Philosophy and scientific method- GROUP 2

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Introduction• In this presentation we will examine the

development of philosophy and science within a Western context of thinking.

• Early Greek and Medieval thought.

• The Scientific Revolution.

• The Twentieth Century.

Philosophy & Research

The Chambers twentieth century dictionary defines philosophy as:

• pursuit of wisdom and knowledge.

• knowledge of the causes of things.

Research is defined as:-

• systematic investigation towards increasing the sum of knowledge.

ScienceScience is defined as:

• Knowledge ascertained by observation andexperiment, critically tested, systemized andbrought under general principles.

• Also cumulative with each generationbuilding on the ideas of the preceding oneseither through rejection and change orconformity and development.

Science, Philosophy & Research

• So Philosophy uses Research to test established ideas and identify their limitations which in turn provides the basis for the formulation of new explanations and continues the process of philosophical evolution.

• Science provides the mechanisms through which Research is conducted.

Key Philosophical Problems

• There are two fundamental philosophical problems which have influenced the development of science:

1. The nature of reality

2. Is there such a thing as absolute truth?

• There have been two paradigm shifts in Western thinking.

Greek & Medieval Thought

• The ancient Greeks tried to formulate rational principles to explain the world’s structure and composition.

• They also raised fundamental questions about knowledge and reality which are still applicable today.

• Klein and Lyytinen (1985) transposedPlato’s cave analogy to one which wasapplicable to an organizations IT system.

• They described a situation in whichusers, analysts and management arechained to a rock in a cave such that theycan only see distorted shadows cast on awall.

• These shades of reality are cast by a largeunsteady flame behind their backs.

• In the example each person seesdifferent images as they move across thewall. They can argue who sees the TRUESHAPE but this cannot be confirmed withany degree of certainty.

• The significance of this example toResearch is to demonstrate that differentpeople observing a changingphenomenon will draw differentconclusions about the causes of thatphenomenon.

Aristotle

• Aristotle’s philosophy was based onobserving the world and interpreting theobservations within the limits of ourexperience.

• His arguments were based on deductivereasoning as illustrated in his syllogy:Men are mortal, Socrates is a man,therefore Socrates is mortal.

Aristotle

• In essence Aristotle and the Greekphilosophers observed the world andestablished lines of deductive argumentto predict what should happen.

• It did not involve experimentation.

• In was not until Descartes, Bacon andNewton that philosophy moved intothe scientific age.

• The primary difference between theScientific revolution and the Greekphilosophers was INDUCTIVEreasoning.

Inductive Reasoning

• Bacon insisted that knowledge should bebased on a process of induction, which isthe systematic method of reachinggeneral conclusions on the basis ofevidence gained from individualobservations.

• This led to the use of controlledexperiments and mathematics to buildgeneral theories.

Inductive Reasoning

• These theories in turn allowedscience to be used to exercise controlover the material world.

• Philosophy became involved inchanging the world rather thansimply observing the world.

Isaac Newton• Probably the most significant

contributions to experimental sciencewere made by Isaac Newton.

• Newton postulated a theory and thenused experimentation to test it againstalternatives.

• In Newtons view experiments providedknowledge of the laws that governed thewhole world.

Empiricism vs. Rationalism• Within this process was the debate

between empiricists and rationalists.

• Rationalists believe that all knowledge starts in the mind.

• Empiricists believe that all knowledge originates from experience.

Rationalism• Descartes’ used the method of

systematic doubt and concluded that theonly thing he could be certain of was hisown existence - I think therefore I am.

• Descartes use of the principle ofanalytical reductionism forms the basisof the majority Western scientificthinking over the past 350 years.

• Reductionism is characterized by thereduction of complex entities to the simplerparts of which they are composed.

• However, in the twentieth century thisapproach was challenged by those whobelieve that evidence gathered from the partscannot necessarily be combined to describethe behavior of the whole.

• These criticisms have been particularly strongamongst those who have studied the socialsciences.

Empiricism• John Locke concluded that there are no

such things as INNATE IDEAS but that allwe know comes from experience andreflection upon experience.

• Such experiences cannot be isolatedfrom their surroundings as everything isinter-related to everything else.

• Holistic approach to the scientificmethod.

Systems Thinking

• One consequence of this holistic approach hasbeen the development of the SYSTEMSMOVEMENT and research methodologies suchas ACTION RESEARCH.

• It is systems thinking that many claim ischallenging the accepted views of scientificrevolution.

Conclusion

• At the beginning of this presentation I drewattention to the philosophical questions aboutwhat we know for certain and absolute truth.

• Through the scientific revolution philosopherstried to develop methodologies that couldestablish the absolute truth.

Conclusion

• It is sobering to recall that probably the mostsignificant contribution of the Twentiethcentury was the downfall of Newton’s modelof the world and its replacement by Einstein's.

• The lesson that this provides to today'sresearcher is that the results from scientificwork are never absolute.

Conclusion

• Hopefully in this presentation we have shownthat:

– there are many different approaches to obtainingknowledge;

– that the knowledge gained depends upon theapproaches adopted.

• In the remainder of the Research Methodsunit you will examine some of theseapproaches in greater detail.

UNIVERSITY

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MAKATIPROF. TESSIE TAPIADOR

SAGADRACA

Prepared by:Bantolinao, DanwilCabrera, Gienua MarieCarpio, Zarlyd RoseGatdula, MicaellaRaymundo, KatrinaSuarez, Christine JoySurio, Sean M.