Finding out how the social world works Michael Schwalbe

How do we know things? Logical deduction Things passed on by parents, teachers, friends Personal experience or observation Systematic research Instinct

Each source of knowledge has limitations Part of being sociologically mindful is to be aware of these limitations

Logical deduction is great Unless the premises are wrong Then your conclusions might be wrong However, you can always check your assumptions and correct them

Relying on others Sometimes lead to different versions of the truth Which is right?

Personal experience has limits Sun revolves around earth All people of a group are that way when you’ve only met two, etc.

Advantages of systematic research Best way to create valid knowledge Eliminate personal biases Look beyond obvious Check up on each other – peer review

This allows to have more faith in what we know

Empirical questions Countable, measurable Answerable with data

Aesthetic questions What is pleasing to the senses? Is this beautiful? No amount of data or logic can prove you wrong

Moral questions Is it right to do? Calls for a judgment

Questions of interpretation What does this mean? Especially asked with works of art, or novels

Research is better suited to answering Some types of questions than others Great for empirical, can be useful for interpretative Can only guide aesthetics and morals

Answers to empirical questions Can lead to interpretative difficulties Ex. Poverty rate story Ex. Ice Cream Sales > Murder

Mindful Skepticism Numbers can be cooked up to mislead us We rely on information from others Can’t check out everything for ourselves

Key questions How was the information created? By whom? For what purpose? Who benefits if this information is accepted as true?

Being mindful puts you on alert against fraud, But doesn’t cut you off from learning

Seeking alternative views Can help see limitations of our own knowledge Ex. Columbus

Recognizing the relativity of perspectives Is part of being sociologically mindful Maybe you can understand the world more fully More angles from which to view it Closer to a better version of the truth

To be mindfully skeptical is to live with Inevitable uncertainty We fear losing what we think is the truth We never possess the absolute, complete truth

If we can accept that attitude toward learning, We recognize that some alternative viewpoint can come in handy someday

This doesn’t mean flitting from one idea to another Ex. Wading upstream example

This view can be unsettling To imagine you know everything is comforting Problem occurs when you encounter others who think the same To understand and get along with others, we must consider their perspectives And tolerate the uncertainty that comes with openness

Perpetual Inquiry and Conversation Avoids dead ends of nihilism – there is no truth And fanaticism – only one truth, and only I know it Being mindfully skeptical keeps the conversation going

If you could live forever, Would life get boring? Or would it get more interesting as you learned more about the world and how it works? You need curiosity, care and hope

Sometimes with so much hardship and day-to-day sameness It’s hard to get people to think about these things But a lesson in mindfulness might turn that around

Curiosity Learning about patterns, connections, etc. in the social world is interesting and satisfying You can always learn something new

Caring Understanding connections shows how our thinking and acting affects others’ lives

Hope Awareness of problems isn’t supposed to inspire hope It is supposed to inspire outrage and a desire to change things However, awareness plus powerlessness often leads to despair instead

The social world Is a social construction So problems are within our power to overcome them

You can’t do it alone But being in a community or organization can overcome feelings of hopelessness You can change a small part of the social world single-handedly How you treat others What job you do, etc.

The author says that sociological mindfulness Must mean more than just studying the social world Must do more than inspiring curiosity, caring and hope Must change yourself and actions you take “Heartful membership in a conversation that ought to have no end”