A mocking look at the social sciences

[Rob Schaap]

>kelley wrote:
>
>>From today's (11/22/00) online Chronicle of Higher Education
>>
>>MAGAZINES & JOURNALS
>>A glance at the November 27 issue of "Forbes":
>>A mocking look at the social sciences
>>
>>Dan Seligman
>
>...a real asshole. He used to have a column in Fortune, but I guess
>he proved too reactionary for the heirs of Luce. A favorite theme was
>racial patterns in inherited intelligence - Asians smartest, Jews
>next, etc.
>
>I think he was the guy who claimed that the orange juice futures
>market was better at forecasting the weather than meterologists, too.

Yeah, but he has a point, no?  Half the social sciences preciously preach
'decentredness' and the other half preciously preach managerial or
marketing fads and econometrics.  On the 'left' all are subjects, and on
the right all are 'consoomers' or 'managers'.  No people anywhere.  And
certainly no society - the purported unit of analysis, one would have
thought, for a social science.

Cheers,
Rob.