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Philosophy of Research

- The term "science" was coined in the 19th century to separate it from philosophy. The earliest school of thought was theology based on faith. - Over time, different schools of thought emerged including rationalism in the 3rd century, empiricism in the 16th century advocated by Francis Bacon, and a combination of rationalism and empiricism by scientists like Galileo and Newton. - In the 18th century, Kant proposed knowledge comes from subjective experience while Comte advocated positivism based on empiricism and experience. Later emerged qualitative and quantitative research in the 20th century with post-positivism emerging that knowledge can only reject false beliefs but not verify truth.

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N ASMITA BANDYOPADHYAY 2233645
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11 views13 pages

Philosophy of Research

- The term "science" was coined in the 19th century to separate it from philosophy. The earliest school of thought was theology based on faith. - Over time, different schools of thought emerged including rationalism in the 3rd century, empiricism in the 16th century advocated by Francis Bacon, and a combination of rationalism and empiricism by scientists like Galileo and Newton. - In the 18th century, Kant proposed knowledge comes from subjective experience while Comte advocated positivism based on empiricism and experience. Later emerged qualitative and quantitative research in the 20th century with post-positivism emerging that knowledge can only reject false beliefs but not verify truth.

Uploaded by

N ASMITA BANDYOPADHYAY 2233645
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Philosophy of Research

History of Scientific Thought


• Term ‘Science’ was coined in the 19th
century
• Separated from Philosophy
• Earliest school of thought: Theology-
Based on faith
History of Scientific Thought
• 3rd century: Rationalism- Process of
using systematic logical reasoning as a
means of understanding the world
– Aristotle: Metaphysics- Beyond physical
existence
– Ontology: Study of being & existence
– Universal science: Study of logical principles
History of Scientific Thought
• 16th century: Francis Bacon- Knowledge can
only be derived from observations in the real
world
• Knowledge development is an empirical
activity and not a rational activity
• Empiricism  Inductive method of scientific
enquiry  Scientific method/ Baconian
method
History of Scientific Thought
• Middle Ages
– Rationalism vs Empiricism
– Rene Descartes: Rationalist
– John Locke & David Hume: Empiricists
– Galileo & Newton: Combined rationalism
and empiricism in studying natural
principles
• Emphasized on nature’s relationships being
mathematical
History of Scientific Thought
• 18th century: Immanuel Kant
– Knowledge is a product of subjective experiences
– Led to schools of phenomenology, hermeneutics,
critical social theory
– Based on Interpretivism
• Auguste Comte: Positivism
– Based on empiricism
– Emphasized confidence in experiences and logic
History of Scientific Thought
• 20th century
– Positivism  Quantitative research
– Anti-positivism  Qualitative research
• Later in the 20th century
– Sir Karl Popper: Knowledge or relationships cannot
be conclusively proven, but only disproven
– Post-positivism: “It is impossible to verify the truth
although it is possible to reject false beliefs”
Philosophy of Research
• Ontology: Study of existence
– What is reality?
– What exists?
– What can be observed?
• Epistemology: Study of knowledge
– How do we know it exists?
– How is existence studied?
– How do we observe phenomena?
Ontology
• Concerned with what actually exists in the
world about which humans can acquire
knowledge
• Study of being: Helps understand the Degree of
truth or reality
• Realist ontology: Existence of one single reality,
independent of human experience
• Relativist ontology: Reality is constructed
within the human mind, no ‘true’ reality
Epistemology
• Concerned with aspects of the validity, scope
and methods of acquiring knowledge
• Influences how researchers frame their
research in their attempts to discover
knowledge
• Objectivist epistemology: Reality exists
outside, independent of the individual mind
Epistemology
• Constructionist epistemology: ‘Truth’ arises
from our engagement with the realities in our
world; generating contextual understandings
of a defined topic or problem
• Subjectivist epistemology: Reality can be
expressed in a range of symbol and language
systems; Reveals how an individual’s
experience shapes their perception of the
world
Philosophy of Research

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