POL208Y1 Lecture 2: Lecture 2 Theoretical Tools
Document Summary
Tutorial signup begins this week for 8 days after class: first tutorials begin the week of september 30th. The term paper is due at the beginning of the last lecture of the term. Theoretical tools: today"s main concept - the different levels of analysis. Theories are instruments that are suppose to : Predict: the scientific method does not mean that what we come up with is logical. We have to assess social science theories to see if they are logical or not. If models become to complicated, trying to replicate them is near impossible: when using theoretical models, we need things that replicate reality. Therefore, every model omits dimensions of reality. Also, every theoretical model includes fundamental assumptions of what matters most. There is also more than one way of understanding a theory. No one can ever hold a complete truth, because there are to many: explaining an event variables to consider.