Research Design I

Lecture and Discussin Guide No. l q

The Philosophy of Inquiry

WHAT IS EPISTEMOLOGY?

WHAT IS METHODOLOGY ?

What is inquiry?

What is reality?

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, l962.

Pre-science normal science (paradigm)
crisis-revolution (falsification of dominant paradigm)
new normal science (new paradigm) new crisis new paradigm .

The Paradigms

I. Premodern Perceptions of Reality

The Copernican Revolution

II. Modern Perceptions of Reality

A. Positivism

Auguste Comte
Foundations of logic and observation
Objectivity
Assumption of Rationality

B. Structural functionalism

Herbert Spencer

Emile Durkheim

C. Normative Theory

III. Postmodern Perceptions of Reality

A. Phenomenologist and Hermeneutic Schools

Neo-Kantian, neo-idealist
A priori filters and worldviews

B. Ethnomethodology

C. Symbolic interactionism

Georg Simmel
George Herbert Mead

D. Interpretive analysis

Dvora Yanow
Deborah Stone

E. Conflict analysis (e.g., Marx): tension & dialectic

F. Feminist paradigms

THREE ORIENTATIONS OF RESEARCH

I. Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanations

II. Inductive and Deductive Theory

III. Quantitative and Qualitative

DETERMINISM

Criteria for Causation

The variables must be correlated.
The causal relationship must have "outside validity."
Alternative explanations must be eliminated
Cause (X) must precede the effect (Y) in time.
The effect cannot be explained by some intervening variable.
Causal relationships are not spurious.
Some causes require a necessary condition; e.g., it is necessary to be female to get pregnant (although not all females get pregnant)
Some causes require only sufficient conditions; e.g., cheating on an exam is a sufficient cause for failing a course, but not the only cause.

Finally, causation is really a matter of probability.

Links

Visit the Web of Culture at http://www.webofculture.com/refs/gestures.html to check out what different gestures mean to different people.

Philosophy of Science and Information Technology: A Tribute to Kuhn, at http://www.brint.com/kuhn.htm

Professor Richard McCleary’s (University of California at Irvine) on-line Philosophy of Science Modules (very clear and succinct), at http://mrrc.bio.uci.edu/se10/module1.html

Professor Stephen Sapp’s (Iowa State University) short and straightforward discussion of Kuhn’s Scientific Revolutions, at http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/soc511.kuhn.html

PBS’s A Scientific Odyssey’s “Then + Now,” which compares what we knew in 1900 to what we know today (i.e., the shifting of paradigms), at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/thenandnow/

Chance and Choice: A Compendium of Ancient and Modern Wisdom Revealing the Meaning and Significance of the Myth of Science, Vol. 2 from The School of Wisdom series, by Professor Arnold Keyserling, Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria, at http://www.chanceandchoice.com/ChanceandChoice/

Laws of Wisdom: A Holistic Synthesis of Science and Religion, Vol. 3 from The School of Wisdom series, by R.C.L., JD, at http://www.lawsofwisdom.com/LawsofWisdom/index.html [note: a little on the ‘new age’ side – but worth considering].

Install The Matrix screensaver, from http://www.whatisthematrix.com/cmp/screensaver_index.html