Abstract
Post-truth as a form of epistemological democracy (Fuller, 2018) is a fight for authority between equal explanatory models with epistemological methods. What should a disciplinary reaction of sociology be to the dawn of post-truth? We are to re-investigate models of causal imputation within the domain of sociology in order to eliminate not any particular “bad” judgments of post-truth, but their logical forms. Max Weber spent at least five years developing a consistent theory of causation for sociology. To build his complex theoretical apparatus of causal imputation, Weber used the ideas of Johannes von Kries, a German psychologist and a philosopher of science. Because of logical vulnerabilities of von Kries’s theory, both Weberian models of causal imputation can lead to the emergence of at least two forms of illegitimate judgments. However, Weber was not only mistaken but he also succeeded. The reading of his second model of causation, the “chance causation,” can contribute to the debates over the notion of the subjective meaning in Weber’s interpretative sociology.
Highlights
It looks like the more knowledge we bring to causal imputations in any area of life, the less we are able to verify them
What should a disciplinary reaction of sociology be to the dawn of post-truth? The question may seem provocative or derisive since the first official biography of post-truth intimates that the sociology of science was one of the triggers of its dawn because it eroded the authority of science (McIntyre, 2018: 128–133)
We need to review working causal models and the mistakes made along the way of building those models. We can find both in the legacy of Max Weber, who spent at least five years developing a consistent theory of causation for sociology
Summary
MA in Sociology (University of Manchester/MSSES), Lecturer, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Max Weber spent at least five years developing a consistent theory of causation for sociology To build his complex theoretical apparatus of causal imputation, Weber used the ideas of Johannes von Kries, a German psychologist and a philosopher of science. We need to review working causal models and the mistakes made along the way of building those models We can find both in the legacy of Max Weber, who spent at least five years developing a consistent theory of causation for sociology. We speak here about two interconnected theories, that is, two parts of the probabilistic logic of von Kries; his interpretation of non-numerical probabilities (“objective possibilities”), and the theory of causal imputation of an action (Tun) or an event. In the English-speaking world of sociology, these important theoretical distinctions remained covered up for the forty years
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