Pos Exam
Student no: XXXXX Study programme: ICM The four major paradigms
Course: Philosophy of Science
Paradigms “represents a worldview that defined, for its holder, the nature of the “world,” the individual’s place in it, and the range of possible relationships to that world and its parts” (107 – COMPENDIUM) There are four different paradigms; positivism, postpositivism, critical theory and constructivism. Each of these can be described by means of usage within the three fields of ontology (Deals with the nature of realism), epistemology (Deals with knowledge) and methodology (A set of methods and principles used to perform a particular activity).
When dealing with positivism, the ontological nature of the social world is naive realism. Reality exists “out there” and is driven by immutable natural laws and mechanisms. Laws and mechanics are often referred to in the form of time- and context free generalizations. The epistemological approach is that of finding research to be true. If the researcher has either been influenced, or is influencing the research it can be seen as invalid and it being discarded. Finally the methodology approach states that the research has to be validated or dominated in order to get a specific outcome. Ontological speaking, postpositivism deals with critical realism; the reality is real but only in an imperfect way. Furthermore; Reality is driven by natural laws that can be only incompletely understood. When dealing with the epistemology aspect of postpositivism, the dualism is abandoned (remains as an ideal). The research findings have to fit the pre-existing knowledge. The validity of finding are being questioned. Finally, the methodology uses qualitative techniques in order to manipulate/redress the research findings to fit the meanings and purposes that people ascribe their actions. The research are depending more on grounded theory, and reintroducing discovery into the inquiry process. Furthermore, the research is moved to more
Course: Philosophy of Science
Paradigms “represents a worldview that defined, for its holder, the nature of the “world,” the individual’s place in it, and the range of possible relationships to that world and its parts” (107 – COMPENDIUM) There are four different paradigms; positivism, postpositivism, critical theory and constructivism. Each of these can be described by means of usage within the three fields of ontology (Deals with the nature of realism), epistemology (Deals with knowledge) and methodology (A set of methods and principles used to perform a particular activity).
When dealing with positivism, the ontological nature of the social world is naive realism. Reality exists “out there” and is driven by immutable natural laws and mechanisms. Laws and mechanics are often referred to in the form of time- and context free generalizations. The epistemological approach is that of finding research to be true. If the researcher has either been influenced, or is influencing the research it can be seen as invalid and it being discarded. Finally the methodology approach states that the research has to be validated or dominated in order to get a specific outcome. Ontological speaking, postpositivism deals with critical realism; the reality is real but only in an imperfect way. Furthermore; Reality is driven by natural laws that can be only incompletely understood. When dealing with the epistemology aspect of postpositivism, the dualism is abandoned (remains as an ideal). The research findings have to fit the pre-existing knowledge. The validity of finding are being questioned. Finally, the methodology uses qualitative techniques in order to manipulate/redress the research findings to fit the meanings and purposes that people ascribe their actions. The research are depending more on grounded theory, and reintroducing discovery into the inquiry process. Furthermore, the research is moved to more