CLASSICS 1M03 Lecture 1: Political Science 1AB3 2017 Lecture 1a overhead comparative/ Prof. Todd Alway
Document Summary
Political science 1aa3 2017 lecture 1a: constructing a science of politics. The type of experimental method used in the natural sciences simply cannot be replicated for many of the questions that we have in the social sciences. We can develop a hypothesis: a statement that one or more variable(s) (independent variable(s)) will cause a particular outcome (dependent variable, x + y = z. However, there is a problem with testing the hypothesis. We cannot simply isolate and combine social variables (unlike the case for chemistry or physics) The variables we are interested in always exist in a larger social context that contains many many other simultaneously coexisting variables. Any one of the alternative variables, or perhaps some combination of the alternative variables, could be responsible for the outcome you are interested in understanding. One model for conducting a scientific political science: You need to start with an informed guess about what is causing the phenomenon/event you are interested in.
