week# 6 tradition vs. science
DESCRIPTION
This Lecture has been Prepared for the students of Sociology to help them diffrentiate how Tradition vs. Science. And what was the role of Isaac Newton, Emile Durkheim and James,etc.TRANSCRIPT
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.