Social Science

Facts and Values in Social and Scientific Research

Sheffield International College

Lina Lin

090207152

PM001

Group T

MATT DENTON

30/11/09

Content

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1

2. Introduce of Empiricism and Positivism……………………………………….2

3. Introduce of Interpretivism……………………………………………………. ..4

4. Comparison of positivism and interpretivism………………………………….6

5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………...………... 9

6. References……………………………………………………………………….11

Introduction

The relationship between facts and values has arose a significant number of controversial debate, which is that it is possible to separate facts from values in scientific research but not in social science research, in the social sciences and natural sciences.

Firstly, there is a basic assumption that the social sciences are regarded with understanding the action and behavior of human, however, philosophies of interpretivisim focus on the essential of the culture, which means a language game, a form of life or a tradition (Benton and Craib, 2001).

Secondly, according to Hughes(1993), he believes that most social scientist were in favor that the social sciences should set themselves as models on the natural science, especially physics. Therefore, it is essential to notice that although the social sciences regarded the natural science as their yardwand, they did with honor to philosophical interpretations of natural science as well which positivism was the main one.

Thirdly, for Hay, the distinction is useful and accurate between the subject-matters of the natural and the social sciences (Clarke, 2009).

Therefore, concerning different approaches, this essay will first demonstrate the empiricism and positivism according to a number of authors, and then including introduces interpretive which stands on the opposite side of positivism according to the relationship between facts and values. Next, it...