Paul Diesing
Biographic Data
| ID | 1050865 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Diesing |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Diesing |
| SIGNATURE | DIESING P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University at Buffalo, State University of New York |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 125 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1961 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Formal Methods and Theories
Methods in the Philosophy of Science
Types of Formal Theories
Formal theories have been classified in a variety of ways, each typology bringing out some distinctions and emphasizing some similarities. Structural and aggregate models differ both in the kind of formal language they use and in the kind of empirical work required to develop them. Case-descriptive models have usually been relatively total models of the computer simulation type, describing a complex system in some detail. The distinction between …
Formalization
Formalization is in the first place a process of translating a verbal theory into a mathematical or computer language. It involves locating the terms and propositions of the theory and substituting symbols for terms, and equations for propositions. The main part of the formalization process is the ensuing transformation of the theory. After the initial propositions of the theory are checked and corrected, the next step is to check the deductions …
Uses of Models
The aim of formal theories is to give us an understanding of a relational structure that exists somewhere in the world. Once this aim has been achieved by developing an adequate, well-interpreted, and well-analyzed model, the model can be used in various ways. This descriptive use is normally preliminary to some other use, since few scientists are content simply to report data. The use of formal theories for data interpretation can be generalized…
The Implicit Ontology of Case Study Methods
One consideration that induces the holist to persevere in using his method despite its weaknesses and despite the slanders heaped on it is his feeling that it gets at something real that other methods miss. This sense of what is real and what is less real or unreal is called an "implicit ontology". The fact that systems have boundaries does not mean that they exist independently of one another, like Aristotelian substances. A system depends for i…
Science, Philosophy, and Astrology
The community of social scientists has developed and continues to develop a set of standards and goals which define what is to count as science for them, and the natural scientists presumably have done the same. One would expect to find sharp divergences between the standards developed by natural scientists and those developed by astrologers, and the divergences would explain lack of collaboration. Philosophy has its own unique method of knowing,…
The Participant–Observer Method
This chapter considers several methods that philosophers of science have used to study scientific method. It discusses some contrasts and similarities between the method of the present study and methods used by other philosophers. The participant observer approaches scientific method from the inside; he attempts to take the point of view of the scientists who are using a particular method. He does this by becoming, as far as possible, a member of…
The Holist Standpoint
This chapter deals with the various ways of studying a whole human system in its natural setting. The holist standpoint includes the belief that human systems tend to develop a characteristic wholeness or integrity. The holist standpoint includes the belief that human systems tend to develop a characteristic wholeness or integrity. The holist believes in the primacy of subject matter; he believes that whatever else a method may be, it should at l…
The Development of a Formal Theory
A formal method is a method for developing formal theories, that is, models plus interpretations. This chapter considers the main steps involved in developing a formal theory. It also considers in more detail the special problems involved in experimental testing and development of mathematical models. The chapter discusses the formal theorist&s;s method of successive approximation, by which it modifies an initially simplified calculus toward incr…
Some Characteristics of Holist Theories
This chapter discusses the general theories that have come out of case studies. A general theory is developed by comparing cases of widely different types and seeing what they have in common, by seeing what characteristics of the first case are present in all other cases. Its generality depends on the adequacy of its associated typology, which determines what cases can be regarded as representative. The chief general theories coming out of case s…
Structural–Functional Theories
Functionalism, or structural-functionalism, has meant many things to many people. This chapter suggests a particular interpretation of functionalism. It argues first that functionalism is not a timeless essence but a historically developing group of ideas. No one stage of development is definitive for the theory; it becomes, rather than is, something. Each functionalist statement or criticism should be understood in its historical context, as an …
General Characteristics of Formal Theories
The mathematical or formal method is characterized first by the use of formal languages, and second by the development of an axiomatic, deductive structure. A formal theory is the result of using a formal method; it is written at least partly in a formal language and has an axiomatic, deductive structure. The formalist&s;s aim is to build a model or abstract relational structure, and his building materials are the various relations provided by ma…
Main Steps of a Case Study
Field and clinical methods exhibit a great deal of variety depending on the peculiarities of the subject matter and the particular objectives of research. Consequently, any step-by-step account of these methods should be treated as a general guide rather than an exact statement. Theoretical preparation is also important prior to beginning field work. The prospective field worker will acquaint himself with a variety of theories (the more the bette…
The Method of Rational Reconstruction
Metaphysics and ideology were composed of vague, emotion-laden ideas that were immune to rational evidence and rational argument and that expressed themselves in irrational and barbarous behavior like that of the Nazis. One could not prevent people from thinking this way, but one could at least exclude such ideas from science, by imposing a strict criterion of rational verifiability on it. This chapter discusses that the rational reconstructionis…
Experimental Work with Mathematical Models
Models of abstract processes and structures usually, though not always, take the form of mathematical models, so most formalist experimental work is done in connection with the development of a mathematical model. This chapter concentrates on experimental work with mathematical models, particularly game theory and learning theory. It begins by giving an account of experimental work with mathematical models from a formalist standpoint, and then ad…
The Method of Conceptual Analysis
The method of conceptual analysis is an outgrowth of Wittgenstein&s;s study of how language conditions thought and how philosophers make mistakes when they used words in contexts for which they were not originally designed. The method may be described most directly as a way of doing the social scientists&s; conceptual work for them. Winch in particular has asserted that the social sciences are really a branch of philosophy and that philosophers a…
The Typological Method
Over the years, the basic typology is altered as the investigator and his colleagues examine more and more cases. The purpose of the typology is to distinguish methods that are different and to group methods that are the same in spite of superficial differences, so as the number of cases increases, the typology becomes more complex. The purpose of the typology, and of the whole typological method, is first to facilitate an understanding of a scie…
Holistic Uses of Statistics
The interaction in recent decades between case study and survey research methods is of considerable methodological interest, especially from a point of view that tries to distinguish the two. This chapter describes the borrowings by survey researchers only briefly. The most obvious borrowing of this kind is survey researchers&s; inclusion of field work as one of many available research methods. The distinguishing characteristic of the holist is n…
Typologies: Real and Ideal Types
The simplest and probably also the most important kind of theory coming out of controlled comparisons is typological. A set of types is used in every case study to direct observation and suggest interpretations and is the most common basis of control in controlled comparisons. Consequently the improvement of typologies is an important basis for the improvement of case studies and the general theories that come out of them. Since formalist types a…
The Implicit Ontology of Formalists
The implicit onotology of formalists is characterized by a sharp distinction between two aspects of reality, the empirical and the logical. In its logical aspect reality is orderly, systematic, and general, while in its empirical aspect it is haphazard and particular. This chapter discusses the connections between the implicit ontology of formalists and some explicit ontological positions in the history of philosophy. The formalist develops the i…
The Use and Verification of General Theory
Theory is used to direct observation and suggest explanations; but general theory, which states what is characteristic of all cases, is too abstract to provide detailed guidance in a specific case. This chapter suggests that general theory performs three functions for typologies. First, it explains individual types, that is, it explains how and why the various elements that have been continually found together in actual cases belong together. It …
Comparative Methods and the Development of Theory
Field workers and clinicians are also interested in the development of general theory, and indeed the two interests are inseparable. Without some theory or theories in mind there is no way of developing the many low-level hypotheses that guide observation by suggesting things to look for. This chapter deals with the use of comparisons in case studies. Comparison of some sort probably occurs in all social science methods, taking different forms in…
The Practical Use of Case Studies
Case studies, it appears, are used to test and modify typologies, and typologies are used to control comparison and thereby to contribute to improved case studies. General theories are used to explain and improve typologies so they will be more useful in classifying cases and directing case studies, and the improved case studies provide ideas for modifying general theories. And so it goes round and round, with both theory and description changing…
Weaknesses and Problems of Case Study Methods
Scientists react to the weaknesses of a method in two different ways. If they are not using the method themselves, they cite its weaknesses as sufficient justification for ignoring the method and its results, for despising it as unscientific or inadequate, and for not allowing their students to learn it. If they are using the method, its weaknesses become problems, challenges that make work interesting and results an achievement. The following di…
Conflict Among Nations: Bargaining, Decision Making, and System Structure in International Crises
How do nations act in a crisis? This book seeks to answer that question both theoretically and historically. It tests and synthesizes theories of political behavior by comparing them with the historical record. The authors apply theories of bargaining, game theory, information processing, decision-making, and international systems to case histories of sixteen crises that occurred during a seventy-five year period. The result is a revision and int…
Patterns of Discovery in the Social Sciences
Social scientists are often vexed because their work does not satisfy the criteria of "scientific" methodology developed by philosophers of science and logicians who use the natural sciences as their model. In this study, Paul Diesing defines science not by reference to these arbitrary norms delineated by those outside the field but in terms of norms implicit in what social scientists actually do in their everyday work
Bargaining strategy and union-management relationships
By a union-management relationship I mean the set of understandings and attitudes that have developed in joint dealings. Attitudes include such things as trust, suspicion, hostility, respect, determination to get even. Understandings include the beliefs each side has about the purposes, character, and methods of the other, and also beliefs about the proper procedures, standards, and objectives of joint dealings. Some understandings are shared and…
Reason in Society: Five Types of Decisions and Their Social Conditions
Subjectivity and Objectivity in the Social Sciences
This paper summarizes several ways in which social scientists have conceived of subjectivity and objectivity, and the problems that have appeared in each case. We being with experimental gaming. Morton Deutsch and R. M. Krauss ran a series of experiments with a trucking game some ten to fifteen years ago. A pair of experimental subjects was shown a game board of roughly the following design: Fig. i. The trucking game. The game problem was to move…
Objectivism vs. Subjectivism in the Social Sciences
Recent developments in social science methods have made most of the objectivism-subjectivism arguments in the philosophy of social science obsolete. Developments in experimental methods have made possible a behavioristic treatment of everything cherished as important in human action by the subjectivists; developments in computer and mathematical models have made possible a type of theory which carries out the program of the subjectivists but is n…
Bargaining strategy and union-management relationships
By a union-management relationship I mean the set of understandings and attitudes that have developed in joint dealings. Attitudes include such things as trust, suspicion, hostility, respect, determination to get even. Understandings include the beliefs each side has about the purposes, character, and methods of the other, and also beliefs about the proper procedures, standards, and objectives of joint dealings. Some understandings are shared and…
Reason in Society: Five Types of Decisions and Their Social Conditions
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Reason in Society : Five Types of Decisions and Their Social Conditions. By Paul Diesing. (Urbana, Ill : University of Illinois Press. 1962. Pp. 262. Price $5.75). John C. Hall John C. Hall Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 13, Issue 52, July 1963, Pages 284–285, https://doi.org/10.2307/2955515 Published: 01 July 1963
Reason in Society: Five Types of Decisions and Their Social Conditions
Reason in Society: Five Types of Decisions and Their Social Conditions
Objectivism vs. Subjectivism in the Social Sciences
Recent developments in social science methods have made most of the objectivism-subjectivism arguments in the philosophy of social science obsolete. Developments in experimental methods have made possible a behavioristic treatment of everything cherished as important in human action by the subjectivists; developments in computer and mathematical models have made possible a type of theory which carries out the program of the subjectivists but is n…
The Logic of Social Inquiry
This is a good, clearly written expression of the ideology or outlook associated with the survey research method. It will be used as a textbook to indoctrinate or socialize students into the survey research ideology, and is also valuable for someone who wishes to get a feel for that ideology. It does not deal with actual techniques, procedures, and theories, except very briefly: pp. 166-174. The survey research method is probably the dominant met…
Subjectivity and Objectivity in the Social Sciences
This paper summarizes several ways in which social scientists have conceived of subjectivity and objectivity, and the problems that have appeared in each case. We being with experimental gaming. Morton Deutsch and R. M. Krauss ran a series of experiments with a trucking game some ten to fifteen years ago. A pair of experimental subjects was shown a game board of roughly the following design: Fig. i. The trucking game. The game problem was to move…
Albritton on Kosik: A Protest
Instrumental Reasoning and Systems Methodology
Cognition and dream research.
How Does Social Science Work?: Reflections on Practice
Award Recipients
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How Does Social Science Work: Reflections on Practice (Pitt Series in Policy and Institutional Studies)
Conflict Among Nations: Bargaining, Decision Making, and System Structure in International Crises
How do nations act in a crisis? This book seeks to answer that question both theoretically and historically. It tests and synthesizes theories of political behavior by comparing them with the historical record. The authors apply theories of bargaining, game theory, information processing, decision-making, and international systems to case histories of sixteen crises that occurred during a seventy-five year period. The result is a revision and int…
Types of Formal Theories
Formal theories have been classified in a variety of ways, each typology bringing out some distinctions and emphasizing some similarities. Structural and aggregate models differ both in the kind of formal language they use and in the kind of empirical work required to develop them. Case-descriptive models have usually been relatively total models of the computer simulation type, describing a complex system in some detail. The distinction between …
Formalization
Formalization is in the first place a process of translating a verbal theory into a mathematical or computer language. It involves locating the terms and propositions of the theory and substituting symbols for terms, and equations for propositions. The main part of the formalization process is the ensuing transformation of the theory. After the initial propositions of the theory are checked and corrected, the next step is to check the deductions …
Uses of Models
The aim of formal theories is to give us an understanding of a relational structure that exists somewhere in the world. Once this aim has been achieved by developing an adequate, well-interpreted, and well-analyzed model, the model can be used in various ways. This descriptive use is normally preliminary to some other use, since few scientists are content simply to report data. The use of formal theories for data interpretation can be generalized…
The Implicit Ontology of Case Study Methods
One consideration that induces the holist to persevere in using his method despite its weaknesses and despite the slanders heaped on it is his feeling that it gets at something real that other methods miss. This sense of what is real and what is less real or unreal is called an "implicit ontology". The fact that systems have boundaries does not mean that they exist independently of one another, like Aristotelian substances. A system depends for i…
Science, Philosophy, and Astrology
The community of social scientists has developed and continues to develop a set of standards and goals which define what is to count as science for them, and the natural scientists presumably have done the same. One would expect to find sharp divergences between the standards developed by natural scientists and those developed by astrologers, and the divergences would explain lack of collaboration. Philosophy has its own unique method of knowing,…
The Participant–Observer Method
This chapter considers several methods that philosophers of science have used to study scientific method. It discusses some contrasts and similarities between the method of the present study and methods used by other philosophers. The participant observer approaches scientific method from the inside; he attempts to take the point of view of the scientists who are using a particular method. He does this by becoming, as far as possible, a member of…
The Holist Standpoint
This chapter deals with the various ways of studying a whole human system in its natural setting. The holist standpoint includes the belief that human systems tend to develop a characteristic wholeness or integrity. The holist standpoint includes the belief that human systems tend to develop a characteristic wholeness or integrity. The holist believes in the primacy of subject matter; he believes that whatever else a method may be, it should at l…
The Development of a Formal Theory
A formal method is a method for developing formal theories, that is, models plus interpretations. This chapter considers the main steps involved in developing a formal theory. It also considers in more detail the special problems involved in experimental testing and development of mathematical models. The chapter discusses the formal theorist&s;s method of successive approximation, by which it modifies an initially simplified calculus toward incr…
Some Characteristics of Holist Theories
This chapter discusses the general theories that have come out of case studies. A general theory is developed by comparing cases of widely different types and seeing what they have in common, by seeing what characteristics of the first case are present in all other cases. Its generality depends on the adequacy of its associated typology, which determines what cases can be regarded as representative. The chief general theories coming out of case s…
Structural–Functional Theories
Functionalism, or structural-functionalism, has meant many things to many people. This chapter suggests a particular interpretation of functionalism. It argues first that functionalism is not a timeless essence but a historically developing group of ideas. No one stage of development is definitive for the theory; it becomes, rather than is, something. Each functionalist statement or criticism should be understood in its historical context, as an …
General Characteristics of Formal Theories
The mathematical or formal method is characterized first by the use of formal languages, and second by the development of an axiomatic, deductive structure. A formal theory is the result of using a formal method; it is written at least partly in a formal language and has an axiomatic, deductive structure. The formalist&s;s aim is to build a model or abstract relational structure, and his building materials are the various relations provided by ma…
Computer Science (28 works) · Epistemology (16 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Sociology (12 works) · History and Theory of Mathematics (8 works) · Political science (5 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (4 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (4 works) · Psychology (4 works)