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    %THEORY PARADIGM SOCIAL PERSONAL SCIENCE METHOD 900106

     To  be  able to promote both  personal  and  communal
integrity in balanced ways social scientists need a theory
of  the  foundations for social science  which  transcends
exclusive   limitation  to  the  methods   of   thoroughly
objective and exclusively quantitative sciences.

     The  social  sciences  cannot  be  helpfully   rooted
primarily  in objective procedures,  and at the same  time
succeed  in promoting both personal and communal integrity
in balanced ways;  for by their nature the social sciences
are essentially reflexive,  they reflect upon the behavior
of  members of the same species as the scientists who  are
conducting the study.

     It  is impossible to conduct a study of the  behavior
of any contrasting human culture, without at the same time
reflecting on how it contrasts to one's own culture; it is
the differences which are going to be most apparent,   and
the  differences  which  must be transcended in  order  to
arrive at any kind of sympathetic understanding.

     If  one seeks to eliminate sympathy from the study of
people,   it will be impossible to come to any  meaningful
understanding  of the people who are being studied;  their
thought processes,  motivations,  fears,  desires,   other
emotions,   etc.   are bound to be beyond the reach of  an
unsympathetic  scholar.   Only  within the  context  of  a
sympathetic  study  will  it become possible  to  honestly
understand the contrasting and similar behavior patterns.

     If one begins with the ultimate belief that the study
of  human  beings  should  be  entirely  mechanistic   and
objective,   and without sympathy;  then that belief is  a
hypothesis  which  is not subject to verification  by  any
experimental procedure.  Such a belief is an idol which is
worshiped with all the natural consequences of worshipping
an idol; i.e., disintegrative idolatry.

     To  be  integrative social scientists must  transcend
the   limitations   of  the  exclusively   objective   and
quantitative  paradigm of the exact sciences;  in order to
be  open to hypotheses which will provide the  theoretical
framework  within  which to understand human  behavior  in
integrative ways.

     Social  scientists  will not be able  to  develop  an
integrative theory in terms of which to promote the growth
of  both personal and communal integrity--if they  do  not
transcend the paradigm of the exact sciences.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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