Re: quantitative political science

On 2007-12-16 09:08:07 -0500, "fyfpoon@xxxxxxxxx" <fyfpoon@xxxxxxxxx> said:

On 12月16日, 下午5时19分, Kira Yamato <kira...@earth
link.net> wrote:
On 2007-12-16 03:17:51 -0500, "fyfp...@xxxxxxxxx" <fyfp...@xxxxxxxxx> said
:

I have had some exposure to the use of maths in economics but have
had limited exposure to how maths is applied to quantify the study of
political science.

Years ago when I was a student at the University of Hawaii, I noted
some professors in the poli sci department attempted to quantify the
tribal warfares amongst the Hawaiian natives of the old time. They
even assigned a mathematical quantity to the 'noise level', etc..

Probably you're talking about game theory. And yes, game theory can
involve very deep math. Game theory makes use of real analysis,
ordinary different equations, functional analysis, etc. Look them up
if you're interested.

I looked them up and the maths is beyond me. Does that mean I should
not go into the discipline of political science?
>

Of course they are beyond you now. Math is not a discipline you can pick up by just looking them up. You need to put in serious efforts and patient endurance.

But if you just give up after "looking them up" and finding them beyond you, then probably there isn't much else you can achieve.

Having said that, it also depends on how deep you want to get into the subject too. If you're just looking toward a bachelor degree, then you won't need to get very deep mathematically. You just need to know how to apply them. However, if you plan for a graduate degree, then you will need the deeper math since you will be required to justify your reasonings with rigorous proofs.

And even having said that, you don't need to get into the quantitative aspect of political science, do you? I mean after all, we have had legislative officials who believe that the value of pi should be 3.

--

-kira

.

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