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Is Knight Argument For The Existence Of Social-Based Knowledge?

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Darryl argues that, Knight focused attention on recurring problem in scientific enquiry of how social agents think and act and on what information and under what conditions they premise their calculations. How rational can ‘rational man’ be if he bases his deliberations on facts that cannot be known or on realities which do not currently exist? Indeed, in the absence of a rational calculus of action, to what extent can scientific precepts be applied to social actors at all?

For Darryl, Knight argument is that the primary task of social scientist was to go beyond the here and the now in order to understand human relations and how human agents plan to interface with these; and change the circumstance that may arise. To achieve that goal, knowledge was important. The problem rested in constructing this knowledge of the future and understanding both the attributes that shape its constitution and the limits of its accuracy. (Darryl, 2010, p.3)

Darryl wonders why was it important to differentiate the concept of uncertainty from that of risk? To that he …show more content…

203). This intricate schema defines for Knight the problem of social-based knowledge. (Darryl, 2010, p.4)
Darryl argues that Knight believes Economics and Social Sciences deal with knowledge of different category from of the natural sciences. The precision required of the natural sciences in the observation and correlation of facts and behaviors to events is beyond the scope of economic theory, since human action and conduct are related to factors which are not observable or testable. Knight reject the positivism rank in favor of less analytical frame work and more interpretative

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