MAIN POINTS

Science is frequently misunderstood and not easily defined. It is not a particular body of knowledge; it is united not by its subject matter but by its methodology. Science refers to all knowledge collected by means of scientific methodology. Approaches to Knowledge

The scientific approach is one mode by which people have attempted to understand their environment and themselves. Descriptive claims scientists make when attempting to understand some state of affairs in the world, called propositional knowledge, can be simple statements questioning the existence of something, or they can be an arguments over the truth value of an association between various dynamics of the social world. Propositional knowledge claims are rooted in a set of beliefs, which must be true and justified.

The philosophy of science is termed epistemology: the study of the foundations of knowledge. The assumptions associated with this philosophy are: 1) nature is orderly; 2) we can know nature; 3) all natural phenomena have natural causes; 4) nothing is self evident; 5) knowledge is based on experience; and 6) knowledge is superior to ignorance.

The ultimate goal of the social sciences is to produce an accumulating body of reliable and verifiable knowledge, permitting people to explain, predict, and understand empirical phenomena that are of interest. Scientific explanation refers to the process of relating a phenomenon to be explained to one or more phenomena.

There are three types of scientific explanations: deductive, inductive, and abductive. In a deductive explanation, a phenomenon is explained by demonstrating that it can be derived from an established universal law. An inductive, or probabilistic, explanation makes use of generalizations that express an arithmetical ratio between phenomena or generalizations that express tendencies. An abductive explanation is employed when deductive explanations are impossible to make (because no universal laws exist) and inductive explanations are not feasible (because there is not enough data to support probabilistic generalizations).

Prediction is the reverse of the process of explanation; the antecedent observations merely point out that the initial conditions are present. The third component of social scientific knowledge is understanding, and the meaning of this term exists in two radically different senses. Verstehen, or empathetic understanding, refers to a tradition in which the natural and social sciences are seen as distinctive bodies of knowledge; it involves the argument that social scientists must seek the understanding of human behavior in a subjective fashion. In contrast, logical empiricists take the position that social scientists can attain objective knowledge in the study of the natural as well as the social world (predictive understanding).

The scientific methodology is a system of explicit rules and procedures upon which research is based and against which claims for knowledge are evaluated. This methodology is tentative, open, self critical, and self correcting. The essential tool of the scientific approach, along with factual observations, is logic-the system of valid reasoning that permits drawing reliable inferences from factual observations. Finally, methodology requires intersubjectivity, meaning that knowledge in general and the scientific methodology in particular have to be transmissible.

Scientific knowledge is knowledge that is justified on the basis of both reason and experience. Normal science is viewed as the routine verification of the dominant theory in any historical period. In contrast to normal science, revolutionary science is the abrupt development of a rival paradigm that can be accepted only gradually by a scientific community. Paradigm transformation is what is revolutionary in science. Karl Popper's prescriptive theory maintains that the scientific community ought to be, and to a considerable degree actually is, an open society in which no dominant paradigm is ever sacred.

The research process consists of seven principal stages: problem definition, hypothesis construction, research design, measurement, data collection, data analysis, and generalization. The most characteristic feature of the research process is its cyclic nature. The research process is also self correcting and represents a rational reconstruction of scientific practice.