What Is It Like to Be a Social Scientist?

Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 29 (2):121-140 (2017)
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Abstract

Alexander Wendt’s Quantum Mind and Social Science is an effort to establish foundations of social science based on the ontology of modern physics. The quantum revolution has deservedly had repercussions in many sciences, but it is unwise to ground social science on physical theories, which are subject to constant revision. Additionally, despite its empirical success, there is no agreed-upon interpretation of quantum theory. Finally, even if there were, the random indeterminacy intrinsic to the quantum world cannot account for the intentionality of human action. Intentional agents act for reasons, not at random; nor are the reasons chosen at random.

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Citations of this work

Quantum Tunneling to the Pacific? Remarks on Alexander Wendt’s Quantum Social Science.Georgios Evangelopoulos, Aristidis Arageorgis & Panayotis Benetatos - forthcoming - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie:1-31.
Distinguishing two (unsound) arguments for quantum social science.Rasmus Jaksland - 2023 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 13 (3):1-21.

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References found in this work

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.Thomas Samuel Kuhn - 1962 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Edited by Otto Neurath.
Facing up to the problem of consciousness.David Chalmers - 1995 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (3):200-19.
What is it like to be a bat?Thomas Nagel - 1974 - Philosophical Review 83 (4):435-50.
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem.Alan Turing - 1936 - Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 42 (1):230-265.

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