Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
political science has decided that its version of science must emulate physics and has gone overly quantitative and into something called "formal modeling" of things that have less than much utility in the real world. Research methods courses focus on statistics - particularly linear regression - but they tend not to teach the student anything about collecting data. The idea that drinking beer out of a single glass filled from a liter bottle and passing the glass after chugging it is a critical data collection skill in the Peruvian highlands is totally foreign (read drinking tea in Arab/Muslim cultures).
I couldn't agree more (although I wouldn't underestimate the value of araq either).