08 October 2008

Objectively speaking

The first week of my course in Introduction to Social Research is all about objectivity and subjectivity, and whether or not we can talk about what is 'true' or not. What strikes me about this discussion and what I like most about it, is that all of us will finish this reading, write our response paper, finish this course up, and then go on to actually doing it. That is to say, the theory is girding for some real project that we all have in mind, so when we talk about methods, we are all, or all supposed to be, thinking about our own methods.

And moreover, at the end of our time here, all of us are going to have to present something. At least 80,000 words of something that we have been reminded (now four times I think) must meet four or five standards set by the university. The point is, you have to produce something and whether or not you think truth is knowable, you will have to defend an argument.