Re: [asa] POLL: How do you define "Science"?

You're right Dave. Not satisfied. Very aware of the mathematicization and quantophrenia in human-social thought that you're promoting. I'm afraid you're still trying to force a circle and a square into one.
 
Just so you know, I presented part of my SoS dissertation research at our department meeting yesterday. The audience argued amongst themselves about whether or not socilogy is a science, with 'outsiders' (i.e. non-sociologists) being given a fair voice in concluding whether or not it 'is science.' I pointed out that this 'demarcation game' is mainly in the domain of PoS, not SoS. Nevertheless, they expressed a desire, as academic sociologists, to strive for a 'scientific/scholarly' level in their work. The key is one can be scientific without being a professional scientist (i.e. either in a university setting or commercial enterprise), and one can be a professional scholar (read: scientific) without being a natural scientist or adhering to (read: towing the line, e.g. more mathematics and statistics) any one area of the academy's chosen definitions of 'science.' There are many 'sciences,' Dave, not one - wouldn't you
 agree? Add to this that sociology crosses a spectrum from empirical research and positive experimentation to interpretive methods and social theory, the 'what makes social science 'scientific'" question is more subtle than your call for more mathematics and statistics suggests (though this seems to be a very North American perspective these days).
 
Perhaps Colin's poll would profit by consulting some PoS and SoS. I too find it flimsy. 

G.A.
 
 
"Some people use statistics like a drunkard uses a lamppost - more for support than for illumination." - Marshall McLuhan
 
 

--- On Fri, 5/30/08, Dave Wallace <wmdavid.wallace@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Dave Wallace <wmdavid.wallace@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [asa] POLL: How do you define "Science"?
To:
Cc: asa@calvin.edu
Received: Friday, May 30, 2008, 3:23 AM

One might ask how the human sciences like sociology and psychology
involve math. Practitioners of the human sciences should have a good
grasp of probability/statistics and logic.

eg A=>B does not mean that A is necessarily the cause of B
     Things like R A Fisher's analysis of variance can help filter noise
out of observational data and things like latin squares can also help
with design of experiments when not all combinations of factors can be
tried in an experiment.

I also found the survey impossible to answer.

Dave W (Member ASA)

Greg will probably not be happy with the above.

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Received on Fri May 30 03:49:24 2008