Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is the goal of science?
To explain and understand phenomena. This is why generalizability is important
Trustworthiness of scientific results requires controllability and repeatability
What are the 5 features of scientific knowledge?
- Generalizability (to be able to redefine and explain phenomena)
- Controllability (transparent and repeatable)
3 important characteristics fo guarantee trustworthiness of scientific research:
- Objectivity (Lives up to certain criteria of objectivity)
- Scientific studies use methods of research which are accepted as valid among other scholars within a particular discipline
- Scientific research aims at clear and simple models of explanation
What is the principle of parsimony?
The principle says that the simplest explanation that explains the greater number of observations is preferred to more complex explanations
What are the misconceptions with regard to the methods in the management sciences?
- That only empirical research counts as scientific (research that uses surveys, interviews, field studies etc)
- Scientific research is only descriptive, never prescriptive or normative(I.e. science is about how we “are”, not how we “should be”)
What is argumentum ad ignorentian?
One claims something that is true because there is no proof for the opposite of the claim
For example “God exists because there is no proof that God doesn’t exist”
What is petitio principii?
It’s a logical fallacy
Logical Form:
Claim X assumes X is true.
Therefore, claim X is true.
Example #1:
Paranormal activity is real because I have experienced what can only be described as paranormal activity.
The claim that one has to prove is secretly taken for granted in one of the premises
Affirmative action can never be fair if just because one cannot remedy one injustice by committing another (like affirmative action)
What are the 3 ways to answer the question “what is reasonable”?
1) as a question about the correct methods of research and argumentation (so a methodological question)
2) as a question about the status of acquired scientific knowledge (so as an epistemological question - Greek for “knowledge”)
3) as a question about the nature of social reality (so as ontological question - Ontos is Greek for “that what is”)
What is an ontological assumption?
A assumption about the nature of the phenomena which is studied (I.e. a bill of €50 is worth 50 euros only because everyone agrees that it’s worth 50 euros )
What is idealism?
Idealism is the position that ontologically speaking all natural phenomena are nothing more than mental represents. They only exist when we observe them
Tree, rockets, planets and show showers are just ideas of us, not objects or phenomena that exist in reality
(Example with the Rock - we don’t experience the rock, it’s just a mental image. You never see the rock as a whole, we presuppose that it’s there but we never experience it, it’s just a mental image based on all the sensual observations)
What is realism?
Realism is a position they reality exists independent of us, and not just as a mental dream in our heads
There are really twelve sorts of snow but only in the Inuit this is a reality they can explain. What they see is real, but it’s real only for them
What is Kantian idealism?
Reality is not in our mind but is shaped by our mind
Reality exists independently of us
But what we know is always always pre shaped by mental categories of time, space and causality
We need to order reality in terms of time and space in order to be in contact with this reality
Ecumencal
We need different ways to categorize and conceptualize social reality
What would Max Weber say about an idea that social entities like organizations lead a life of their own?
He would think that it’s a misleading presupposition, it rests upon “organistic myth”. there are no entities that transcend the existence and activities of individuals.
What was Durkheim’s view on social phenomena?
Social institutions and social structures (like organizations) have a real existence of their own. Social entities cannot be reduced to individuals in those entities. The whole is always bigger than the sum of parts
George Berkeley
Noises only exist as long as there is a creature that observes them. If a tree falls down in the wood and there is no creature to experience it, then the fall will be soundless. Sound is only there if these ultrasounds reach the ear of an audibly sensible observer.
