Ontology, Epistemology & Research Methodology

• Ontology focuses on what is and whether reality exists independently of our perspectives.
• Epistemology addresses how we know things about the world.
• Methodology examines the process used to build knowledge about reality.

Wagers - Jackson Theories

• Mind-world dualism suggests our mind is separate from and doesn't influence the real world.
• Mind-world monism proposes our mind determines or constructs the outside world.
• There are four main methodologies or positions relating to mind and knowledge.
• Neopositivism states that dualism combined with knowledge comes from experience, like phenomenalism.
• Critical Realism states that dualism combined with knowledge can be known objectively, like logical positivism.
• Analytics states that monism combined with knowledge comes from experience.
• Reflexivity states that monism combined with knowledge can be known objectively.

Positivism

• There is a real world, and objective knowledge about it is attainable.
• No difference exists between natural and social sciences.
• Positivism depends on the method of deduction.
• It develops generalized rules of cause and effect, predicting future outcomes.
• Examples include predicting that a student will get drunk after going out on a Friday night after an exam, and that a relationship with the EU will deepen if a democrat is chosen as president.
• Branches of positivism include naturalism, empiricism, methodological individualism, and rational choice.

Interpretivism

• It involves giving meaning to the world and its events.
• Different people assign different meanings to politics, as an example.
• Objective, general law-like knowledge isn't possible.
• A distinction exists between social and natural sciences.
• Research is based on interpretation.
• Even words have meaning because we give it to them.

Critical Realism

• A world exists independently of our perception.
• Knowledge about it is acquired only through our perception.

Science

• There's no universally accepted definition or criteria for defining science.
• Scholars have used it to legitimize their work or discredit others'.
• Social sciences are especially contested.
• In International Relations, there is agreement on the need to produce empirically grounded and coherent knowledge.
• Everyone desires to be "scientific."

Demarcation Problem

• The goal is to identify criteria that clearly differentiate science from pseudo-science.
• Carl Sagan strongly condemned "pseudoscience".
• A major criteria for Positivists is verifiability.
• Interpretivists do not adhere to any single criterion.

Cartesian Problem

• It originates from Rene Descartes, who advocated doubting everything that can be doubted.
• There's a desire for absolute certainty, which is impossible to achieve without some form of super-human facilitation.
• To be absolutely sure of what you know is true, but it cannot be done.
• It takes an empiricist point of view.
• Theory testing is also involved.

Weber

• Focuses on the systematic use of theories and concepts.
• There's a distinction made between practical political positioning and the scientific analysis of science.
• Words are given special importance.
• Value neutrality is unattainable in social science, though it should be pursued when analyzing facts and values.

Karl Popper - Falsification

• Try to disprove a hypothesis instead of trying to prove it.
• What sets science apart from pseudo-science is falsification.
• Knowledge is a "system of statements" tested by observation and experiment.
• Two types of statements are needed to be scientific: Statements permitted by the theory and statements prohibited by the theory.
• Strict falsification is not practical because no theory exists without being contradicted by at least one experiment.

Jackson

• Science ought to be systematic and results-oriented.
• A broader definition of science based on goals like knowledge production is mentioned.
• Politics involves convincing people you're right, but science focuses on knowledge, not normative evaluation.
• Internal validity refers to conclusions that need to be acknowledged to others based on evidence and logical arguments.

Kuhn's Paradigms

• Scientific knowledge is produced through a social process.
• The world is theory-laden.
• A paradigm is a universally-recognized framework that defines the object of scientific research and how scientists should conduct it for a time.
• New and old paradigms can't coexist - when a new one emerges, the old one must disappear.

Lakato's Scientific Research Programmes

• It balances Kuhn and Popper through sophisticated falsification.

• Paradigms become social scientific research programmes (SRP), which are sets of theories.

• The expansion of scientific knowledge is an incremental, cumulative, and progressively articulated process.

• The hard core of a theory is irrefutable and where change doesn't occur.

• The protective belt is where anomalies occur, and change comes from.

• There are two methodological rules to follow.

• Adjusting theories and auxiliary hypotheses when faced with anomaly is a positive heuristic.

• The Negative heuristic is the hard core of the SPR cannot be falsified.

• Scientific change is a competition between SRPs.

• Problem shifts involve intra-programme shifts within the belt and inter-programme shifts.

• SRP must predict novel facts that are subsequently supported by new empirical evidence.

Common Sense, Heuristics, Shortcuts

• Some ideas become "common sense" over time because we believe in them.
• Human brains tends to create shortcuts to organize, which creates cognitive bias and misunderstanding.
• A heuristic is a mental shortcut used to simplify problems.
• Dichotomies are things perceived as complete opposites like war and peace.
• Constructing a Straw Man.

Essentialism and Reification

• Essentialism is the belief that certain traits relate to categorizations.
• "Women are X, Men are Y"
• "Young people are unwise, older people are smarter".
• Reification critiques that essential traits are natural, but they are socially constructed.

Research - Deductive vs Inductive

Deduction

• Begins with a research question.
• Develop a theory and expect to see evidence to support it.
• Select cases and methods of analysis
• Testing data is empirical
• Determine the plausibility of the theory.
• Come to an answer.

Induction

• Begin with a research question.
• Select cases and methods for analysis.
• Conduct an empirical analysis and hypothesize.
• Use empirical analysis in another case.
• Check plausibility to generate a theory.
• Come to an answer.

Social Facts - Durkheim

• Institutions, norms, and values are social facts.
• They surround and influence us.
• Social relations and interactions cause us to believe in something and influence us causing the world to be around us.
• A debate exists regarding whether social facts exist independently from us.
• The concept is used to refer to the study of social relationships and instructions.

Type of Social Facts

• Collective ways of being affect everyone and create shared values.
• Coercive ways of being, etc. that are constant.
• Society rewards following them, and gives sanctions for deviance - Morality and nation.
• Exterior to individuals is a type of social fact, that we inherent from social structure by language.
• Social facts are analytical constructs and concepts.

Concepts

• These are things that exhibit similar general characteristics or types of behavior.
• Concepts can be seen as labels, shortcuts, or analytical tools.
• Path dependency of concepts are based on historical preferences.
• Conceptual traveling applies old concepts to new cases.
• Conceptual stretching is when it don't fit the concept.
• Conceptual adequacy intends to answer a standard criteria.

Concept Formation - John Gerrin

• Concept formation includes defining an event of phenomena, its properties, and a label
• Concept formation balances 8 criteria of a good concept: Familiarity, Resonance, Coherence, Differentiation, Parsimony, Depth, Theoretical Utility, Field Utility

Parsimony

• Deals with how a concept can be expressed shortly.
• Describe Good concepts abbreviate a long list of intensions or attributes.

Coherence

• It consist of internal coherence.
• Mutual contradiction and relation between the the attributes and characteristics.

Differentiation

• Consist of the distinction from other concepts.
• The opposite of coherence.

Depth

• The utility of the concept allows to name many things with label.

Theoretical Utility

• Consist of the classification.
• The concept is a building block for the theory.

Field Utility

• Influences on term from the field.
• Includes external coherence.

Operational Definitions

• It turns an abstract idea in to empirical indicators, breaking it apart into smaller elements.
• Depends on what you want to do with the concepts.
• Positivists use it to determine causality and make predictions.
• Interpetivists apply it to constitutive causality.

Wealth

• To get wealth of a household consist of the value of the financial, physical, and natural resources owned by it.
• Resources consist of oil, gas, and land.
• Physical resources consist of the technological base of a house and rental property.
• Indicators include cars and utilities.
• Financial resource and strands include assets and liabilities.

Conceptualization

• Social scientists do not make discovers but new way to expand.
• There is focus on the term that make a collection of the thing known.
• Research is analyzing bite size reality.

Values and Facts

• The researcher values influence the whole process in gathering selection and data.
• The statement has been show. with Rosenthal effect.
• Scientific facts and value can not always be separated.
• This is called "The Heisenberg effect".
• One should follow clear normative and science driven standards.

Literature Review

• This is the beginning stage of research, as the component of the project.
• Helps to structure debates and question.
• Visualize the outcome
• Comparision
• Conclusion

We do Science

• Studies Science as a social activity influenced by social factors with competition.
• Its not always clear.
• Scientific knowledge is a social product
• There can be ethical concerns involved with science.
• An imperative stick to the standard.

CUDOS

• Principles and norms is that a scientist is expected to stick to is knowledge.
• Knowledge has to be common.
• Data needs to be publish.
• Needs to be equal.
• Not personal and objective.
• People need to be hiden.

Free inquiry and critical thinking

• To be free always.

Organized Skepticism

• Needs to be neutral.
• Need to be accountable.
• Needs to be evaluated.
• Needs verification.
• High scurity.

Science and Technology STS

• Both are equal.

Cudos and Scis

• Science should be open.

Open Science vs

• Has limits and restrictions.

What is disciplines

• Knowlege is the order of society.

ranking sources

• Sources have to be peer reviewed.

Logical Fallacies

• Over generalization.
• Should not have a dilemma.

Free inquiry and crirtal thinking

• Being free.
• There is no bias.
• It has justification.
• Logical to clear.