Article6

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A REVIEW OF SOME RESEARCH PARADIGMS AND PROBLEMS IN SOCIAL-SCIENCE RESEARCH OF INTEREST TO CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHY Richard J. Newcomb e

M r. Newcombe is a graduate studen t at Sou th ern Illinois Un iversi ty.

The purpose of this paper is to contrast research methods in use in the Biological and Physical Sciences with those in use in the Socia l Sciences, and to do so in a manner which emphasizes aspects of these methods of interest to Geographers. Attention is directed to the strengths and weak nesses of different research paradigms with respect to prob lems which are characteristic of social science subject matter. Many of these problems take a different form or are absent in the o ld er disciplines in which most of the research types reviewed have their origins. It is therefore appropriate to begin by briefly asserting some of the unities which bind all scientific research into a who le, and to explore some of the special problems which separate social sciences from the other major disci plinary gro upin gs. One can deduce from observation, and from di scussions such as that of Kaplan' that all four of the epistemo logies suggested by Royce2 are used in the construction of research. Without intuition, there would be but blind guides to the conception of resea rch problems, and, perhaps, little recogni tion of the signs frequently necessary to guide the researcher to the emotional fortitude required to complete his project. Without authoritarianism, the researcher would lack the definition s required to begin exa mining a probl em, and, at least initially, he 44


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Article6 by Mohamed Rahumathulla Mohamed - Issuu