Political Science 3324F/G Lecture 1: Week 1
15 Jan 2019
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Document Summary
Why do we study political science as a science: history. Explain history using empirical validation: positivism. The idea that the truth can be obtained and we can know things. We know things because we observe and experience them: behaviouralism. By observing people"s behaviour we can know things about their behaviour. Know about how people might make future decisions: logic of inference. What are the hallmarks of the scienti c method: empiricism, intersubjectivity, explanation, determinism. Empiricism: requires that every knowledge claim by based upon systematic observation. Assumptions: using the most accurate and reliable information about what is happening around us. Obtaining information systematically through our senses helps to guard against bias. It provides the essential safeguard against bias by requiring that our knowledge claims be: transmissible. Disclosing the process by which we did the research. You can transfer it and someone else can do it: replicable. If the same study is conducted with wildly di erent results, it is not replicable.
