Philosophy of Science Flashcards
(31 cards)
What is the ontological question in social sciences?
What is social reality?
What is the epistemological question in social sciences?
How should we study social reality?
What is social reality according to the objectivist approach (objectivism)?
Social reality changes, even when the physical reality doesn’t
- it’s external to us, independent from personal experience
How does David Jonassen characterise social reality?
As “mind-independent”
Which type of research is related to objectivism?
Quantitative research
What are definitive concepts?
Fixed concepts
What is a concept?
Single phrase for a range of phenomena
What are the 3 positivist epistemological principles?
- Deductivism: generate hypotheses that can be tested (from theory)
- Phenomenalism: only things amenable to observation can be studied
- Inductivism: observations from which you can derive a theory
What is the process of deduction?
Theory -> Hypotheses -> Observations
What is the process of induction?
Observations -> Theory
Which type of research is associated to positivism?
Quantitative
What characterises positivism?
- Deductivism
- Phenomenalism
- Inductivism
- Validity (measurement, internal, external)
- Value-free
What does the positivist approach argue regarding social phenomena?
Social phenomena can be studied in the same way as natural phenomena
What does the constructivist/interpretivist approach argue regarding social phenomena?
For many social phenomena, people’s perceptions of an event often matter in relation to the quantified phenomena
What is social reality according to the constructivist approach?
Including, and built from, the perceptions and actions (i.e. “thought-objects”) of social actors
What is the process of sensitising concepts?
Guiding to questions on the variations of a phenomena
- no fixed indicators
What are the key interpretivist epistemological principles?
- mostly inductivism
- focus on meaning (> causality)
- i.e. empiricist, not phenomenalist
What is subjective experience according to interpretivism/constructivism?
An event taking place in time, but not directly observable (at least not without tools, e.g. MRI)
(e.g. ideas, opinions)
What is the type of values in positivism/interpretivism?
Reflexive, rather than objective
-> reflexivity
Are “webs of significance” (i.e. culture) always immaterial according to Clifford Geertz?
No
“it’s through the flow of [symbolic] behaviour […]
that cultural form finds articulation […]
in an ongoing pattern of life”
(e.g. wether a wink is a culture-bound symbolic behaviour or a pathological symptom)
-> it’s not only about perceptions, but also symbolic behaviours, that both cary meaning
Why are “webs of significance” (i.e. culture) not amenable to positivist approaches?
They are
- public and shared, but also subjective
- “ideational”, but also in our minds
- real, but not always physical
How can we investigate “webs of significance” (i.e. culture)?
- Focus on understanding people’s own terms:
- the “constructions we imagine [people] place upon what they live through” (Geertz)
-> you find accounts of “meaningful structures”
- Be reflexive about your own position
Which types of validity are associated to constructivist approaches (qualitative research)?
- Ecological validity
- External validity
- Trustworthiness
- Authenticity
What is ecological validity?
“sensible actuality that makes it possible to think realistically and concretely”
- grounded in people’s everyday practices
