Philosophy of Science • Summary

Presentation and slides by David EngelbySee also: http://www.slideshare.net/engelby

Edward Burne-Jones: Pan and Psyche (1872)

Philosophy of Science • A Quick OverviewEpistemology Knowledge

and traditionsof science

Stratification model

Ontology

Methodology

Key concepts

ReferencesDK

ReferencesINT

What do we know and how do we know it? Defined narrowly, epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. As the study of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with the follow-ing questions: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge? What are its sources? What is its structure, and what are its limits? As the study of justified belief, epistemology aims to answer questions such as: how are we to understand the concept of x as a concept (ontology):

Natural science Social Science Humanities Hypothetic-deductive Hermeneutics method Quantitative methods Qualitative methods

Explanation Explaining Intentional of causes causes by actions explanations

Makes laws of Laws based on individual universal validity statistical possibility correspondance

Truth as correspondence Truth as meaning and coherence

Meta level: concepts, theory and methodology Space of reflexivity and research

Theory → KNOWLEDGE ← Emperical data use of knowledge

What exists and what is “the thing” we deal with? An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization. What “exists” is that which can be represented. When the knowledge of a domain is repre-sented in a declarative way or if it’s normative, the set of objects that can be represented is called the universe of discourse.

What do we want to do with our theory and our concepts? Gen-erally speaking, methodology does not describe specific meth-ods. It is the constitution of a constructive generic framework in which the theories can be combined. It could be the design of a survey in relation to a theoretical approach

description, demarcation, definition, explanation, knowledge, verification, falsification, hypothetic deduction, hypothesis, con-cepts, falsification, postmodern, discourse, perception psychol-ogy, capital, field theory. tip: Read the PoS-slides.

Carsten Rønn (2006): Almen videnskabsteori for professionsuddannelserne. Alinea.

Kapitlerne 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 samt side 159-166 (intro til del 3 i bogen) og s. 236-243 (en metateoretisk model)

Experience economy, references at: http://www.slideshare.net/engelby/e-communication-experience-economy-10271777

Lisa Bartolotti (2010): An Introduction to Philosophy of Science. Polity UK.

Chapter 1, 2, and 4 (there arealso handouts via powerpoints, see the wiki)

Philosophy of Science • On ResearchIt‘s all about

conceptsThe research

and the concept

Key concepts

References

Resources

Concepts are the bodies of knowledge that are used by default to categorize. We investigate these concepts because they can be percieved in different ways and play different roles to different types of people. Ask: what is in focus?: The technology, the val-ue which is a result of the technology, or is it a mix? How is the concept understood and expressed in contextual language (con-structuralism)? How do you observe and design a research via, say, thematic coding in interviews, in tests, online etc.?

… is a proposition to be tested. Hypotheses makes prognostications about the links between variables. It can be tested, if this hypothesis can be proved or disproved. (Jensen 2005: 212).

… is gender, age, etc. if they are simple variables. More complex variables are …

… can be relatively manipulated by the research-er, it means the way the research process is con-structed to measure a response.

… is the measure of the outcome of the research based on its construct and its dependent varia-bles, i.e. it is the information created by the vari-ables and the hypothesis

The Hypothesis

The variable

Independentvariables

Dependentvariables

ConceptsA concept represents an abstract idea that embodies the nature of observable phenomena, or an interpretation of why such phe-nomea occur. Example: Indi-viduals are defined in terms of their use of a media. You define the notions of a “light user” and a “heavy user” based on media types, levels of defined usage etc.

Constructs… are combined of concepts and used to define the characteristics of the individual users as grouped in concepts (see the example). Heavy users may be described by such concepts as sociability, tolerance for strong stimulation, risk-taking etc. These are values or categories into which variables can be divided.

concepts and constructs,qualitative researchquantitative researchthick descriptionattributesthematic codingresearch ethicstip: Read the examples and the study sheets in the first two PoS-slides

See Klaus Bruhn Jensen (2005): A Handboook of Media and Communication Research. Chapter 13 and 14. Routledge 2005.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/ (English)www.samfundsviden.dk (Danish)

← tip: It’s on Google Books