SOC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Scientific Reports, Scientific Method
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To speak of a science without concepts suggests all sorts of analogies a carpenter without tools, a railroad without tracks, a mammal without bones, a love story without love. h. blumer (1931) During the past century, science has revolutionized the way we live and die. First, we specify some concepts of interest to us. Second, we posit, or suggest, some relationship between those concepts. Third, we test whether the posited relationship reflects what happens in the real world. If our testing shows that our posited relationship does reflect what goes on in the real world, we conclude that we have succeeded in understanding something about the nature of things in the world. The answer is that the simplicity of the scientific method becomes clear only when one has conquered the basic vocabulary used by scientists. The good news is that science uses a language that crosses many academic disciplines.
