PSCI 2701 Lecture 1: Lecture 1
3 Dec 2015
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Document Summary
As political analysts and researchers, we gather information to: understand and participate in the evolution of knowledge in the discipline, critically distinguish logic from dogma, fact from fiction, develop theories that help to explain and predict political phenomena, make decisions about how to effectively resolve social and political problems that are the concerns of politics and policy making, this kind of analysis helps us make sense of the world, scientific research methods are really techniques to generate knowledge so that we can make strong reasoned arguments. Problems with this: can have bias, rarely complete (rarely get in depth analysis, superficial news, selectively reporting information (i. e. think study that linked vaccinations to autism) A process of thinking and asking questions: shaped by our observations rather than being shaped by our [previous] observations, not a body of knowledge, but rather a way of knowing, based on controlled observation, science is one means to generate knowledge.
