ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with illustrations of the ways in which purportedly 'scientific' studies can be described as unwittingly, or unreflectively, incorporating common-sense understandings in their data collection and analysis. As discussed in connection with the correspondence theory of truth for scientific theory proposed by positivism, there is no theory-independent way of looking at the world. The criticism of the social scientific use of official statistics is well documented, especially as they arise from E. Durkheim's pioneering use of them in his study of suicide. Durkheim himself voiced many doubts about their accuracy. The objection to science, for example, can be less than comprehensive and can be an objection against specific versions of science, such as positivism, rather than the abandonment of all scientific ambition for the so-called social sciences. Scientific relevances are determined by the problem at hand and the procedures of the science concerned rather than those of everyday life.
