Ch1 Science and scientific research

Science

systemic and organized body of knowledge in any area of inquiry that is acquired using scientific method (natural or social science)

Natural science

• science of natural occurring objects or phenomena

• classified into physical, earth and life sciences

• very precise, accurate, deterministic an independent of the person making specific observation

physical science

• Consist of disciplines such as physics (science of physical objects), chemistry (science of matter), and astronomy (science of celestial objects)

social sciences

• science of people or collections of people

• classified into psychology, sociology and economics

• high measurement of error

• less accurate, deterministic or unambiguous

measurement erro

• Difference between the true value of something and the value that is measure

• Disagreement in what is recorded

basic sciences

• Pure sciences

• Explain the most basic objects and forces, relationships between them and laws governing them

• Examples: physics, math, biology

applied sciences

• Practical sciences 

• Apply scientific knowledge from basic sciences in a physical environment 

• Examples: engineering (applies law of physics and chemistry for practical applications), medicine 

• Cannot stand on its own right but instead relies on basic science for practices

scientific knowledge

• Generalized body of laws and theories for explaining a phenomenon or behavior of interest that is acquired using the scientific method 

• Goal is to discover laws an postulate theories that can explain natural or social phenomena

laws

observed patters of phenomena or behaviors

theories

• Systematic explanations of the underlying phenomenon or behavior 

• Interrelated with observations and cannot exist without each other 

• Provide meaning and significance to what we observe and observations help validate or refine existing theory or construct a new theory 

inductive research

• Goal of a researcher is infer theoretical concepts and patterns from observed data

• Theory building - bottom up

• More valuable when there are few prior theories or explanations 

deductive research

• Goal of the researcher is to test concepts and patterns known from theory using new empirical data

• Theory testing - refine, improve and extend it - top down 

• More productive when there are many competing theories of the same phenomenon and researchers are interesting in knowing which theory works best and under what circumstances

replicability

• Others should be able to independently replicate or repeat a scientific study of obtain similar if not identical results

falsifiability

• A theory must be stated in such a way that it can be disproven

• Theories cannot be tested or falsified are not scientific theories and any such knowledge is not scientific knowledge

Parsimony

• When there are multiple different explanations of a phenomenon, scientists must always accept the simplest or logically most economical explanation 

• Occam’s razor 

• Prevents scientists from pursuing overly complex or outlandish theories with an endless number of concepts and relationships that may explain a little bit of everything but nothing in particular

Exploratory research

Conducted in new areas of inquiry were the goals of the research are: to scope out the magnitude or extent of a particular phenomena, problem, or behavior to generate initial ideas about the phenom or ot test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study regarding the phenomenon

Descriptive Research

• Directed at making careful observations and detailed documentation of a phenomenon of interest

• Based on scientific method and therefore more reliable 

• Examples: tabulation of demographic stats by the US census

• What, where, and when

Explanatory research

• Seeks explanations of observed phenomena, problems, or behaviors

• Seeks answers of why and how, connect the dots by identifying causal factors and outcomes 

• Examples: understanding the reasons behind adolescent crime or gang violence with the goal of prescribing strategies to overcome such societal ailments, academic or doctoral research

rationalism

• Fundamental nature of being and the world can be understood more accurately through a process of systematic logical reasoning 

• Suggested by Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates during third century BC

• Views reason as the royce of knowledge or justification and suggests that the criterion of truth is not sensory but rather intellectual and deductive often derived from a set of first principles or axioms (Law of non contradiction)

• Aristotle's Metaphysics separated theology from ontology and universal science

empiricism

• Philosophical idea that knowledge comes from experience and observation

• Part of scientific method 

• Clash with rationalism 

positivism

• Blend of rationalism and empiricism 

• Rejected by interpretive sociologists 

• Equated with quantitative research methods such as experiments and survey without any explicit philosophical commitments

• Observer bias and structural limitations

• Relies on reason and observation to establish knowledge, derived from sensory experience, knowledge is objective

anti-positivism

• Employed qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews and participants observation 

• Emphasis social actions must be studied through interpretive means based upon understanding the meaning and purpose that individuals attach to their personal actions 

• Social world cannot be studied using same methods as the natural sciences 

post positivism

• Karl popper 

• Amends positivism by suggesting that it is impossible to verify the truth although it is possible to reject false beliefs though it retains the  positivist notion of an objective truth and its emphasis on scientific method 

• Assumes external reality but acknowledges that humans can only imperfectly understand it 

Francis Bacon

• 1561-1626

• Suggested that knowledge can only be derived from observations in the real world 

• Emphasises knowledge acquisition as an empirical activity rather than as a reasoning activity 

• Developed empiricism as influential branch of philosophy 

• Led to the popularisation of inductive methods, the development of scientific method (baconian method)

Immanuel Kant

• 18th century, german philosopher 

• Sought to resolve the dispute between empiricism and rationalism in his book Critique of pure reason by arguing that experiences are purely subjective na processing them using pure reason without first delving into subjective nature of experiences will lead to theoretical illusions 

• German idealism which inspired phenomenology, hermeneutics and critical social theory 

Auguste Comte

• 1798-1857, french philosopher

• Founder of discipline sociology

• Attempted to blend rationalism and empiricism and positivism 

• Theory and observations have circular dependence on each other 

• Verification started separation of modern science from philosophy , scientific method