reality, knowledge, truth and objectivity hem4112 – lecture 2 mari elken
TRANSCRIPT
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Reality, knowledge, truth and objectivity
HEM4112 – Lecture 2Mari Elken
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Dive into philosophy…
• Ontology is the study of beings or their being — what is.• Epistemology is the study of knowledge — how we
know.• Logic is the study of valid reasoning — how to reason.• Ethics is the study of right and wrong — how we should
act.• Phenomenology is the study of our experience — how
we experience.(Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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Ontology
• the study of what there is– Simple enough: keys – More tricky: numbers
• In simplified terms: Objectivism and constructivism
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Objectivism
• The phenomenon studied is independent of the actors, has independent existence
• E.g. Culture is an externally existing category, independent of the actors
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Constructivism
• The phenomenon studied is constructed by the actors, has no independent existence – constantly revised
• Culture is constantly produced and negotiated by the actors involved, cannot exist independent of the actors
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Realism and antirealism
• Discussion on the basis of accepted scientific truth, attitudes towards the world, but not fully developed doctrines
• Important to be clear – has implications for example construct validity
• Somewhat different definitions for what they mean amongst different authors
NB – difference between ontological and scientific realism!
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Realism
non-observable phenomena actually exist (T-terms) - Example of black holes
“a, b, and c and so on exist, and the fact that they exist and have properties such as F-ness, G-ness, and H-ness is independent of anyone's beliefs, linguistic practices, conceptual schemes, and so on.” (Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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Antirealism
• a theory should never be regarded as truth (T-terms do not exist)
• No causality - cannot be observed directly
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Realism
• Conditions and processes that are correct theories exist – T-terms are real
• Theories say something about the world, can either be true or untrue
• E.g. Hacking, Giere, Suppes
Antirealism
• T-terms do not really exist, O-terms are the only really existing
• Theories are only a way to arrange and sort observations, they are not about the world
• E.g. Wodgar, von Glasersfeld, Latour
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• Many more -isms…
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What does it take to say that something is true?
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Theories of truth 1
• Correspondence – common sense – the claim is true if the world in fact is like that.
• Theories either true or not – but does truth come in degrees (”somewhat true, grain of truth”)
• Facts are ”truth makers” – make a claim truthful
CLAIM WORLDcorrespondence
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Theories of truth 2
• Coherence – how different claims fit with each other, does not deal with the world, internal
CLAIM
P1
P6P5
P9
P2
P3
P7
P8
P4
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Theories of truth 3
• Instrumentalism – ”it works” – if it is useful, then it is true
• Effectiveness vs truth?
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Theories of truth and realism/antirealism
• Realists can live with all three
• Antirealists cannot have correspondence, because they reject that the theories say anything about the world.
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Relevance?
• Can you successfully combine different camps?
Ontological considerations shape what kind of questions we ask: E.g. organisations and culture: • formal characteristics, beliefs and values of the
organisational culture, how they shape individuals or• How people construct culture in organisations,
how meaning is constructed and negotiated, what constitutes as culture
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Epistemology
• What does it mean to know something? • How do we acquire new knowledge? • What is acceptable knoweldge in a
discipline? • How much can we know? • Can we know everything? • Are there things that cannot be known?
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Epistemology
• Many epistemologies • Epistemology is NOT a learning theory! • Bryman: positivism and interpretivism – very
broad
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Positivism
• Bryman: – Empirically proven knowledge– Theory generates hypothesis that can be tested
(deductive) – Knowledge is achieved through gathering of facts– Science is objective – Differentiation between scientific and normative
statements
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Empirical realism
• Also called naive realism • Perfect correspondence between theories and
claims • => thus superficial
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Critical realism
• Roy Bhaskar a central name• Assume that observations are for the most
part reliable, but also acknowledges that our sense data can be wrong
• Admits that categories are most likely temporary
• Widely used in social sciences
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Intepretivism
• Contrasting positivism – People and their institutions fundamentally
differnet from natural sciences– Need a different logic and procedure
• Phenomenology – how we make sense of the world
• Symbolic interactionism – interpretations of the symbolic meaning of environments
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• Discuss: You have to be one to know one.. ?
…or as B. Fay asks – do people in different cultures live in different worlds?
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Describe vs understand
• Social activity is between individuals and institutions/systems – how do we make sense of this?
• Insider-perspective• Outsider-perspective
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Categorising and aggregations
• Categorising is not the same as aggregation, even if sometimes overlap – Category: taxonomies, exclusively in one class– Aggregate: more members, more generality; BUT
– can be a member of several groups
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Taxonomoy of speices
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Dichotomies
• This is when we categorise where the two mean the opposite– No degrees – either/or
– BUT – we often make false dichotomies! They do not cover all, or they are not mutually exclusive
State vs market
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Objectivity
• Perceptions unreliable -> need to minimise or eliminate these effects.
• How?
• Can we have objectivity? Why?