POLI SCI 170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Method, Inductive Reasoning, Tom Coburn
25 Jan 2018
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People in politics (some) think we should not study political science. In 2009 senator tom coburn started campaign to ban nsf for political science. Congress banned funding for polisci research in 2013 unless us benefited. According to textbook definition: it uses theory. An interconnected set of proposition that explains how or why something occurs: uses verifiable data. To be variable must be observable to others. Aka empirical -observable to others: involves systematic observation and analysis. Can be showed and explained to other. Writing down exactly how conclusions are reached: follows principle of logical reasoning. Empirical: a word you will hear a lot in class. Based on concerned with or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or logic. Someone else can go out and collect it. Empirical pattern: we can see it, it is observed. The scientific method: observe- see something, form a question, for hypothesis- use theory to form hypothesis.
