PSCI 2701 Study Guide - Qualitative Research, Null Hypothesis, Deductive Reasoning
23 Nov 2012
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Document Summary
Epistemology: the study of knowledge (how do we know what we know?) Authority (parents, teachers, political leaders, etc. tell us things are so) Faith (knowledge accepted without expectation of tangible evidence) Experience (personal, second hand, humans tend to generalize based on specific experiences) Popular culture (media, news, advertisements tell us what we know) Normative political analysis: concerned with values and ideals, what one ought to do. Empirical political analysis: describing and explaining political phenomena. Quantitative analysis: using a large number of cases to form generalizations. Qualitative analysis: forms specific analyses from carefully selected cases. Standard science model: positivist epistemology (role of theory deductive, research tests theories), knowledge is comprised of only objective, observable phenomena and is studied using methods from physical sciences. Classical period (1850)- deductive reasoning in political philosophy- except aristotle and machiavelli who formed descriptions/prescriptions by observing political life in their own place of residence.
