From: invalid@invalid.net   
      
   On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 09:21:15 +0100, David Mitchell wrote:   
      
   > On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 10:33:39 -0500, Dick Silk - The Computer Tutor wrote:   
   >   
   >>> People misperceive, misremember and lie.   
   >>   
   >> and despite all that, their statements can be measured as "qualitative"   
   >> data.  Therefore, statistically, it is science.   
   >   
   > In the sense that one can, sometimes, extract some useful commonalities   
   > from anecdotal evidence, perhaps.   
   >   
   > Otherwise, they have very little use.   
      
   Unless you happen to be a folklorist, or an anthropologist, or a   
   psychologist, or a social historian ...   
      
   I realize that one could argue that the professionals in these fields   
   also use personal testimonials under the auspices of the "useful   
   commonalities" principle, but so often people act like the social   
   sciences don't even exist, and as someone with a social science   
   background (albeit a modest one) that bugs me.  There are other ways to   
   approach looking at people's beliefs besides crediting or discrediting   
   the veracity of those beliefs.  Even the processes of misperceiving,   
   misremembering and lying are themselves intrinsically interesting and   
   worthy of study.   
      
   --   
      
   "Over 50 percent of our energy comes from overseas. Fortunately, a lot   
   of it comes from Canada."   
   --George W. Bush   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)