Test 1 (Lecture 2)

Question 1

What is ontology?

Answer 1

Ontology concerns claims about the nature of being and existence. For example “Is there a god?”

Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as existence, being, becoming, and reality. It includes the questions of how entities are grouped into basic categories and which of these entities exist on the most fundamental level.

Question 2

_____ holds that reality exists independently of both the human mind and particular things, while _____believes that reality lives in human consciousness.

Answer 2

A: realism & phenomenology

Question 3

What is phenomenology?

Answer 3

A philosophy of experience

Question 4

What are the key rules of positivism? (5)

Answer 4

• Scientific statements are grounded in direct, immediate empirical experiences. OBSERVATION is privileged over theoretical statements.
• Observations must be REPEATABLE. Made possible through the use of uniform “scientific method”, involving hypothesis testing and controlled experiments
• Science progresses through the formulation of laws, the results of empirically verified THEORIES
• Laws take the form “if A, then B,” being purely technical and descriptive without moral or ethical judgement; the scientist is a NEAUTRAL observer
• Scientific laws are to be progressively integrated into a coherent body of EXTERNAL KNOWLEDGE and TRUTH

Question 5

What is positivism?

Answer 5

Positivism is a philosophy developed by Auguste Comte (1798-1857) in the beginning of the 19th century, which stated that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge

Question 6

Key rules of positivism: (5)

Answer 6

1. Scientific statements are grounded in direct, immediate, empirical experiences; observation is privileged over theoretical statements.
2. Observations must be repeatable; made possible through the use of uniform “scientific method”, involving hypothesis testing and controlled experiments.
3. Science progresses through the formulation of laws, the results of empirically verified theories.
4. Laws take the form “if A, then B”, being purely technical and descriptive, without moral or ethical judgment; the scientist is a neutral observer.
5. Scientific laws are to be progressively integrated into a coherent body of external knowledge and truth

Question 7

What is Contemporary / post-Positivism:

Answer 7

• understands it is impossible to be completely objective, but also believes that it is worth researching to come as close to an objective answer as possible.
• Asserts that we can rationally understand even irrational human behaviour
• Tend to use flexible research methods, because they realize that we are often unable to determine in advance the best way to investigate some aspects of social reality
• Very open, ongoing research…hoping to inch towards a more true objective social reality
• There is no absolute truth – critique from post-positivism.
• We can not accurately predict the future –– critique from post-positivism (Karl Popper, 1957).

Question 8

When was positivism developed?

Answer 8

Positivism is a philosophy developed by Auguste Comte (1798-1857) in the beginning of the 19th century, which stated that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge

Question 9

Are statistics a deterministic or indeterministic approach?

Answer 9

Indeterministic

Question 10

What is big data analytics?

Answer 10

The process of examining large data sets containing a variety of data types, from variety of sources in order to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, customer preferences and other useful information.

Question 11

Determinism:

Answer 11

the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. (google definition)

Determinism is a philosophical doctrine that every state of affairs, including every human event, act, and decision is the inevitable consequence of antecedent states of affairs.

Question 12

What are some determinist theories?

Answer 12

Newton physics, Darwin’s theory and Marx’s social theory (Historicism ) are determinist theories.

Question 13

What is chaos theory?

Answer 13

Chaos theory states that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self-organization…This behavior is known as deterministic chaos

(butterfly effect is apart of chaos theory).

Question 14

What is Indeterminism?

Answer 14

a theory that the will is free and that deliberate choice and actions are not determined by or predictable from previous causes.

Question 15

How did Karl Popper’s critique remedy positivism?

Answer 15

• They recognize that humans do not act rationally
• Recognize that scientists are not as objective as the ideal image of science assumes
• They use highly structured methods, but they are also likes to use flexible methods to fit the reality
• They are skeptical about the results
• They assume that others can judge the findings

Question 16

Interpretivism?

Answer 16

these researchers attempts to gain an empathetic understanding of how people feel inside, seeking to interpret individuals’ everyday experiences, deeper meanings and feelings, and idiosyncratic reasons for their behaviours

Small, subjective studies. Want readers to understand what it is like to walk in the shoes of the people they study.
Believe you cannot learn about people by relying solely on objective measurement instruments that are used in the same standardized manner from person to person
Less interested in the existence of an objective reality, and more interested in understanding how people perceive and experience the world on an internal basis.
While a contemporary positivism briefly observing a large number of unhoused men and women might note their neglect of personal hygiene, may develop recommendations for social skills training - an interpretivism researcher would study a small group of unhoused women more intensively, probing deeply into their subjective interpretations of their social reality and conclude that perhaps their lack of personal hygiene is a rational strategy for preventing sexual victimization

Question 17

Positivism vs interpretivism beliefs regarding: society and the individual?

Answer 17

Positivism: people’s actions can generally be explained by the social norms they have been exposed to through socialisation

Interpretivism: individuals are intricate and complex and different people experience and understand the same “objective reality” in different ways.

Question 18

General focus of social research? Positivism versus interpretivism:

Answer 18

Positivism: the point of research is to uncover the laws that govern human behaviour, just as scientists have discovered the laws that govern the physical world.

Interpretivism: point of research is to gain in-depth insight into the lives of respondents to gain an empathetic understanding of why they act in the way they do.

Question 19

What is ethnography?

Answer 19

A descriptive method of inquiry use for the study of a particular human society. Contemporary ethnography is based generally on fieldwork. The ethnographer lives among the people who are the subjects of the study for a period of time (months or years), learns the local language and participates in their everyday activities while striving to maintain a degree of objective detachment. Example: wrestler

Question 20

Key characteristics of interpretive inquiry?

Answer 20

Focus on people and observe them in the natural setting
Focus on small number of individuals to develop in-depth understanding, rather than relying on statistics for causality over a large number of people
Believe that the best way to learn about people is through the subject’s own eyes, rather than applying the standardized measurements from people to people
May not may not agree with positivism that an object external reality can be discovered

Question 21

Weaknesses of interpretivism? (3)

Answer 21

1. Hard to not overgeneralize
2. Hard to not bring in own biases
3. Not repeatable

Question 22

Critiques of positivism? (6)

Answer 22

1. There is no absolute truth
2. We can not accurately predict the future
3. There is no methodological unity of science ie. 4. That we cannot use the same tools to study natural science and social science
4. It is not possible to view life from an objective point of view
5. Positivism’s two goals - explanation and prediction - are incomplete since they lack the goal of understanding.