Q. If ideologies are inherently biased, then why are social phenomena so often examined through ideological filters?
A. Because the very concept of social phenomena does not objectively exist.
People are individuals, and individuals make choices. Sometimes they do things that are the same as what other people do. Sometimes they don’t. The patterns that are identified in these behaviours, choices, attitudes etc. only exist in the imaginings of the observer.
There is no objective truth to them, and any attempt to identify an objective truth will result in a soy jerky imitation.
All is not lost though. As such phenomena cannot be described or explained without bias, ideology becomes effective in allowing you to do the precise opposite—by unapologetically embracing a bias, you anchor it, creating a stable alternative to the truth. A pork scratching, if one were to persist with the metaphor.
The trick now is to re-examine the phenomena from the viewpoint of several competing ideologies. Conservative, Behaviouralist, Marxist and Feminist are four that I’ve always found cover a reasonably broad range. From there, you can triangulate an approximation of neutrality.
It’s not an exact science, but it's the best we have. For now.
What a pity that it isn't utilised in modern universities. Students can now expect social phenomena to be taught in accordance with a single ideology, as objective truth. People are graduating university knowing less than they did when they went in.
This is not education—it’s indoctrination.
Update
Janice Fiamengo of the University of Ottawa has released a video wherein she describes this in great depth.
A. Because the very concept of social phenomena does not objectively exist.
People are individuals, and individuals make choices. Sometimes they do things that are the same as what other people do. Sometimes they don’t. The patterns that are identified in these behaviours, choices, attitudes etc. only exist in the imaginings of the observer.
There is no objective truth to them, and any attempt to identify an objective truth will result in a soy jerky imitation.
All is not lost though. As such phenomena cannot be described or explained without bias, ideology becomes effective in allowing you to do the precise opposite—by unapologetically embracing a bias, you anchor it, creating a stable alternative to the truth. A pork scratching, if one were to persist with the metaphor.
The trick now is to re-examine the phenomena from the viewpoint of several competing ideologies. Conservative, Behaviouralist, Marxist and Feminist are four that I’ve always found cover a reasonably broad range. From there, you can triangulate an approximation of neutrality.
It’s not an exact science, but it's the best we have. For now.
What a pity that it isn't utilised in modern universities. Students can now expect social phenomena to be taught in accordance with a single ideology, as objective truth. People are graduating university knowing less than they did when they went in.
This is not education—it’s indoctrination.
Update
Janice Fiamengo of the University of Ottawa has released a video wherein she describes this in great depth.
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