1 – What is Social Science?

Why Should I Care?

Without science, your beliefs are based on superstition, religion, common sense, and personal assumptions. You might be wrong about a lot of things.

Definitions

Culture
Everything produced by humans to enhance the experience of living, including economic production, language, laws and rules of conduct, religious institutions, literature, and art.

Common Sense
A traditional method for building knowledge, based on faith, folkways, experience, and tradition.

Science
A rational method for building knowledge. Based on fact-checking, and logic.

Technology
Applications of traditional and scientific knowledge. Examples of technological fields: engineering, medicine, law, language, math.

Natural science
The study of the natural world (biology, chemistry, physics).

Social science
The study of the social world, made by humans and their interactions (see list below).

Liberal professions

Critical Thought: Many definitions. 

The ability to determine if a conclusion is sufficiently supported by the underlying premise, and set of logical deductions (reason, logic).

The ability to use knowledge to sort between valid and invalid information.

The ability to identify gaps in knowledge vs. beliefs and traditional views.

“The ability to deconstruct a statement and determine its possible bias” Zohra Bouzitoune Class of 2015

What is Science?

Essentially, if you do the following, your research findings will be valid and recognized as scientific.

1. Be neutral.
   • Do not accept money from interested
   • Identify your cultural / personal bias.
   • Identify the bias of others.
2. Review the literature:
   • Identify what is already known
   • Identify what is not yet known
3. Establish a logical explanation to the phenomenon
   • Write a hypothesis: a relationship between variables
   • If it is complicated, build a model with all the variables and their relationships
4. Operationalize
   • Find a proper method and tool to observe, and measure your variables
   • Build a random sample of the population, preferably large.
5. Let the data do the talking.
   • Empirical verification: Let the data confirm or infirm the hypothesis. Be honest.
   • Don’t modify the numbers if they don’t fit your hypothesis.
6. Communicate the findings and your methodology. Be transparent.

If you do this, you are doing science.

About BIAS

Bias is a tendency to prefer one idea over others. This could be due to many factors such as religion, language, age, culture, history, gender, race, etc.

The brain is meant to help you react to your environment and execute complex operations. Eventually, your brain gets “set in its ways.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

Are you biased about stuff? Language holds bias You can choose different words, for political reasons. But words may also have different meanings…   English                                                              French State                                                                 État Nation                                                              Nation Country                                                            Pays Province                                                           Province (latin; pro victis: in favor of the victorious) Race                                                                 Race Distinct Society                                                  Société distincte Canadian                                                           Canadien Quebecker                                                        Québécois People                                                              Peuple Society                                                              Société (projet de société)

What are the Social sciences?

                                                IS THE STUDY OF

• Psychology                                    how people feel and behave individually
• Sociology                                       how people act and think as groups
• Political Science                             how people govern themselves
• History                                           how people acted in the past
• Geography                                     how people act and think over space
• Economics                                      how people produce goods and services
• Anthropology                                 how people exist as cultures and societies

Why are social sciences useful?

The goal of science is to build knowledge which helps to understand the world, but also to help solve real-life problems.

Without a scientific approach to answering questions about why and how humans do things, we are left with casual research, journalism, religious beliefs and superstition. The problems with these are that we are often led to believe falsehoods. This leads to poor understanding of how the world works, and poor problem-solving skills.

Science must lead to truthful answers, and hopefully also to useful applications. Same goes for social science.

What is Casual Research?

Using anecdotal evidence from daily observations to shape beliefs. This often is in line with what our parents, media and churches tell us about life.

This is not science.

Think Piece

Considering that religions have often fought, dismissed, and attacked scientists, do you believe a true scientist could hold personal religious beliefs?