--- On Fri, 3/12/10, Veronica Caley <molleo1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Donal: Aside from its ethical
and emotional appeal, it also appeals to something immature
and child-like in us that does not want to accept the
imperfect in the world or in ourselves or to take the kind
of personal responsibility that might lead to genuinely
improving things.>>
This has been studied.
Granted, but what is "This"?
The originator of the idea was Theodore Adorno.>
What "idea" exactly? That totalitarianism has ethical or emotional appeal? That it appeals to
something child-like in us? That it offers an escape from the reality of an imperfect world? An escape from
taking constructive personal responsibility? Whichever of these, it is doubtful that Adorno is the
"originator" of any such "idea"; perhaps a contributor to its discussion? Or perhaps the
idea is this:-
His theory was that there are
authoritarian personalities that gravitate towards
dictatorships.
If this is his "theory"/idea it is hardly original (or, so far, much of a theory, being possibly circular and
untestable as it stands - those who "gravitate towards dictatorships" being defined as having "authoritarian
personalities" etc.; and in any case so far so vague one can imagine circumstances in which any kind of personality might
gravitate towards dictatorships). As the book "The Authoritarian Personality"/TAP was co-authored, with Else
Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson, and Nevitt Sanford, it seems Adorno is certainly not the sole originator of this 'concept'
even within that book, and also perhaps not even a major contributor: "Although Adorno's name heads the alphabetical list of
authors, he arrived late to the project and made a relatively small contribution.[3] In fact, Adorno's name is only credited in
five of the 23 chapters in TAP."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality].
That entry also makes the following comment which indicates the "theory" has
not been corroborated by passing severe tests:-
"A central idea of TAP is that authoritarianism is the result of a Freudian
developmental model, in which excessively harsh and punitive parenting causes children to
identify with and idolize authority figures. This was consistent with prevailing
psychological theories of the time, and even though Frenkel-Brunswik reported some
preliminary support, empirical data have generally not confirmed this prediction.[2]"
Veronica continues "Adorno based his idea on Freud", though it is unclear how he based it on another's
work while still being its originator. We might do well also to remember Popper's views on the lack of
testability of Freud's theories. Insofar as the theory of TAP, as formulated, is "not confirmed" by
"empirical data", this means either the data falsifies the theory or the theory as formulated is not
falsifiable.
Others have since studied it from other angles.
Granted. There are many angles. (One is Wason's, see below).
Voting practices seem to verify this. People usually vote the way
their parents do or did.>
It is unclear how voting practices can constitute a severe test of a theory of an authoritarian
personality. For one, we might think the "authoritarian personality" (whatever that is)
is fairly evenly spread in all populations. Yet some populations vote regularly in the great
majority for continued one-party rule and some populations would in the vast majority not vote for
any party that sought a mandate for its one-party rule. The explanation for this difference likely
goes far beyond parental influence or child-rearing; and it does not likely lie in the lap of the
"authoritarian personality" either, unless we assume such a personality is not at all
evenly spread.
Of course, a scientist might accept that voting practices might seem to
"verify" such a theory of TAP, at least by being not inconsistent with such a
theory; but such verification is much too inadequate to render such a theory scientific;
to be scientific it must falsifiable, and that would involve here formulating the theory
of TAP so that actual voting practices could prove inconsistent with the theory. Has this
been done?
What fascinates me is that a few people can actually switch
their personalities. As in switching from
one political party to another.
What fascinates me, among other things, is the authoritarian and mistaken reliance of the
'uncritical' notion of verification. It appears, from the Wason Selection Test for
example, that our psychological propensity to rest our laurels on some apparent
confirmation of our theory (which is all too easy to obtain) is stronger than our grasp
of the logical point that our theory can only be true if it is not false, and therefore
we should search for what could show it to be false. If nothing 'observable' could show
it to be false, our theory is not testable by observation, no matter how many
observations might appear to 'verify' our theory by being consistent with it. So how can
the theory of TAP be formulated so that observable "data" could falsify it?
And, so formulated, how has it performed in the relevant tests?
It does appear, fortunately, that even those disposed to a mistaken, uncritical
verificationist approach to theories can be educated - for example, by
understanding 'confirmationist bias' and the like - to switch to a more
critical, falsificationist approach.
Note to self: in another post address Adorno's connecting fascism with
Enlightenment reason [contra, Popper would argue fascism is better seen as one
of the many revolts against Enlightenment reason]; and address the point that
for Popper in 'TOSE' the key here is to bring personal authoritarian tendencies
under some kind of institutional control [as well as subject those tendencies
to a penetrating epistemic and political critique]- here Popper is with Jim
Madison et al, who did not advance their views so much in (somewhat dubious)
psychological terms as in institutional terms, as with the simple but brilliant
idea of the 'separation of powers'.
Donal
TTFN
LDN
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