Physics, Social Sciences and Human Behavior

The British American philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) says: “We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.” In philosophy, this means that we used to see things as we like, or as we perceive it, wrong or right according to cultural norms of the groups in certain place and time. In psychology, however, W.I. Thomas succinctly expressed this insight in what has come to be known as the Thomas Theorem: It says: “Situations we define as real become real in their consequences.” In physics we usually think of things as they are what they seem. For example, we think of that snow is cold, iron objects are hard, and grass is green. Which is not true in physics. It explains these that the coldness of snow is not the coldness, hardness, and greenness that we know in our own experience, but something different. Observers of these things, solid, liquid, or color, think they are real, but physics show that observation itself effects the object itself, not as we perceive it.

Example of Thomas Theorem, the media in certain times, direct attention to a small incident in the news, makes viewers enlarge and enhance their perception to think more as they perceive. While people are different in their intelligence, age, experience, and social backgrounds, such as the media focused views, they become sects, or groups with different and conflicting ideologies. Take for example, the issue of abortion, it divides Americans into liberals, conservatives, and fundamentals. Each category was behaving according to their perception which is not true of the issue itself. In fact, the feelings of people toward the issue created different reactions.

In the Muslim world, as reflecting to the 9/11 incident, most people were expected to be accepting such act, even though it was devastating to a large number of American families. That perception was different from the American perception to the same act. People were divided in both camps into  fundamentalists, conservatives, and liberals. All these divisions are made by the idea of perception.

To the researcher in sociology or psychology or even physics, the notion of perception is very important to distinguish in studying human behavior in terms of cause-effect. Dealing with perception and  reflection of people to what they believe through their senses, may make up the conclusion that: perceptions lead people-no matter what their reality is-to real consequences as Thomas Theorem implies. However, in politics, Manheim’s explanation of knowledge, and the difference between ideology, and utopia is close to the perception issue which divided the world into two different conflicting ideologies: communist and capitalist systems. Philosophers, however, are suffering from the lack of understanding reality from ignorant or dogmatic persons, who deny the facts of physics or human behavior. Crescentology theory, or theory C.(For, H. Yahya 1989, 2009) is an attempt to promote cultural perceptions toward reciprocal understanding of knowledge, to appreciate differences on both macro and micro levels. (502 words) www.dryahyatv.com

About the Author:

Hasan Yahya is an American Arab scholar, and a professor of sociology. He published 27 plus books and 200 plus articles on sociology, psychology, politics, poetry, IQ Test Measurement and short stories in both Arabic and English. His articles may be found on articlesbase.com, Face book and other internet sites. His recent book published on Amazon titled: Legal Adultery: Sexuality  & World Cultures. (English) and Lawlaki: Poetry Diwan, Tales and articles, 2000 Bayt Min al-Shi'r al-Arabi. (Arabic). (all on amazon- 2009). His recent activities reflects his talents and knowledge on youtube’s Dr.yahyatv.com under the name of askdryahya. Dr. Yahya resides in Michigan, USA. And have eight grandchildren.