Political Science · Political Theory
UGC NET January 2017 Political Science
Who among the following disputed the view that human behaviour could be adequately described without reference to the intentions, motives and reasons of the actors involved?
APeter Winch ✓ Correct
BC. L. Hull
CDavid Hume
DRobert Dahl
Correct answer: (A) Peter Winch — The thinker who disputed that human behaviour can be described without reference to intentions, motives and reasons is Peter Winch, so the answer is option 1.
Explanation
★The thinker who disputed that human behaviour can be described without reference to intentions, motives and reasons is Peter Winch, so the answer is option 1.
★Winch, a British philosopher influenced by Wittgenstein, argued in The Idea of a Social Science (1958) that social action is rule-governed and meaningful, not reducible to external causes.
★He attacked the positivist and behaviourist programme that tried to explain conduct like natural events, without the actor's own understanding.
★C.L. Hull was a behaviourist psychologist of stimulus-response learning, the very approach Winch opposed.
★David Hume held that reason is the slave of the passions, and Robert Dahl is a pluralist theorist of democracy and power, neither central to this debate.
★Spotting cue: meaning, rules and the actor's reasons set against positivist explanation always point to Peter Winch.
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