SOC200H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Michel Chossudovsky, Georg Simmel, Harold Garfinkel
Document Summary
Theory: provide logical explanation for patterns in research. They prevent us from being taken by flukes or accidents. They make sense of our observation and observed patterns. They shape direct research efforts, pointing towards discoveries through empirical observation. Paradigms: provide ways of looking at the world. Are fundamental models that we use to organize our observation. There"s usually more than one way of viewing things, different people have different view point on how they see the world. Paradigms are usually taken for granted they seem more like the way things are. Thomas kuhn draw attention on the role of paradigm in natural science for example, copernicus theory of earth orbiting around the sun dropped the old theory that people thought the sun revolves around the earth. In natural science when a new paradigm emerges it supplants the old one. Paradigms in social science are not true or false, they are just more or less useful.
