[Ias-public] The Institute for Analytical Sociology Seminar: Gabriel Abend, October 19, 14:30CET, KO301 & online on Zoom

[Madelene Töpfer]

The Institute for Analytical Sociology Seminar

Venue: KO301, Campus Norrköping & Online on Zoom (see Zoom link in the end of the email)


Thursday, October 19 @ 14:30CET

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________


Words and Distinctions for the Common Good

Gabriel Abend
University of Lucerne

Abstract:
Social scientists do research on a variety of topics-gender, capitalism, populism, and race and ethnicity, among others. They make descriptive and explanatory claims about empathy, intelligence, neoliberalism, and power. They advise policymakers on diversity, digitalization, work, and religion. And yet, they can't agree on what these things are and how to identify them. I argue that these disagreements have been doubly misconceived. First, they conflate two questions: how a social science community should use its most important words, and what distinctions it should accept and work with. Second, there's no fact of the matter about either. Instead, they're practical reason questions for a community, which aim at epistemically and morally good outcomes. I call on social science communities to work together on their words, distinctions, and classifications. They must make collective decisions about the uses of words, the acceptability of distinctions, and the criteria for assessing both. These decisions aren't up to individual scholars; the community gets the last word. According to my account, the common good, justice, and equality should play a significant role in the logic of scientific research.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://liu-se.zoom.us/j/65535789369
Meeting ID: 655 3578 9369



Best regards
Madelene Töpfer
Administrator
[Linköping University]
Institute for Analytical Sociology
S-601 74 Norrköping
Phone: +46 (0)11-36 32 91
Mobile: +46 (0)700 89 66 97
Visiting address: Kopparhammaren 7, Kungsgatan 56D, Campus Norrköping
Please visit us at liu.se<https://liu.se/>

E-mailing Linköping University will result in Linköping University processing your personal data. Find more information on how this is done at https://liu.se/en/article/integritetspolicy-liu


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.liu.se/pipermail/ias-public/attachments/20231013/64a7fa4d/attachment.htm>