SOAN 2111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Empiricism, Critical Theory
3 Nov 2015
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Iv expansion on the theoreticl frameowrks: key concepts and. Requires a commitment to: determinism, empiricism. Uses knowledge that is out there in the world/what we learn from our sense perceptions. Empiricism refers to the attempt at explanation of social phenomena, the search for. Still, the meaning of such info has to be interpreted regularities and as much as possible, the search for causa relations that determine them. Objectivity is a goal never fully achieved: we have biases. Subjective views guide the choice of research questions. Positivistic analysis contains several levels of description: including: abstract theory, particular concepts, operational definitions measurement/what do you mean, description of sense impressions how we interpret data. Some argue all positivists, in a sense, are hermeneutists too (interpretive theory). Critical evaluation of positivism particularly by critical theorists. Critical theorists prefer to focus on human activity. Habarnas positivism loses sight of the actors. It is inherently conservative, incapable of challenging the existing system.
