122 



expression of the present form of the problem or even a recognition of it. * * * I 

 believe that [the] limiting factor is a very real doubt in democracy's mind as to 

 whether it really wants any more expert advice as far as the social sciences are 

 concerned, for this is peculiarly an area in which every single one of us thinks that 

 he is an expert and that if he is not enough of an expert, he would rather play it 

 by hunch than to try to find out what somebody else's expertness might imply.'* 



The durability of the criticism of the social sciences is illustrated by 

 charges leveled at the field by Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, in testimony 

 before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, May 28, 1968. The 

 social sciences, he said, were jargon-ridden, vague, unconvincing, a 

 Avaste of the taxpayer's money, and not a science at all: 



* * * Precision and dependability is possible only in regard to phenomena 

 lacking both free will and significant individual diversity ; they do not obtain in the 

 social science field, which deals with human phenomena about which one can 

 generalize only in a statistical sense.^* 



[Social scientists] always try to judge human behavior the way the natural 

 scientist judges the behavior of atoms. Now all atoms of a similar type are alike. 

 So you can observe regularities in their behavior and express them in the form of 

 "laws." But no two human beings are exactly alike. Therefore, you cannot by any 

 statistical formula predict what any given human being will do.''^ 



I don't think our Government should sponsor such research abroad. I would go 

 so far as to say, we ought not to sponsor it at home, either.'^ 



The certainty with which some engineers, like Admiral Rickover, 

 regard the laws of the physical universe as absolute, is not shared 

 completely by the practitioners of the basic physical sciences. Physical 

 phenomena are also probabilistic — differing from social phenomena in 

 degree of probability rather than absolutely. As physicist R. Bruce 

 Lindsay, of Brown University, somewhat optimistically \vrites in the 

 lead article in a recent issue of American Scientist: "It is well known 

 that statistical mechanics operates in terms of averages of quantities 

 associated with the particles or molecules of an aggregate." It is not 

 possible, for example, to fix the positions and velocities of a huge 

 number of particles, but this is of no consequence to the physical 

 scientist who can deduce causal laws in terms of statistical averages. 

 But so, too, can the social scientist. The social scientist cannot, 

 indeed, predict how the individual unit will behave, but neither can 

 the physical scientist. And as Lindsay concludes: "What difference 

 does it make after all? If [the fundamental theory] can predict statis- 

 tical averages and these agree with experiment, what more should 

 we ask?" " 



Growth in social science sponsorship by NSF 



The evolution of the social science program of NSF, after 1950, 

 w^as described by Dr. John T. Wilson, Deputy Director, before a 

 subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, in 

 1967. He noted that the social sciences had not been named in the act, 

 but that the phrase, "other sciences," permitted some degree of 

 support. 



"3 In U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. National Foundation for Social 

 Sciences. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Government Research of the * * * on S. 836, a bill to pro- 

 vide for the establisliment of the National Foundation for the social sciences in order to promote research 

 and scholarship in such science, Feb. 7, 8, and 16, 1967, 90th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 1 (Washington, U.S. Govern- 

 ment Printing Office), p. 9. 



~* In U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. "Defense Department Sponsored Foreign 

 Affairs Research. Hearings before the * * *," May 28, 1968, pt. 2, 90th Cong., 2d sess. (Washington, U.S. 

 Qoverimient Printing Office, 1968), p. 10. 



" Ibid., p. 39. 



'« Ibid., p. 29. 



" R. B. Lindsay, "Physics— To What Extent Is It Deterministic?" American Scientist (Summer 1968), 

 pp. 93-111, especially pp. 96, 110. 



