epistemology and ontology

Question 1

what is ontology?

Answer 1

“the image of social reality upon which a theory is based” (Grix)

Question 2

what is epistemology (Bryman)?

Answer 2

“the possible ways of gaining knowledge of social reality”

Question 3

What did Bennett et al find about political science journals?

Answer 3

49% used quantitative methods
46% used qualitative methods
23% used formal modelling
(some used multimethods)

Question 4

what is objectivism?

Answer 4

Social phenomena and their meanings have an existence outside of social actors

Question 5

what is constructivism?

Answer 5

social phenomena and their meanings are continually being made and remade by social actors

Question 6

what is interpretivism?

Answer 6

Needs to grasp ‘the subjective meaning of social action’ (Bryman)

Question 7

What do interpretivists say about subjectivity?

Answer 7

Inevitable

Question 8

What are 3 key features of anti-foundationalists? (Guba and Lincolm)

Answer 8

1) realities are local and specific
2) reality isn’t discovered but constructed
3) while it is actors who construct the world, their values are shaped by cultural, social and political processes

Question 9

What did the scientific approach to politics try to do?

Answer 9

identify causal statements

Question 10

What are causal statements?

Answer 10

Under a version set of conditions, there would be regular and predictable outcomes

Question 11

What’s the difference between critical realism and positivism?

Answer 11

critical realists believe structural relationships between social phenomena cannot be observed, and only the consequences can be seen, whereas positivists believe in coming up with causal statements

Question 12

What’s the similarity between critical realism and positivism?

Answer 12

Share a broad ontological position

Question 13

What are epistemological distinctions important?

Answer 13

cannot be removed when doing research

Question 14

What ontology is positivism related to?

Answer 14

foundationalist

Question 15

What is positivism associated with? (3)

Answer 15

• behaviouralism
• rational choice theory
• certain strains of institutionalism

Question 16

What do positivists say about objectivity?

Answer 16

researchers need to aim to be objective

Question 17

How does Quine criticise positivism? (2)

Answer 17

Theory and empirical research aren’t separable, as theory informs what we focus on
No way to describe experience without classifying it, as any knowledge we derive from the 5 senses is mediated by the concepts we use to analyse it

Question 18

How can we see social ‘science’ as being impossible? (3)

Answer 18

1) they don’t exist independently of the activities they shape, 2) don’t exist independently of actors views of what they are doing and 3) the social world varies across time and space in most instances

Question 19

what ontology is interpetivism related to?

Answer 19

antifoundationalist

Question 20

what positions are interpetivism related to?

Answer 20

some forms of institutionalism and feminism

Question 21

what do interpretivists believe about objectivity?

Answer 21

impossible to be objective, and so researcher must recognise their own partialities and take these into account when interpreting their respondents

Question 22

what do interpretivists want to focus on?

Answer 22

identifying discourses to see how they interpret social phenomena

Question 23

how do positivists view intepretivism?

Answer 23

merely offers opinions, with no basis to check validity of the findings

Question 24

why has the interpretivist tradition become more common? (2)

Answer 24

Philosophical critiques questioned positivism more

Normative political theory changed from being foundationalist to anti-foundationalist

Question 25

what ontological position does critical realism take?

Answer 25

foundationalism

Question 26

what epistemological position does critical realism take?

Answer 26

anti-foundationalism

Question 27

what do critical realists believe? (3)

Answer 27

World exists independent of us
Social phenomena do have causal powers, so causal statements are possible
However, not all social phenomena can be observed, and what can be observed may provide a false image about what is actually happening-

Question 28

how can critical realism be linked to Marxism?

Answer 28

there is a difference between ‘real’ interests and perceived interests – only able to enquire about perceived interests

Question 29

how do interpetivists criticise critical realists? (2)

Answer 29

criticise ontological claims of realism, believe there are no structures independent of social action

Question 30

how do positivists criticise critical realists? (2)

Answer 30

deny the existence of unobservable structures, knowledge claims of realists are untestable

Question 31

what do modern critical realists try to do? whats an issue with their approach?

Answer 31

Attempts to combine scientific and interpretivist traditions – very difficult as they have fundamentally different ontological and epistemological positions

Question 32

what do modern critical realists believe about social phenomena?

Answer 32

Whilst social phenomena exist independent of our interpretation of it, it does affect our outcomes but it doesn’t determine, just constrains and facilitates

Question 33

why does a researcher’s ontological and epistemologicial position matter? (3)

Answer 33

1. Determine the role of theory in their research
2. Shape the way the researcher sees the relationship between theory and practice
3. Affect what the researcher expects in their research (eg generalizability etc)

Question 34

what is deliberate democracy?

Answer 34

define democracy as a communication process, whereby participants exchange reasons for their preferences, rather than solely voting on them

Question 35

what was deliberate democracy first developed as?

Answer 35

a normative project

Question 36

what is the positivist view on deliberate democracy? (Mutz) (2)

Answer 36

What makes a theory good is its falsifiability
Deliberate democracy theory needs to be broken down, and each part given a hypothesis and tested in order to find out which factors produce desirable outcomes

Question 37

what is the interpretivist view on deliberate democracy? (4)

Answer 37

• Capture the perspectives better, and is sensitive to the contextual and contingent natures of such processes
• No need to aim for generalizability / causal relationships
• Focuses more on agency
• Theory allows interpretivists to make sense of the practice

Question 38

How is postpositivism related to positivism?

Answer 38

retains the idea of an objective truth for social reality

Question 39

How does postpositivism differ to positivism? (2)

Answer 39

human knowledge is based on probabilistic ideas, and so a perfect idea of social reality is impossible
bias is undesirable but inevitable