ABSTRACT
Chapter 1. Behavioral/Social Science – An Oxymoron?
This chapter introduces the premise that research on humans in their social worlds has not been well-served by the behavioral social science that was derived from Enlightenment science. Research on humans in their social worlds by other humans is not a traditional science like the one created by Galileo and Newton. The issue is not the kind of data used – quantitative versus qualitative, or numbers versus propositions – but epistemology – how all of that information, and other information, as well, are gathered and put together. The goal of the book is to describe another method of doing human social research, without forsaking essential characteristics of science like falsification, evidence based on empirical data, logic and the systematic presentation of results. How can we learn about individual humans in their social worlds, as they experience it and act within it, and get it “right?” To achieve this goal, the author uses examples of his research within a discussion of some of the foundational figures in the long history of an alternative human social science that has been waiting in the wings for a couple of centuries.
