Should social science be more solution-oriented?
Should social science be more solution-oriented?
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/s41562-016-0015
复制
发表时间：
2017-01-01
影响因子：
29.9
通讯作者：
Watts, Duncan J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Watts, Duncan J.
在过去的100年里，社会科学产生了大量关于人类个体和集体行为的理论。然而，在调和这些相互竞争的解释之间无数的不一致和矛盾方面，它就不那么成功了，这种情况并没有被“计算社会科学”的最新进展所解决。在这个视角中，我认为这种“不连贯问题”由于社会科学历史上强调理论的进步而不是实际问题的解决而一直存在。我认为，社会科学取得进步的一种方式是采用一种更以解决方案为导向的方法，首先从一个实际问题开始，然后询问必须采用什么理论（和方法）来解决这个问题。最后，我就可以在哪些问题上取得进展以及我们如何组织起来解决这些问题提出几点建议。
Over the past 100 years, social science has generated a tremendous number of theories on the topics of individual and collective human behaviour. However, it has been much less successful at reconciling the innumerable inconsistencies and contradictions among these competing explanations, a situation that has not been resolved by recent advances in 'computational social science'. In this Perspective, I argue that this 'incoherency problem' has been perpetuated by an historical emphasis in social science on the advancement of theories over the solution of practical problems. I argue that one way for social science to make progress is to adopt a more solution-oriented approach, starting first with a practical problem and then asking what theories (and methods) must be brought to bear to solve it. Finally, I conclude with a few suggestions regarding the sort of problems on which progress might be made and how we might organize ourselves to solve them.