MAY 3
Tradition
• Don’t question – default
• Change is not going to happen
Authority
• Eg. Family, teachers
• What authority says is so to those who believe
• Feeling of uncertainty
• Authority can change
Reason
• Rational approach logic; one thing flows to the next
• Theory with no method
• Rational explanations with no method
• Can get into trouble proof not required
•Theorizing with no evidence
Science
•Positivism: means by which we understand the world with science
•Empiricism: empirical answer
• Use of our senses can’t see, hear, smell, touch = doesn’t exist
• Empirical proof able to use senses (empirical evidence)
• If unable to use senses = doesn’t exist
• Proof always needed
• 1- nature is orderly and regular
■ex sun rises in the east, and sets in the west
■things done in an orderly way
• 2- we can know the patterns
• 3- knowledge is superior to ignorance
■knowing is better than not knowing
• you can do something about it when you know
■we have knowledge so why take chances
• 4- natural phenomenon has natural causes
■science is completely opposed to anything supernatural
■no sort of unknown forces that make people do things
■ex. Bermuda triangle = nonsense there will always be an empirical reason
(explanation; nothing supernatural at all) as to why the ships sank/
airplanes disappear ex. Engine failure etc.
■systemic: trying to model after the natural science, not just a hunch or
observations or opinions. Want to understand the world how it is, not how
you want it to be.
■No laws of nature but a way of looking at the world
■Dealing with social irregularities world that is rooted in sciences
Science: based on a series of assumptions
Sociology: social science
• Systematic or scientific study of human social behavior, an independent
social science whose subject matter is society, culture, social groupings, social
institutions, social structure.
