Experimental practices and objectivity in the social sciences: re-embedding construct validity in the internal–external validity distinction.
The experimental revolution in the social sciences is one of the most significant methodological shifts undergone by the field since the 'quantitative revolution' in the nineteenth century. One of the often valued features of social science experimentation is precisely the fact that there are (alleg...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 199; no. 3/4; pp. 9549 - 9580 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Dec2021
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=154096864&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 154096864 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2021 vid: 199 iid: 3/4 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 154096864 10.1007/s11229-021-03215-3 ppf: 9549 ppct: 31 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 714KB tig: atl: Experimental practices and objectivity in the social sciences: re-embedding construct validity in the internal–external validity distinction. aug: au: Jiménez-Buedo, María Russo, Federica affil: Department of Logic, History and Philosophy of Science, UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia), Paseo de senda del rey 7, 28040, Madrid, Spain Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands su: Test validity Social revolution Objectivity Scientific method Nineteenth century sug: subj: Test validity Social revolution Objectivity Scientific method Nineteenth century keyword: Background knowledge Construct validity Experiments Experiments in the social science External validity Internal validity ab: The experimental revolution in the social sciences is one of the most significant methodological shifts undergone by the field since the 'quantitative revolution' in the nineteenth century. One of the often valued features of social science experimentation is precisely the fact that there are (alleged) clear methodological rules regarding hypothesis testing that come from the methods of the natural sciences and from the methodology of RCTs in the biomedical sciences, and that allow for the adjudication among contentious causal claims. We examine critically this claim and argue that some current understandings of the practices that surround social science experimentation overestimate the degree to which experiments can actually fulfil this role as "objective" adjudicators, by neglecting the importance of shared background knowledge or assumptions and of consensus regarding the validity of the constructs involved in an experiment. We take issue with the way the distinction between internal and external validity is often used to comment on the inferential import of experiments, used both among practitioners and among philosophers of science. We describe the ways in which the more common (dichotomous) use of the internal/external distinction differs from Cook and Campbell's original methodological project, in which construct validity and the four-fold validity typology were all important in assessing the inferential import of experiments. We argue that the current uses of the labels internal and external, as applied to experimental validity, help to encroach a simplistic view on the inferential import of experiments that, in turn, misrepresents their capacity to provide objective knowledge about the causal relations between variables. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2021. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2021 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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