At 09:30 AM 4/13/00 +1000, Alan McLean wrote:
>In the �soft� sciences it is easy enough to identify a characteristic of
>interest �
alan makes good points as usual ... but i totally object to the term 'soft'
sciences ...
what does soft imply? that the science is bad ... or, that merely that
variables are more 'difficult' to measure ... if that is the case, these
ought to be called the 'hard' sciences
the unpleasant associations with the term 'soft' are uncalled for ... there
are excellent 'scientists' (whatEVER that means) in all fields .. and some
pretty weak ones too (and gee ... BOTH kinds get tenure!) ...
science is science ... and some practice it well ... some don't ... should
it be some demerit against them that they happen to have opted for a field
of interest ... even if many of the variables are difficult to measure?
perhaps that makes it even more challenging ...
finally, i would not be so quick to claim that in the areas that are non
social science based ... that variables are all the clear and clean cut ...
there seems to be tremdous infighting about theories and how to 'validate'
them in medicine ... astronomy ... physics ... it is not like everything
there is so simple ... maybe don can pop in here with some relevant
examples ...
i am sure there are 'mean' differences in terms of these things but ...
there is a lot more WITHin variation in terms of hardness/softness ... that
between disciplines
==============================================================
dennis roberts, penn state university
educational psychology, 8148632401
http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/droberts.htm
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