Chapter 2: The Empirical Approach To Political Science

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Actions

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Human behavior done for a reason.

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Constructionsism

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An approach to knowledge that asserts humans actually construct-through their social interactions and cultural and historical practices- many of the facts they take for granted as having independent, objective, or material reality.

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Critical Theory

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The philosophical stance that disciplines such as political science should assess society critically and seek to improve it, not merely study it objectively.

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Cumulative

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Characteristic of scientific knowledge; new substantive findings and research techniques are built upon those of previous studies.

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Deduction

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A process of reasoning from a theory to specific observations.

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Empirical Generalization

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A statement that summarizes the relationship between individual facts and that communicates general knowledge.

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Explanatory

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Characteristic of scientific knowledge; signifying that a conclusion can be derived from a set of general propositions and specific initial considerations; providing a systematic, empirically verified understanding of why a phenomenon occurs as it does.

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Falsifiability

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A property of a statement or hypothesis such that it can (in principle, at least) be rejected in the face of contravening evidence.

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Induction

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A process of reasoning in which one draws an inference from a set of premises and observations; the premises of an inductive argument support its conclusion but do not prove it.

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Interpretation

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Philosophical approach to the study of human behavior that claims that one must understand the way individuals see their world in order to understand truly their behavior or actions; philosophical objection to the empirical approach.

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Nonnormative knowledge

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Knowledge concerned not with evaluation or prescription but with factual or objective determinations.

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Normative knowledge

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Knowledge that is evaluative, value laden, and concerned with prescribing what ought to be.

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Parsimony (Ockham's Razor)

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The principle that among explanations or theories with equal degrees of confirmation, the simplest- the one based on the fewest assumptions and explanatory factors- is to be preferred; sometimes known as Ockham's razor.

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Probabilistic Explanation

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An explanation that does not explain or predict events with 100% accuracy.

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Social Facts

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Values and institutions that have a subjective existence in the minds of people living in a particular culture.

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Theory

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A statement or series of related statements that organize, explain, and predict phenomena.

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Transmissible

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Characteristic of scientific knowledge; indicates that the methods used in making scientific discoveries are made explicit so that others can analyze and replicate findings.