Abstract
In social research and particularly in sociology of science explanations are frequently put forward that claim to correlate social factors with individual behaviours. These supposed explanations often fall into the various traps of causal fallacies because they do not bother to identify the real causal chain linking the social phenomenon to the individual action. They neglect to analyse the crucial component linking social factors to behavioural ones: namely the mental mechanisms of reasoning and decision-making.
This chapter is based on revised versions of Viale, R. (1993). Il ruolo dell’expertise scientifica nelle strategie di falsificazione e verifica - un esempio di cognitivismo metodologico nello studio della azione sociale (with R. Rumiati, P. Legrenzi, N. Bonini), Quaderni di Sociologia, 5; Viale, R. (1994). Dans la boîte noire: les mécanismes cognitifs de la décision scientifique, dans R. Boudon et M. Clavelin (édit.), Le rélativisme est-il résistible?, Parigi: Presses Universitaires de France. With kind permission from the Publishers; Viale, R. (1998). Cognizione e spiegazione nello studio sociale della scienza, Epistemologia, Rivista Italiana di Filosofia della Scienza, 2; and Viale, R. (2012). La spiegazione cognitiva nello studio sociale della scienza, in R. Rumiati (ed.). Pensiero, Azione Emozione. Bologna: Il Mulino.
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Notes
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Carlo Rubbia is an Italian physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1984.
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Viale, R. (2013). The Bridge Between Society and Behaviour in Science. In: Methodological Cognitivism. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40216-6_6
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