POLSCI 1G06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Comparative Politics, Falsifiability
21 Sep 2016
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The biggest different is human beings vs naturally occurring things (humans and apples, for example, newton"s idea about gravity did not impact the way the apple fell). Humans have the ability to constantly react to their environments. Assuming we accept the social and natural world are similar in that they work in a pattern, how do we find out the laws as to how people work socially with political laws. The type of experimental method used in the natural sciences simply cannot be replicated in the social sciences. We can develop a hypothesis, a statement with one or more variable; x+y will = z, for example. >test hypothesis by taking variable, isolating them and combining them. We cannot simply replicate what variables do in natural sciences. Democracy+free trade=development as a hypothesis (independent variables causing a dependant) but you cannot simply isolate each all exist within a social formation.
