CMNS 262 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Fact, Class Conflict, Nomothetic
6 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
**in earliest day of universities, social science, earth sciences, and humanities were all blended for explanations (religion a big part of universities) Then came the positivist stage: arouse around 1620, this included explanations based in science, experimentation and observation (part of private clubs, and then as these ideas more accepted by society then universities began accepting). Metaphysics terrible for witches- if you acted outside of accepted religious norms. The trials were based on argumentation but no logic or reason. You also get arbitrary actions (ex: beheading chosen by those born into power). Being worried about the purely arbitrary/argumentative reasoning of the metaphysical stage, positivists worked towards objectivity (cause and effect, quantification, nomothetic (focus on averages), realist, etc. ) External explanation started first to be used on the earth sciences and mathematics. Began to be used on social world, leading to reliance on social facts. Search for facts; and laws that account for those facts (cause)
