The current state of research in the social sciences

Abstract

From text: There is a lingering academic disdain for the social sciences which needs countering: namely that they are imprecise, esoteric, and are in the main common sense festooned with jargon, and have the dubious distinction of making what is patently clear, manifestly obscure (Deutsch, Platt & Senghaas 1971). This view of the obsession with the “superiority” of the pure sciences over social sciences, as well as the unquenchable thirst for measurement, found further elaboration by Guthrie (1976) in a book with the interesting title Even the rat was white: A historical view of psychology.