Project elements

1
Project elements

• Why have a project?
• This project Vouchers
• Review existing work
• Analyze existing data
• Acquire new data
• Q methodology
• Survey

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Survey

• Either Feb 2 or 3 one hour mandatory training,
  Time and location tba
• One day 530 900, FEB 7,8,9,10,11,14,15
• Or 930 100 FEB 12, 19
• Or 130 500 FEB 12, 19
• Or 1230 400, FEB 16, 17,18

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Distinction

• Social World versus
• Social Sciences

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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

• Did your parents learn the same science you did?
  
• Pangaea?

5
What is science?

• Constellation of facts theories and methods
  collected in current texts
• science historian must id the time, place and
  person who discovered each fact
• SH must explain myths, error and superstition of
  prior scientific eras
• myths seem to be as scientific as current fact

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What is science? 

• The historical integrity of science in its own
  time
• science methods are insufficient to direct all
  scientific conclusions
• observation and experience must restrict the
  range of scientific belief
• there is also and arbitrary element
• "normal science" predicated upon the belief that
  we know what the world is like
• Incommensurable 

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The structure of science

• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control 

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Social science transactions between

• Individuals
• Groups
• self  

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The structure of preconceptions

• education is rigid and rigorous
• boxes with advantages
• boxes with disadvantages
• boxes shift with incommensurable accidents
  revolution! 

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Chapter 2 The Route to "Normal Science" the
body of generally accepted theory
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Paradigms

• an unprecedented achievement that attracted
  adherents
• sufficiently open-ended to leave much need for
  further research
• some paradigms are prehistory math and
  astronomy
• paradigms of social science are "recent
• w/o, all facts are equally important 

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Revolution is the transformation of a paradigm

• The "old school" is read out of existence
• Specialized journals and societies (texts are
  negatives)
• A place in the curriculum
• New work builds on the pillars of the paradigm  

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Examples of a Paradigm shift

• Samuelson and the mathematics of economics
• Milton Friedman on Theory
• ENIAC

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Friedman on Theory

• Goal of Science
• yield valid and meaningful predictions about
  phenomena not yet observed
• valid
• meaningful
• net yet observed
• Confidence
• If Ho, then an infinite number!

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Friedman on Theory

• Good Theory
• Simple (parsimonious)
• Fruitful (elegant)

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Friedman on Theory

• The Nature of Evidence
• Indirect
• No controlled experiments
• Stages construct hypotheses, test validity

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Friedman on Theory

• Constructing Hypotheses Assumptions...
• should be unrealistic!
• should result in predictable outcomes
• provide simple description of the theory
• can facilitate indirect tests of theory
• can specify conditions under which the theory is
  valid

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Friedman on Theory

• Testing Validity
• never fully objective
• never prove a hypothesis
• theory is the way we perceive facts

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A Good Model

• Small
• cheap
• imitation of the real thing

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ENIAC

• Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator
• purpose
• size
• lights and bugs
• Sword in the Stone

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Puzzle Solving as a metaphor for Normal Science

• The paradigm specifies the tests, and the
  expected results
• tests add precision and scope of the application

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Why do puzzles?

• solving puzzles is fun
• reputation effects of being a puzzle solver

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What is a puzzle?

• test of ingenuity or skill
• has a solution
• does not depend on the intrinsic value of the
  solution
• rules for the nature of the solution
• rules for steps in determining the solution

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If there is no solution

• called metaphysical
• belongs to another discipline
• not worth the time/cost  

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The Priority of Paradigms

• Paradigms are clear (in textbooks) while the
  rules are less obvious (optimal methodology)
• Paradigms embody theory
• Theory is presented with practical applications
• Where paradigms do not exist, differing
  methodologies breed different schools 

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Thought questions

• Consider Kuhns book as a scientific revolution
• Do the social sciences meet Kuhns notion of
  science?
• What are the connections between the social
  world and hard science?
• Consider computers as a paradigm.