Me-Search All the Way Down

Abstract

The most commonly cited distinct difficulty of social science compared to science in general is that researchers are studying ourselves. But most thinkers have evolved toward a contemporary scientific realism on this point: there are biases, but they can be managed with close attention. Beyond perennial difficulties of self-knowledge, scholars tend to study their own time period, countries, and social groups, introducing additional biases while enabling research on how they affect our questions, methods, and interpretations. This often leads to accusations of “me-search,” especially by underrepresented minorities. But many of the same considerations that drive those critiques and their responses apply to scholars studying their own countries and time periods, and to all of us studying our own species. I argue that the successful history of racial and gender studies shows that progress requires acknowledgment of biases and diversification of viewpoints.