Week# 6 Tradition vs.

ScienceBy

M.USAMA MANSOOR

Adopt the Scientific Method

Social scientists began to

Adopt the scientific method

To make sense of the rapid changes

Accompanying

Modernization and industrialization.

The Development of

Sociology The development of sociology was

Part of a more general trend

Toward the development of

Discrete scientific disciplines.

Ancient Philosophy

In ancient philosophy,

there was no difference between

the liberal arts of mathematics and

the study of history, poetry, or politics

Development of Mathematical

Proofs

Only with the development of

Mathematical proofs did there

Gradually arise a perceived difference

Between scientific disciplines and the

humanities or liberal arts.

Aristotle studied Planetary Motion and

Poetry

Thus,

Aristotle studied planetary motion

and

Poetry with the same methods

Plato Mixed Geometrical

Proofs And

Plato mixed geometrical proofs with

his

Demonstration on the state of intrinsic

knowledge.

End of 17th Century A New Scientific

Paradigm

However,

By the end of the 17th century

A new scientific paradigm was

emerging

Isaac Newton Physics

Particularly with the work of Isaac

Newton in physics.

Newton, by revolutionizing what was

then called natural philosophy,

Changed the basic framework by

which individuals understood what

was scientific.

Newton Merely Archetype of

Accelerating Trend

While Newton was merely the

Archetype of an accelerating trend,

His work highlights an important

distinction.

Mathematical Truth was Objective and

Absolute

For Newton,

mathematical truth was objective and absolute

It flowed from a reality independent of the observer

and

It worked by its own rules.

Other Disciplines Created a

Pressure

In the realm of other disciplines

This created a pressure

To express ideas in the form of mathematical relationships, or laws.

Such laws became the model that other disciplines would emulate.

Late 19th Century, Mathematical Laws Explain

Human Behavior

In the late 19th century,

Scholars increasingly tried to

Apply mathematical laws to explain

human behavior.

Laws of Philology

Among the first efforts were the laws

of philology

Which attempted to map the change

Over time of sounds in a language

Scientists Sought Mathematical Truth

Through Logical Proofs

At first,

Scientists sought mathematical truth

through

Logical proofs.

Early 20th Century Statistics and

Probability Theory But in the early 20th century

Statistics and probability theory

Offered a new way to divine

mathematical laws

Underlying all sorts of phenomena.

Statistics and Probability theory

developed As statistics and probability theory

developed

They were applied to empirical

sciences,

Such as

Biology, and to the social sciences.

Emile Durkheim Explored Human

Relationships

The first thinkers

To attempt to combine scientific inquiry with

The exploration of human relationships were Emile Durkheim in France

And

William James in the United States

Durkheim Sociological Theories and

Jame’s Work on Experimental

Psychology Durkheim's sociological theories

And

James's work on experimental psychology had

An enormous impact on those who followed.