> The problem with the social sciences and helping professions (psychiatry,
> psychology, etc.) is their unavoidable tendency to objectify people, which
> of course acts as a barrier to empathy and creates a counterproductive
> hierarchic relationship between the scientist/therapist and the
> subject/patient. In fact, the former might well be called "social"
> "sciences" since they so often manage to make a mockery of both true science
> and honest human interchange.
This is just muddled to me. Yes, if you study something using scientific methods, what you observe is an object of study; you literally must objectify it. However, this does not mean that empathy must be impeded or hierarchy maintained as a result of this scientific work. Example: developmental social psychologists have developed effective techniques for increasing empathy in children, and they have used scientific research to verify the effectiveness of these empathy-building strategies. So Carl, you have it exactly backwards: the application of scientific research in this case is not a barrier to empathy; it is a means of facilitating empathy! (There are many, many examples like this in the social sciences, economics excluded.)
Miles
>
> The pretensions of the social sciences and helping professions pose a
> serious threat to democracy, since these disciplines contribute to the
> contemporary cult of expertise and encourage the public to distrust their
> own judgment -- which erodes their own empathic abilities, leaves them easy
> prey to propagandists, and lessens their ability to make informed demands
> and choices as voters.
>
> No quality is more important to democracy than empathy and that nothing is
> more essential to empathy than a keen sense of self-awareness. I think
> Emerson gets a bum rap when his call for "self-reliance" is seen as an
> excuse for self-absorption. On the contrary, I see this as a call for
> individuals to be in better touch with, and more trustful of, their inner
> selves so they can have a better sense of their deepest motivations as human
> beings -- thus gaining insight into what makes *other* people tick and
> promoting more harmony all around.
>
> Carl
>
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