The Logic of Social Enquiry by Quentin Gibson

Author:Quentin Gibson [Gibson, Quentin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415178181
Google: KMxTnQEACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1998-01-15T03:43:57+00:00

X

THE USE OF GENERAL STATEMENTS: INTRODUCTORY

IN the social sciences, we have said, we are concerned with the ways in which people influence each other, the effects they have on each other, the interactions between them. The task of the social enquirer, that is to say, is to find out what people feel, desire, believe or do by considering their social surroundings, and to explain what they feel, desire, believe or do by reference to their social surroundings. And we have pointed out that in order to make these discoveries and give these explanations, he can, and indeed must, make use of general statements.

We have seen, however, that general statements may be of various types. Moreover they can be used in various ways. The time has come, therefore, to consider their use in more detail.

Theories

In the illustrations we have given of establishing and of explaining what happens, we have taken simple cases in which only one general statement is referred to. Thus, in the case of establishing that there was privilege in Ancient Egypt, we suggested that the appeal would be to some such principle as that tombs of a certain kind are built only for privileged people. In the case of explaining a rise in price, we said, it would be necessary to introduce some general statement like ‘Price rises when there is a rise in costs’.1

Such illustrations, however, fail to bring out an important point. This is that the general statements of which we make use rarely stand on their own, unconnected with others. Any given statement can usually be deduced from some combination of others, and if it itself is taken in combination with others there are usually further statements which can be deduced from it. Because of these ramifications we often find that we have at our disposal not single statements, but sets or systems of statements logically interconnected in various complex ways. Such systems of general statements are commonly spoken of as ‘theories’.1

It is a feature of any theory that some of the statements which comprise it are more general than others, in the sense that they are concerned with wider classes of objects. The reason for this is that when one statement is deduced from others, it is normally the case that at least one of those from which it is deduced is more general than it is itself.

Consider, for example, the archaeologist who finds an ornate and massive tomb, and says that tombs of this kind are built only for privileged people. He may argue that such tombs require wealth for their building, and where there is wealth there is privilege. In doing this he is showing that his original statement can be deduced from two others taken together. The first classifies tombs of this kind as special cases of objects requiring wealth. The second states the general principle that anything which requires wealth is associated with privilege. The argument thus takes us back from a more special principle to a more general one.

Similarly,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.