|
Word |
Meaning |
Reference |
| Analytic statements |
Statements which are true by definition (vs. synthetic
statements). e.g. Roses are flowers. |
Positivism |
| Androcentric |
The tendency for men to unconsciously bias perceptions in
uniquely male ways |
Feminism |
| a priori |
Deductive knowledge that is independent of experience -
thus 2+2=4 is true everywhere. |
Immanuel Kant |
| a posteriori |
Inductive knowledge that comes only through experience and
testing. |
Logical Positivism |
| Atomism |
Things can be studied by reducing them to their smallest
parts (and the whole is the sum of the parts) |
Positivism |
| Bedrock assumptions |
Assumptions about a theory that are
unchallengeable and protected. |
Conventionalism |
| Behaviorism |
The derivation of general laws of how people and animals
behave through observation, deduction and (usually verificationist)
experiment. |
Standard Positivism |
| Canon, canonized, canonical |
When a theorist or text is canonized, it is promoted to an
unquestionable level of truth which can be referenced without fear of
challenge. |
|
| Closed system |
A closed system has no inputs from or outputs to any
external world and hence is totally isolated. Scientific experiments seek
to create this so the effects of deliberate causal variation of one thing
can be seen without having to worry whether the cause was external. |
Empiricism Positivism |
| Connotation |
The deep and cultural meaning of a word
('tree' as 'strength', 'oak' as 'Englishness') |
Linguistics Roland Barthes |
| Constructionism |
We understand the world through internal
constructs. |
Immanuel Kant |
| Conventionalism |
We tend to conform to conventions, remaining within
canonized paradigms. |
Conventionalism |
| Denotation |
The simple meaning of a word ('tree' as a
large plant) |
Linguistics Roland Barthes |
| Determinism |
Causes exist in social relations which are
external constraints on individual choices.
A thing has a separate reality which affects its parts. Society thus has
its own independent reality.(vs. Voluntarism) |
Positivism
Émile Durkheim |
| Documentary method |
To find meaning in the sensory storm, we draw
on a stock of stories and meaningful interpretations. Finding a story that
fits, we transform the evidence to support the story. The stories
themselves also are being constantly renegotiated. |
Phenomenology |
| Dogmatic Falsification |
Assuming that one falsification renders a
theory useless. |
Lakatos |
| Duhem Thesis |
An empirical test can never falsify an
isolated hypothesis -- it actually challenges the whole theoretical system
of which it is a part. |
Conventionalism Quine Theses |
| Empirical regularities |
Where correlation is found between two variables (not
necessarily cause and effect) |
Positivism |
| Empiricism |
Approach that assumes that truth comes only from direct
experience. |
Empiricism |
| Age of Enlightenment |
18th century period when science woke up and bypassed
religion as a system of knowledge. |
Empiricism
The Age of Enlightenment |
| Ethnomethodology |
Method whereby real social situations are
disturbed to discover reactions and hence internal conceptions and social
rules. |
Phenomenology Harold Garfinkel |
| Facts |
Things that can be proven. Things held as unshakable
truth. Not Values. |
Positivism |
| Falsification |
Popper's notion that you can only prove something to be
true by failing to falsify it. |
Positivism |
| Felcific calculus |
People choose based on optimum utility |
Utilitarianism |
| Feminism |
Seeks to counterbalance the androcentric bias inherent in
much 'scientific' research. |
Feminism, Positivism |
| Game Theory |
Simplification of human behaviour to a series
of games that can be modelled, often mathematically. Includes games of
'chicken', 'Prisoners' dilemma' and the Nash equilibrium.
Closely related to economics. |
Idealism
Rational Choice Theory
Morganstern and Von Neumann |
| Generalizing |
Extending a concept proven in one area to
others areas. |
Three -izings
of research |
| Hegemony |
The constant struggle between social forces to
create meaning |
Antonio Gramsci |
| Hermeneutics |
Discovery of meaning (originally in Bible). |
Hermeneutics |
| Hypothesis |
Unproven but testable idea. |
Three -izings
of research |
| Hypothetico-deductive model |
Popper's definition of science as 'testable' statements. |
Karl Popper |
| Idealism |
We construct our own reality. To study people is to study
that construction. |
Idealism |
| Ideal type |
Simple generalization that accepts complexity and its own
imperfection. |
Max Weber |
| Idiographic (or Ideographic) |
the individualized method of cultural sciences for
depicting particular circumstances (like
particularism) |
Neo-Kantianism |
| Incommensurable |
Two paradigms are incommensurable in that the
criteria of one cannot be used to judge the truth of the other. |
Conventionalism |
| Interactionism |
Meaning is created by interactions between
people. eg. the Looking-glass self. |
Phenomenology |
| Intersubjectivity |
By sharing time and space, two actors
communicate in a process of understanding. |
Phenomenology |
| Intertextuality |
Meaning is constantly being produced by the
relationship between texts. |
Linguistics |
| Langue |
Underlying system of language rules (see
also Parole) |
Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure |
| Metaphysical |
Ideas that cannot be proven. Knowledge beyond the bounds
of experience. |
Positivism |
| Methodological Individualism |
1. Break down phenomena into their smallest parts. 2. Use
these to deduce development of more complex phenomena |
Neo-Kantianism Carl Menger |
| Methodological Pluralism |
No approach is better than another. Multiple
views enrich |
Conventionalism Relativism |
| Microeconomics |
Understanding behaviour of a society through the
combination of individual choices and actions. |
Neo-Kantianism Carl Menger |
| Mimetic |
Exact duplicate. Positivist view that everything can be
precisely defined in 'mimetic' statements. |
Positivism |
| Naturalism |
The idea that principles of the natural sciences should be
used for social research. |
Positivism |
| Nominalism |
Scientifically valid words have fixed and absolute
meanings. To define a word is to fix meaning. The existence of a word does
not imply the existence of what it describes. |
Positivism |
| Nomothetic |
constructing generalized models and laws (like
universalism) |
Neo-Kantianism |
| Normal science |
Scientific research that supports and does not challenge
existing paradigms. |
Conventionalism |
| Noumena |
Things that exist beyond our cognitive experiences.
'Things-in-themselves'. |
Immanuel Kant |
| Objective knowledge |
Knowledge that is separate from what it describes. This
independence gives it truth. |
Positivism |
| |
|
|
| Open system |
Open systems have all parts are interconnected and have no
boundaries (thus there is only one open system). Changing one part may
thus affect any other part of the system. Relationships and linkages are
important. Idealists see the world as an open system and Positivist
attempts to create closed systems as futile and misleading. |
Idealism |
| Operationalize |
Putting ideas into action. Translating a
hypothesis into a test. |
Three -izings
of research |
| Paradigm |
A set of principles, theories and methods that encompass a
scientific idea. |
Conventionalism |
| Parole |
The utterances of speech (see also Parole) |
Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure |
| Phenomenalism |
The idea that only observable phenomena should be studied. |
Positivism |
| Phenomenology |
Knowledge is discovered through open, unbiased description
of experience. |
Phenomenology |
| Physicalism |
As there is one set of physical things to study (including
people) then a common language is feasible to describe all experience. |
Positivism |
| Positivism |
Taking a 'positive' approach to research and using
scientific approaches. |
Positivism |
| Pragmatism |
Problem-solving that relates to everyday
concerns. William James distinguished 'knowledge of' and 'knowledge
about'. |
|
| Praxeology |
An attempt to establish a nomothetic science
of human action where value is seen as individual preference and
quantitative prediction is inaccurate and should be about the prediction
of patterns that we see through 'imaginary constructions'. |
Idealism
Richard Von Mises
Rational Choice Theory |
| Quine Thesis |
An empirical test can never falsify an
isolated hypothesis -- it actually challenges the whole knowledge system
of which it is a part. |
Conventionalism |
| Quine-Duhem thesis |
You cannot test a single hypothesis on its own, since each
is part of linked set of theories. |
Conventionalism |
| Rational Choice Theory |
All social phenomena as sum of individual
choices (and nothing else). People make rational, optimal choices. |
Idealism |
| Rationalism |
Truth can be best discovered through reason and rational
thought. |
Rationalism |
| Realism |
Things exist, whether or not people are thinking of them. |
Realism |
| Scientific laws |
Generalized laws that are always true and can be used to
predict future events. |
Positivism |
| Scientism |
Knowing how to investigate without any
understanding of what it is. |
Haytek |
| Semiology or Semiotics |
The science of signs and symbols |
Linguistics |
| Situated |
Knowledge is situated where the context is a part of the
meaning, making it difficult to transport or generalize. Things can be
historically situated and socially situated. |
Idealism |
| Speech Act theory |
Speaking is acting. We are both stating and
doing. |
Linguistics John Austin |
| Subject-Object problem |
The problem that in trying to study people as separate
subjects, we need to be detached and objective. Sometimes (maybe all
times) it is difficult to do this. |
Positivism |
| Synthetic statements |
Statements which require evidence to prove them true. e.g.
Roses are fragrant. (vs. analytic statements) |
Positivism |
| Text |
A piece of communication. It can be a word, a
sentence, a picture, a symbol, etc. |
Linguistics |
| Trope |
A non-literal use of words to convey meaning
such as metaphor or metonymy (eg. 'crown' meaning 'king'). |
Linguistics |
| Utility, utilitarianism |
The principle that people make rational choices based on
value. |
Utilitarianism |
| Values |
Personal and social rules. Associated with emotions. Not
facts. |
Positivism |
| Verification |
Testing explanations to prove truth under various
circumstances. aka. Justification and Confirmation (see also
Falsification) |
Positivism |
| Voluntarism |
The causes of phenomena are in the actions of
individuals and groups.
A thing is the sum of its parts. The economy is sum of firms and
households.
(vs. Determinism) |
Max Weber |
