The Philosophy of Research - The Theory /Practice Dichotomy

It is possible to argue that theory and practice are two completely different concepts. Some people even break this down to actors who are thinkers (i.e. theory driven) and those who are doers (i.e. practical people)

•          There is a different argument about this, though, and that is that no Action takes place or can take place without an accompanying Theory or theoretical framework. Here, thought and action are inextricably linked.

•          Consider the following actions and discuss what theories may lie behind them:

•          Attending a lecture

•          Stepping out of the path of an approaching car

•          Posting a letter

•           Undertaking a piece of research

The theoretical underpinning of research is referred to as research philosophy

•          Research philosophy has its own sub-sections or sub-divisions. Examples of these are:

•          Ontology

•          Epistemology

•          Methodology

•          Methods

•          Phenomenology

•          Inductivism

•          Deductivism

•          Ideographic approaches

•          Nomothetic approaches

•          Positivism etc

Ontology

Concerns what we believe to exist  or could be deemed to exist

E.g. God exists; University students are clever

In philosophy, this concerns the nature of being

Epistemology

•          Studies knowledge and how we come to believe what we believe.

•          It concerns what we can say about what we believe to exist

•          It attempts to address the tension between adequate and inadequate knowledge

Methodology

•          Concerns the principle and rules (the ‘Philosophy’) underpinning the methods we choose to discover knowledge

A guideline system for methods

Methods

•          The actual techniques involved in finding out, that is the specific steps that a researcher takes to discover/uncover/reveal etc what may be deemed to be true or factual or the state of existing belief systems concerning issues under investigation

Positivism

•          Positivists believe in objective truth. Such truth may be obtained through sensory detection and measurement

•          Believe that the existence of truth is not dependent on a subjective (intuitive) observer

•          Rely on rigorous observation of research subjects, trends, etc

Phenomenology

•          Truth is not fixed but relative

•          Truth relates to an intuitive observer. Meaning-making (sense making) and understanding matters more than scientific measurement

•          The observer affects what is observed

•          Based on subjective experience

On Ontology, Epistemology, Methodology & Methods: Links & Logic

•          A Positivist Ontology would lead to Epistemological statements that reflect a belief in an objective world that exists outside of an observer and their observations

•          This in turn would lead to the selection of methodologies such as survey research and methods such as Questionnaire administration

•          A phenomenological approach may select ethnography as a methodological  approach with participant observation, e.g. as a research method