Beyond Zero and One (Andrew Smart) / quote 92 of 171
Why the social sciences are possible
“We can have epistemically objective knowledge about money and elections even though the kinds of facts about which one has epistemically objective knowledge are themselves all ontologically subjective.” He points out that if epistemic objectivity did require ontological objectivity, the social sciences would be impossible. An example of a social science that would be impossible with the requirement of ontological objectivity is economics. Economies require societies of conscious agents believing in them to exist, yet we can determine epistemically objective results from economics. However, without conscious agents living in social groups there would be no economies.