misinformation, mistrust in experts and institutions, and political propaganda. Rather surprisingly, however, philosophers working on this topic have been reluctant to incorporate a negatively evaluative aspect when either analyzing or engineering the concept conspiracy theory. In this paper, we present empirical data on the nature of the concept conspiracy theory from five studies designed to test the existence, prevalence and exact form of an evaluative dimension to the ordinary concept conspiracy theory. These results reveal that, while there is a descriptive concept of conspiracy theory, the predominant use of conspiracy theory is deeply evaluative, encoding information about epistemic deficiency and often also derogatory and disparaging information. On the basis of these results, we present a new strategy for engineering conspiracy theory to promote theoretical investigations and institutional discussions of this phenomenon. We argue for engineering conspiracy theory to encode an epistemic evaluation, and to introduce a descriptive expression—such as ‘conspiratorial explanation’—to refer to the purely descriptive concept conspiracy theory.

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Section: Engineering Conspiracy Theorymentioning

confidence: 93%

What is a Conspiracy Theory?

Napolitano

Reuter

2021

Erkenn

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“…. remains somewhat meager” (Dutilh Novaes 2020, 7). We follow Justus (2012) in widening the fruitfulness success condition so that it includes “enhancing experimental techniques, measurability in the field, theoretical unification, mathematical rigor, etc.…”

Section: The Methodology Of Explication and The Concept Of Addictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thick Concepts in Economics: The Case of Becker and Murphy’s Theory of Rational Addiction

Djordjevic

Herfeld

2021

Philosophy of the Social Sciences

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In this paper, we examine the viability of avoiding value judgments encoded in thick concepts when these concepts are used in economic theories. We focus on what implications the use of such thick concepts might have for the tenability of the fact/value dichotomy in economics. Thick concepts have an evaluative and a descriptive component. Our suggestion is that despite attempts to rid thick concepts of their evaluative component, economists are often not successful. We focus on the strategy of explication to remove the evaluative component of thick concepts and argue that often economists either have to make value judgments or are unable to individuate out the phenomenon under analysis. We support our claim with a case study, namely the concept of addiction in Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy’s Theory of Rational Addiction (1988). One consequence of our analysis is that theories containing thick concepts could commit economists to making value judgments and as such undermine the fact/value dichotomy.

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“…My response is two-fold. First of all, there are many (epistemic) values besides truth that (most) scientists buy into, such as consistency, simplicity, exactness, applicability, as well as predictive and explanatory capacity (on values in science see Douglas, 2015; on values in concept formation see Dutilh Novaes, 2020). Concepts that embody these shared values are likely to attract wider acceptance and outlive arbitrary concepts.…”

Section: Objectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Respectful operationalism

Vessonen

2020

Theory & Psychology

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I first argue that there are three major currents in the contemporary debate on operationalism. These are: (a) methodologists who criticize operationalism qua philosophy, (b) psychologists who practice operationalization that is allegedly philosophically noncommittal, and (c) critics who claim that psychologists’ validation practices commit them to stronger operationalism than psychologists realize. I then outline respectful operationalism and argue that it avoids the main criticisms of operationalism while incorporating some of the epistemic benefits of operational definitions. I show how respectful operationalism aligns with other operationalism-friendly theories, such as generalizability theory and Michael T. Kane’s argument-based approach to validity.

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Carnapian explication and ameliorative analysis: a systematic comparison

Cited by 50 publications

References 31 publications

What is a Conspiracy Theory?

What is a Conspiracy Theory?

Thick Concepts in Economics: The Case of Becker and Murphy’s Theory of Rational Addiction

Respectful operationalism

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