CHAPTER 13 Self-Deception and the Structure of the Social Sciences

CHAPTER 13 Self-Deception and the Structure of the Social Sciences
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social biology and the social sciences, economics, cultural anthropology, and psychology.
Note:LE MATERIE TRATTATE

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we expect knowledge to be more deformed, the more deformation is advantageous to those in control.
Note:ASPETTATIVA

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If you are trying to land a missile
Note:OPERAZIONE NN INQUINATA DA DALLE NTERESSI

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the enormous success of science
Note:INTEREST FREE

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the greater the social content of a discipline, especially human, the greater will be the biases
Note:LEGGE GENERALE

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It may be that the intrinsic complexity of social phenomena impedes rapid scientific progress, but modern physics is very complex, and its findings were unearthed
Note:NN È LA COMPLESSITÀ CHE BLOCCA

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Another possibility regarding the development of social disciplines is that a prior moral stance regarding a subject may influence the development of theory and knowledge
Note:ALTERNATIVA

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PRECEDENCE OF JUSTICE OVER TRUTH?
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we will derive a theory of justice from our larger theory of the truth.
Note:L ORTODOSSIA

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an unconscious bias toward an unjust stance will invite cognitive biases in favor of this stance.
Note:IL RISCHIO SEMPRE IN AGGUATO

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at the microlevel, marriage, family, job; at the macrolevel, society, war, etc.
Note:MATERIE SEMPRE A RISCHIO

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SUCCESS OF SCIENCE IS BASED ON ANTI-SELF-DECEPTION DEVICES
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Famous mathematical proofs (Godel’s theorem) begin with a set of all the symbols used and what they mean.
Note:DEFINIZIONI CHIARE

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entire subdisciplines may flourish in the interstices of poorly defined words.
Note:NELLE SS

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repeating work to see whether the same results emerge.
Note:PRIMO ESPEDIENTE DELLA VERA SC

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full-time hoaxes, such as psychoanalysis, preclude experimental tests
Note:RADDRIZZA LE ANTENNE

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exact description permitting exact repetition
Note:RIPETIAMO

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data that can be generated by chance more than 5 percent of the time are rejected as unreliable.
Note:CONVENZIONE

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1 percent
Note:NELLA RICERCA MEDICA

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meta-analyses can be performed on large numbers of related studies to see what statistically valid generalizations
Note:IN PIÙ

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The acid test of science is its ability to predict the future,
Note:EPEDIENTE DUE

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light really is bent by gravity (per Einstein); in an eclipse of the sun, the apparent position of stars in the nearby background was altered by the sun’s gravity.
Note:ESEMPIO

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ants produce a 1:3 ratio of investment in the sexes (unlike almost all other animals)
Note:ALTRO ESEMPIO

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“predictions” lack any foreknowledge,
Note:NON RAZIONALIZZARE

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This is the beauty of Einstein’s prediction
Note:OVVIO NN POTESSE SAPERE

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Science asks that, whenever possible, knowledge be built on preexisting knowledge.
Note:TERZO ESPEDIENTE

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Physics rests on mathematics, chemistry on physics, biology on chemistry, and, in principle, the social sciences on biology.
Note:STRUTTURA UNITARIA DELLE SCIENZE

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mathematics gave physics rigor, physics gave chemistry an exact atomic model, and chemistry gave biology an exact molecular model. And biology?
Note:LA GRANDE CONNESSIONE

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You would think it would have much to give
Note:LA BIOLOGIA HA MOLTO DA DARE ALLE SS

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THE MORE SOCIAL THE DISCIPLINE, THE MORE RETARDED ITS DEVELOPMENT
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What difference does it make for everyday life whether the gravitational effect of the mu meson is positive or negative?
Note:IN FISICA NIENTE AUTOINGANNI

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Physicists will overemphasize the importance and value of their work to others.
Note:UNICA TENTAZIONE...TEORIA DEL TUTTO

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their social utility, in my opinion, is primarily connected to warfare.
Note:CONNESSIONE TRA FISICA E SOCIETÀ

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build bigger bombs,
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When I read of nine billion euros spent on a supercollider in which tiny particles are accelerated to incredible speeds and then run into one another, I think “bombs.”
Note:SUPERCOLLIDER

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the greater the social content of a discipline, the more slowly it will develop,
Note:UNA BUONA LEGGE

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psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics have direct implications for our view of ourselves and of others,

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PURTROPPO

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SELF-DECEPTION IN BIOLOGY
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natural selection favored what was good for the group or the species, when in fact it favors what is good for the individual
Note:PER UN SECOLO LA B HA VISTO.IL MONDO AL CONTRARIO

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This theory also can be used to justify individual behavior by claiming that such behavior serves group benefit
Note:FORSE SOTO L ERRORE C ERANO MOTIVAZIONI SOCIALI

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take the classic case of male infanticide, first studied in depth in the langur monkeys of India,
Note:UN EZSEMPIO CHE RIGUARDA 100 SPECIE

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was rationalized as a population-control mechanism
Note:PRIMA INTERPRET

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Since a nursing infant inhibits its mother’s ovulation, murder of the infant brought the bereaved mother into reproductive readiness quicker,
Note:INTERPRETAZIONE CORRETTA...EGO

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In some populations, as many as 10 percent of all young are murdered by adult males
Note:LA SPECIE A VOLTE NE RISENTE...GLI INTERESSI NN SONO ALLINEATI

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These deaths are unrelated to population density
Note:INOLTRE

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Perhaps the success of aggressive males spreads genes only for aggressiveness,
Note:INOLTRE

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Close relationships are also easily imagined to be conflict-free.
Note:ALTRO ESEMPIO DI ANTI INDIVIDUALISMO

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Even in the formation of the placenta, the mother does not help the invading fetal tissue
Note:MA L IPOTESI È INFONDATA

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rates of extra-pair paternity exceeding 20 percent were regularly reported.
Note:TRA LE AMOREVOLE COPPOE DEI VOLATILI INSEPARABILI

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Anthropologists soon rationalized warfare itself as favored by evolution because it too was such a nifty population-regulation device.
Note:ALTRO ESEMPIO DI ERRORE X PREGIUDIZI

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Of course, at the individual level, altruism is a problem to explain and requires special conditions, such as kinship or reciprocal relations, with internal conflict in both cases.
Note:IL CASO RISOLTO DELL ALTRUISMO

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IS ECONOMICS A SCIENCE?
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The short answer is no.
Note:SI SARÀ GIÀ CAPITO

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Economics acts like a science and quacks like one—it has developed an impressive mathematical apparatus and awards itself a Nobel Prize each year—but it is not yet a science.
Note:PRETESE

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It fails to ground itself in underlying knowledge (in this case, biology).
Note:COSA MANCA

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What are we trying to maximize?
Note:L EC PARTE CON LA DOMANDA GIUSYA

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what is utility? Well, anything people wish to maximize.
Note:POI ENTRA IN CIRCOLO

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determining all of the preference functions by measurement in all the relevant situations is hopeless from the outset,
Note:UN LAVORACCIO INAFFIDABILE

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individual’s inclusive fitness, that is, the number of its surviving offspring plus effects (positive and negative) on the reproductive success of relatives, each devalued by its relatedness to them.
Note:EPPURE LA BIOLOGIA HA UNA RISPOSYA

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economists miss out on a whole series of linkages that may be critical.
Note:ESITO DI QS TRASCURAYEZZA

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One recent effort by economics to link up with allied disciplines is called behavioral economics, a link with psychology that is most welcome.
Note:UNA FLEBILE SPERANZA

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assume that our behavior evolved specifically to fit artificial economic games. To imagine how bizarre this is, consider the ultimatum game
Note:ERRORE RICORENTE ANCHE TRA GLI EC EVOLUZIONISTI

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People often reject unfair offers of a split of money by anonymous others (for example, 80 percent to the proposer and 20 percent to the recipient)
Note:INTERPRET ERRATA: SEGNO DI GENEROSITÀINTERPRET CORRETTA: STRATEGIA INTERNALIZZATA VALIDA IN CONTESTO DI GIOCHI RIPETUTI

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infatuation with beautiful mathematics at the cost of attention to reality.
Note:UN BIAS DI MOLTA ECONOMIA

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they should pay attention to—and this has been obvious for some thirty years now—is biology, in particular evolutionary theory.
Note:COME RIMEDIARE

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“Our advice was good but you failed to follow it closely enough.”
Note:DI FRONTE ALLE POLITICHE FALLIMENTARI

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CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
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Cultural anthropology made a tragic left turn in the mid-1970s
Note:LA GAFFE

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in the early 1970s, strong social theory emerged from biology and a variety of subjects were addressed seriously for the first time: kinship theory, including parent/offspring relations, relative parental investment, and the evolution of sex differences, the sex ratio, reciprocal altruism and a sense of fairness, and so on.
Note:COS ERA SUCCESSO

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accept the new work, master it, and rewrite their own discipline along the new lines,
Note:PRIMA OPZIONE X OGNI ANTROPOLOGO

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reject the new work and protect their own expertise (such as it was).
Note:SECONDA OPZ MOLTO PIÙ FACILE

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You have invested twenty years of your life in mastering social anthropology.
Note:CONSIDERA LA SCELTA DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA EC ED ESISTENZIALE

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Even in physics, it was famously said that the field advanced one funeral at a time—
Note:NELL ACCADEMIA SI SA

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the social anthropologists rose to the challenge, even renaming their field “cultural anthropology” to more explicitly rule out the relevance of biology in advance. Now we were no longer social organisms but cultural ones.
Note:IL PARADOSSO

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Out of biological thinking flowed biological determinism (the notion that genetics influences daily life), whose downstream effects included fascism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other odious “isms.”
Note:GIUST MORALE

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Once you remove biology from human social life, what do you have? Words. Not even language,
Note:TUTTAVIA

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Thirty-five wasted years and counting.
Note:ESITO

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As a result, most US anthropology departments consist of two completely separate sections, in which, as one biological colleague put it, “they think we’re Nazis and we think they are idiots”
Note:NN UNIVERSITÀ

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PSYCHOLOGY
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In the 1960s, psychologists often explicitly disavowed the importance of biology.
Note:ALLA LARGA DALLA SCIENZA

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No biology was required.
Note:HARVARD

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learning theory made far-reaching and implausible claims about the ability of reinforcement to mold all behavior adaptively.
Note:UN AMBITO CHE PRODUSSE PARECCHI ERRORI

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On the positive side, psychology has always concentrated on the individual
Note:UN ASPETTO CHE AIUTÒ

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Recently a school of evolutionary psychology has developed, while psychology has been increasingly integrated with other areas of biology,

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SPERANZA

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method was that of self-reports, or questionnaire-answering behavior—what people say about themselves.
Note:IL METODI INAFFIDABILI DELLA PSICH SOCIALE

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For one thing, forces of deceit and self-deception—or call them issues of self-presentation and self-perception, if you prefer—loom large.
Note:PRIMO RISCH

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PSYCHOANALYSIS: SELF-DECEPTION IN THE STUDY OF SELF-DECEPTION
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science of self-deception
Note:LA PRETESA DI FREUD

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the empirical foundation for developments in the field was something called clinical lore, essentially what psychiatrists told one another over drinks after a day’s work.
Note:LA PARTE EMPIRICA?

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the basis was shared experiences, assumptions, and assertions among psychoanalysts about what went on during psychotherapy
Note:LA BASE DI CONCETTO COME L INVIDIA DEL PENE O IL COMPLESSO D EDIPO

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denial, projection, reaction formation, ego defense mechanism, and so on,
Note:CONCETTI DA SALVARE

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id
Note:CONCETTI DA BUTTARE

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ego
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superego
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Almost all species of animals are selected to avoid close inbreeding, which has real genetic costs, and they have evolved mechanisms—for example, early exposure to parents and siblings causes sexual disinterest—that minimize inbreeding.
Note:TEORIA DELO SVIILUPO PSICH...INCENTRATA SULLE ATTRAZIONI SESS IN FAMIGLIA...FIGLI GENOT

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fathers may gain in relatedness by forcing sex on a daughter (and therefore a child) sufficient to offset the genetic cost, but the daughter is unlikely to benefit sufficiently in relatedness to offset her cost.
Note:E POI....CASOMAI POTREBBE ESSERE VERO IL CONTRARI

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selection would be weak at best, the one ending her reproduction while the other is beginning his, and there are other very good reasons for showing deference to one’s mother (especially for a male’s maternal genes).
Note:ATTRAZIONE DI EDIPO

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He was also obtuse to harsh parental treatment as a cause of offspring malfunction.
Note:SI FINISCE X ACCISARE LE VITTIME

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One of Freud’s celebrated analyses was that of “Wolf Man,”
Note:LO PSICOPATICO A CUI SI DIAGNOSTICO UNO SVILUPPO PSICHICO PROBLEMATICO...IN REALTÀ ERA REGOLARMENTE BASTONATO DAL PADRE

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cocaine abuse
Note:FREUD...UN TIPO STRANO

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the number twenty-nine played a recurring and decisive role in human life,
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thought could be transported instantaneously across wide distances without the use of electrical devices,
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The wealth of dependable observations on which these assertions rest, make them independent of experimental verification.
Note:FREUD SULLE VERIFICHE FATTUALI DELLA TEORIA...

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It doesn’t matter how beautiful the guess is, or how smart the guesser is, or how famous the guesser is; if the experiment disagrees with the guess, the guess is wrong. That’s all there is to it.
Note:FEYMAN SULLO STESSO NPUNTO

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SELF-DECEPTION DEFORMS DISCIPLINES
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Not genes but individuals, not individuals but groups, not groups but species, not species but ecosystems, and, with a little extra energy, not ecosystems but the entire universe.
L ERRORE PIÙ COMUNI