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This 3 page paper discusses the reasons why the Mackenzie Valley pipeline inquiry lends itself to analysis using the positivist paradigm. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KV32_HVposmac.rtf
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applies it to the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline inquiry. Discussion The positivist paradigm "is based on the philosophical ideas of the French philosopher Auguste Comte, who emphasized observation and reason as
means of understanding human behavior" (Dash, 2005). Results are obtained by observation and experiment, which are "understood within the framework of the principles and assumptions of science" (Dash, 2005). These
assumptions are "determinism, empiricism, parsimony and generality" (Dash, 2005). Determinism "means that events are caused by other circumstances"; empiricism means collecting viable empirical evidence; parsimony means that the phenomenon has
to be explained as economically as possible; and generalizing means expanding the phenomenon from the particular to the general (Dash, 2005). Its necessary now to determine what the Mackenzie Valley
Pipeline inquiry is, and apply these principles to it. The inquiry was commissioned by the government of Canada to investigate the impact of a proposed gas pipeline that would run
from Canada to the U.S., through the Mackenzie Valley; it was billed as "the biggest project in the history of free enterprise" (The Mackenzie Valley pipeline, 2007). The inquiry was
conducted by Mr. Justice Thomas Berger, a Canadian judge and it produced some 40,000 pages of reports that were compiled into almost 300 volumes (The Mackenzie Valley pipeline, 2007). Obviously
it would be best to read the original sources but thats not possible, so the paper turns to an in-depth summary of the work. Mr. Berger took his job very
seriously by traveling throughout the region where it was proposed the pipeline should run; he met informally with the "Dene, Inuit, M?tis and white residents who lived and worked in
the North. He held formal hearings in Yellowknife, where the experts had their say" (The Mackenzie Valley pipeline, 2007). He also held community meetings, many in cabins, outdoors or in
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