Facts become science only when tied together by explanatory theory

Evidence

Describing research reports as stories is not just a convenient metaphor. Research reports are stories. Stories can be said to consist of two components: a telling of what happened, and an explanation of why it happened. It is tempting to view science as an endeavor that simply catalogues facts, but nothing is further from the truth. The goal of science, social psychology included, is to explain facts, to explain why what happened happened. Social psychology is built on the dynamic interplay of discovery and justification, the dialogue between systematic observation of relations and their theoretical explanation. Although research reports do present novel facts based on systematic observation, these facts are presented in the service of ideas. Facts in isolation are trivia. Facts tied together by an explanatory theory are science. Therein lies the story. To really understand what researchers have to say, you need consider how their explanations relate to their findings. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4587 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire to know what happened next, and it is a desire of a higher order. Once we have the facts, we inevitably look for the links between them, and only when we find such links are we satisfied that we “understand.” Rote memorization in a science class bores almost everyone. Grasp and a sense of discovery begin only when we perceive why “a body in motion tends to remain in motion” and what an immense effect this actuality has on the phenomena of our lives. — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 471 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Scientific reason is the methodology of a pre-given historical reality. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 600; Physicalism reduces scientific theories to formal systems of signs for application — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 60; No one can absorb facts without an implicit theory to organize them — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1101 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Science explains facts rather than merely cataloguing them; isolated facts are trivia #corroborates (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4587
• Understanding arises only from perceiving causal links among facts, not from the facts themselves #corroborates (0.92) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 471
• Theory can emerge inductively from long collective research rather than precede it #complicates (0.82)
• Progress turns reason into submission to existing facts rather than critique #complicates (0.76) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 129