IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ess/wpaper/id292.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Approaching Human Phenomena: A Methodological Note

Author

Listed:
  • Rahul Varman

Abstract

The note is an attempt to make a methodological argument to the students about how to approach the study of human phenomena. Based on the experience of teaching about work, workers and organisations to students of science and technology, the note makes the case for unlearning the ‘popular approach’ of seeking the ‘one best solution’ and attempting to quantify a phenomenon. It argues that the mainstream scientific method based on reductionism and determinism is inappropriate for developing an understanding of conscious human beings and their collectives. It further attempts to develop an alternative approach for the study of human subject that is based on an understanding of emergent phenomena, plurality of interdependent causes, and probabilistic thinking.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahul Varman, 2005. "Approaching Human Phenomena: A Methodological Note," Working Papers id:292, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:292
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eSocialSciences.com/data/articles/Document12012200560.8827936.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:292. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Padma Prakash (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.esocialsciences.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.