Valentine J. Belfiglio Correlations Between the Physical and Social Sciences

Annotation

This monograph presents four case studies that make correlations between the physical and social sciences. The traditional, empirical, and postmodernist approaches to the study of the social sciences have left many scholars dissatisfied with the results of these methods. The empiricists were on the right track, but they did not go far enough. It is important to anchor statistical data to mathematical formulae or the laws of physics in order to minimize the conscious or unconscious bias of some scholars, who might otherwise manipulate data in support of preconceived notions. Mathematical formulae and the laws of physics can take scholars further in deriving conclusions from sets of assumptions than can inferential statistics. The use of inferential statistics in the social sciences is sufficiently regular that correlations from some mathematical formulae and physical laws prove valid.