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You have summarized logical positivism. It holds for the physical sciences where, say, dropping a stone from a certain height has repeatability. Social sciences
by gbacon 9y ago
You have summarized logical positivism. It holds for the physical sciences where, say, dropping a stone from a certain height has repeatability. Social sciences involve people, and sometimes even the same person responds differently to similar stimuli.
- ZenoArrow 9y agoIt holds for both, the difference is in what is classed as a successful result. With the physical sciences you expect the outcome of your experiment to be something repeatable, as it implies you've understood the variables well enough to do so. On the other hand, with social science we accept that our knowledge of the variables is too limited to expect repeatability, so our experiments rely on statistical correlation in order to show whether a hypothesis was worthy of further exploration. In both cases, you need experimentation to back up your claims. Social science without experimental results is just collective dogma.
- rumcajz 9y ago"With the physical sciences you expect the outcome of your experiment to be something repeatable." Is it? Look at statistical mechanics. Repeatable, kind of, but on statistical basis.
- ZenoArrow 9y agoYou're splitting hairs. A single replication is not enough, I never suggested otherwise.