Comments on: Action, Passion, Faith, and History http://www.theveilaway.com/commentary/2010/03/action-passion-faith-and-history/ Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:58:48 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Jacob Kroeze http://www.theveilaway.com/commentary/2010/03/action-passion-faith-and-history/comment-page-1/#comment-358 Jacob Kroeze Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:22:41 +0000 http://www.theveilaway.com/commentary/?p=533#comment-358 That must deserve a re-write. My goal was to communicate the need for thinking beyond binary thinking. In pure science, we think linearly in with the scientific method to test 1 hypothesis against the oppisition: that it be dis-proved. Now, most scientists base their experiments on a purpose derived from field, or real and out-of-lab experience. In social science, the same scientific method has been tried out for a century. But, people studying people demands that the binary inherent in a prove versus disprove sort of logic is impossible. So, a new sort of thinking that uses tensions between two true theories reveals more truth about humanity than could a more binary theory. Pure science still remains true for social science and natural science, but more truths about the natural world with humans in it are revealed by more complex methods. Thanks for calling me out on being vague. I had intended to explain that idea more fully, but some laziness bug got me. Keep asking questions. That must deserve a re-write. My goal was to communicate the need for thinking beyond binary thinking. In pure science, we think linearly in with the scientific method to test 1 hypothesis against the oppisition: that it be dis-proved. Now, most scientists base their experiments on a purpose derived from field, or real and out-of-lab experience. In social science, the same scientific method has been tried out for a century. But, people studying people demands that the binary inherent in a prove versus disprove sort of logic is impossible. So, a new sort of thinking that uses tensions between two true theories reveals more truth about humanity than could a more binary theory. Pure science still remains true for social science and natural science, but more truths about the natural world with humans in it are revealed by more complex methods.

Thanks for calling me out on being vague. I had intended to explain that idea more fully, but some laziness bug got me. Keep asking questions.

]]> By: Robert Minto http://www.theveilaway.com/commentary/2010/03/action-passion-faith-and-history/comment-page-1/#comment-338 Robert Minto Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:18:26 +0000 http://www.theveilaway.com/commentary/?p=533#comment-338 Could you explain this paragraph a bit more? <i>And now the social science connection: social science started in an industrial passion and is moving toward an inactive passion. The new passion is more inactive as we realize the futility of “pure” science. I call it inactive because less than pure science (or more than pure, for that matter) calls for methods that hold polar and binary thinking in tensions of twos and threes. For example, lab science becomes observation in both the lab and the field; theory must be enacted and dynamic.</i> Could you explain this paragraph a bit more?

And now the social science connection: social science started in an industrial passion and is moving toward an inactive passion. The new passion is more inactive as we realize the futility of “pure” science. I call it inactive because less than pure science (or more than pure, for that matter) calls for methods that hold polar and binary thinking in tensions of twos and threes. For example, lab science becomes observation in both the lab and the field; theory must be enacted and dynamic.

]]>