“When people join a scientific community, they give up certain childish but universal desires: the need to feel that they are right all the time or the belief that they are in possession of the absolute truth.” Yet herein we have a remarkable cause for optimism. The scientific approach allows us to forever improve our understanding of nature by identifying the shortcomings of our theories based on emerging evidence. That requires an openness to receiving new signals and the intellectual bandwidth to process the information.

Indeed, “Studying the social universe ideally invites dialogue and discourse with the shared objective of unlocking its deepest mysteries and explaining these in a scientific language shared by peoples across cultures and in every corner of the globe” (Michalski 2008: 527). We have in the 21st century an unparalleled capacity to gaze further and more deeply into that social universe than ever imagined previously. We have reached the stage wherein we have identified the key parameters within which our social world has been created. Moreover, we have greater confidence in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that shape our behavioral dynamics within extant fields of social interaction. In short, for a sociologist, it’s an awesome time to be alive (Michalski 2008: 548).

To explore some of my publications that might interest you, click on the appropriate links below.

References:

Michalski, Joseph H. 2008. “Scientific Discovery in Deep Social Space: Sociology without Borders.” Canadian Journal of Sociology 33(3): 521–553.

Smolin, Lee. 2006. The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of Science, and What Comes Next. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.