> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Palij [mailto:m...@nyu.edu]
> > On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:07:19 -0700, Michael Smith wrote:
[snippage snipped]
> >especially the social sciences which just aren't on par with the
> >physical sciences.
>
> This is a curious statement because it assumes that there is
> a common metric that one can use to compare the achievements
> in different domains of the sciences. I wonder which
> metric(s) Prof. Smith is using as the basis for this? Can he
> enlighten us?
I share your curiosity.
I often get into this discussion with people in the "hard" sciences. When I
ask them to tell me what differentiates a "hard" from "soft" science, they
can't do it.
When I ask them why biology is considered a "hard" science, especially given
parts of biology that are in no way I can determine different from
psychological science, they can't tell me.
So I would really like to know.
Science is method, not content, and doesn't have anything to do with the
difference in variability or reliability of the result. It's a method for
finding things out (or more accurately, it's a method for telling you when
you're wrong). Physics uses it, biology uses it, psychology uses, and so on.
I don't get the distinction between hard and soft science -- it literally makes
no sense to me. We differ in technique, in subject of investigation, in
accuracy in prediction (for many things -- things which I as a behaviorist
would say are due to the scientists' ignorance and not anything intrinsic to
the subject).
But none of those have to do with the method.
m
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