Michael Warren Murphy
  Michael Warren Murphy
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What is the difference a social scientific theory and a Biological, Physical, or Geological theory? 

6/17/2014

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The real difference between (a) theory in the social sciences (or more broadly human sciences if we are to include history, philosophy, and so on) as opposed to the biogeophysical sciences is that our theories in social science always re-enter the world in some way, shape, or form as picked up by our human communicants.. Darwin's finches never adopted the theory of natural selection and to speed up the process for better survival or to justify why one species was better than another, whereas humans did. Herbert Spencer coined the term "the survival of the fittest" and Francis Galton launched the eugenics movement, both with social and political implications for human beings. Inequalities in the human realm became naturalized using theories that originated in the biological non-human realm. Theories about ecosystem dynamics aren't adopted and acted upon by any species other than our own. So when we in the social sciences offer our positive/objective theory of the social, or socio-environmental, without due reflection on the social and political implications of our thought, we are committing act of recklessness.. The theories that come out of social science are arguably the most important of all because of the way they are picked up by human actors. 
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