SOAN 2111 Lecture Notes - Critical Theory, Empirical Evidence, General Idea
2 Mar 2013
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Document Summary
Encourages social scientist to define cause-effect relationships. Empirical knowledge about the external world is grounded in what we learn from our sense perception. Refers to the attempt at explanation of social phenomena, the search for regularities, and as much as possible, the search for casual relations that determine them. Objectivity is a goal never fully achieved. Consistent & reliable because it"s more statistical. Subjective views guide the choice of research questions. Inconsistent because we might all have different opinions. Positivistic analysis levels of description: abstract. Example: the number of hours watching a violent movie and aggressive behavior: operational definition. What do we mean by aggressive behavior?: description of sense impressions. Critics ask: how can we assume that society has a natural order. It"s inherently conservative, incapable of challenging the existing system. Critical theorists prefer to focus on human activity. Don"t accept that the law of science is always right. Habermas - all knowledge is based upon human values.
