Self-study
Ideally, scientific laws should display the virtues of precision and generality, as do the laws of physics. ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███████████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ █████████
Summary
The ideal scientific laws are precise and general. The laws of physics have these qualities. Social science laws tend to be imprecise because the subject matter may be less clearly defined. Social science laws are also more specific because they can only apply to certain social systems.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Social science laws deviate more from the ideal of scientific laws than physics laws.
It is not always possible for social science laws to be precise and general.
15.
Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
All else being ██████ █ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████
Strongly supported. This restates the rule in the first sentence. Ideally, scientific laws should be precise and general.
b
The social sciences █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
Unsupported. The author discusses how it is harder for social science laws to match the ideal, but does not claim that the social sciences should change for that reason.
c
Terms such as ███████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████████
Unsupported. The author makes no claims as to what social scientists “should” do. In fact, the author implies that the imprecision of certain terms is inherent: “laws of social science have to use terms that are imprecise”.
d
Social scientists should ████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████
Unsupported. The author makes no claims as to what social scientists “should” do. In fact, the author implies that the specificity of the rules is all that is possible in the social sciences.
e
The laws of ██████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ ███████████
Unsupported. The author does not claim that laws that deviate from the ideal are unscientific. The author only distinguishes how the fields vary.