Tutorial 1 Research Philosophy

0:00 hello everyone today i would like to talk to you about the research philosophy and how we get from our everyday lives to our lives as researchers now you professor yuan mutton explains this according to what he calls the three worlds framework where world one is the world of our everyday lives world two is the world of scientific knowledge and research and world three is the world of meta research it goes something like this in our everyday lives we we we find ourselves in various physical and um and social settings like church work family school so on

0:47 we use knowledge from everyday life practical know-how experience insight wisdom and we use these knowledges to solve problems to give advice to people to negotiate something and to cope with life in short but we are also creatures with very big brains and we can also solve very complex problems and we do this by being in world 2 the world of scientific knowledge and research where we take problems or phenomena from world one the world of everyday life

1:33 and we do scientific research about these problems and we get knowledge and we create new knowledge based on more rigorous and more systematic processes so that the knowledge we create and the knowledge we find is more um reliable less problematic less fallible and more valid and so on and that is world to the world of scientific research now because we are we are intend to be systematic and rigorous reflection in this world is specifically important because we want to scrutinize and quality check ourselves at every step to

2:18 ensure that we have the best possible knowledge product and in comes the world of meter science world three this is the world where we we reflect on scientific knowledge and reflect on scientific research now the word mita means beyond so it's beyond science we reflect deeply and this is where the different scientific uh fields and disciplines are born um that's how we think of how things belong to different disciplines it's where um field specific phyllis philosophies um develop and also research philosophy that's specifically interesting to us um in in in this tutorial

3:05 now while professor yuan mutton's um conception of the three worlds is very useful to us to understand the differences my thinking is more that we can't really separate these worlds so easily we also reflect in our everyday lives we also use our reflection we criticize ourselves we do introspection and we learn from our experiences and so on and in the same way we do in research so i'm thinking that we can use how we go about our real lives to understand um the research process and reflection on research a bit better from one another so i'm thinking more in in a metaphor of a tree uh

3:52 something like this our tree of life we can say that the root system is maybe our religious beliefs our cultural ideas maybe our political beliefs and also our ethics our more moral cores are also all at the bottom they are if we were using a building metaphor this would be the foundation then our knowledge would be that the trunk like our everyday knowledges insight wisdom practical know-how experience knowledge so on and the branches are what we do with that knowledge like we use a practical know-how maybe to fix a car we use insight maybe to give advice to someone we um use our

4:39 knowledge from experience maybe to improve something under and the leaves are the techniques um the the finer step by step uh how to fix a car step by step um maybe how to go about negotiating peace between different people maybe how the process of advice giving can work so those are the techniques and the tools now when we get to ourselves as academics or scientists this tree gets another dimension but it's still the the same kind of tree it's all the same kind of processes it's just that it's more formal and um in a more systematic way and more abstract language we use we are still humans so if we are humans

5:24 doing research we still go through our belief systems in a very similar way as that when we do in our everyday lives um now philosophy is the study of the fundamentals of life and i just quickly want to go through the five main areas of philosophy because they make up the basics of research philosophy too um firstly we get metaphysics um now that is the study of being and it mainly consists of two two areas um cosmology which is beliefs about the creation of the universe the origin of the world and ontology which is more beliefs about reality and being of

6:10 objects or or phenomenon in our case then we get axiology which is the study of values morals we get epistemology which is the study of knowledge we get logics which is the study of argumentation and and logical thinking and then we get the study of aesthetics which is the the study of beauty and of um art and taste now when we're in the area of scientific research we are already busy in the epistemological area of philosophy because scientific

6:56 research is about scientific and rigorous and systematic ways of creating knowledge and and and getting to to knowledge so we are already all of what we're doing is actually in the area of epistemology and together with that comes kind of a logic i've been saying this repeatedly systematic structured so on so the logics of argumentation in the scientific world is is is also kind of uh set up for us in a specific way so when we talk about research philosophy we assume certain logics and we assume that we are already working in this world of epistemology so we kind of customize the the philosophy general from general

7:43 philosophy to a philosophy a research philosophy and then the tree consists of mainly these areas at the root system we'll have ontology and we'll have axiology and then the the trunk would be epistemology and the branches would be methodology and the leaves would be research techniques and processes and so on now let's talk about this in a bit more detail as the root of our tree we have ontology we focus on ontology and not necessarily metaphysics in general or cosmology not because these things are not important i'll talk about the interconnections between all the philosophical aspects a

8:29 bit later but in general scientific research happens in a specific subject area and we are busy with specific phenomena and the root system of our tree is our beliefs about the nature of reality and existence of being of those phenomena when it comes to social phenomena we are talking about concepts creations systems events happenings occurrences experiences and behaviors that we consider as part of human life things like communication like relationships like human behavior like change like management like organizations like networks these are all examples of social phenomena

9:17 and our ontology is our beliefs about whether or not the phenomenon exists and what the nature of that phenomenon is whether these days one reality or truth about this phenomenon or multiple possible realities or truths whether the reality or realities of this phenomenon itself is stable over time or dynamic whether the phenomenon exists independent of human experience or does it exist um inside of the human mind and inside of our thoughts and perceptions and experiences of it whether some aspects of the phenomenon is hidden or suppressed or unknowable or is it all in principle knowable that is oncology

10:02 also at the root system of our trees it's axiology in a research context axiology is our beliefs about values and ethics in research and if we think in terms of social phenomena again our axiological beliefs include things like whether or not moral values have a place in research whether value-free knowledge or value-laden knowledge is preferred or accepted forms of knowledge which topics or phenomena are worthy intrinsically worthwhile our research or worthwhile research topics or research phenomena if and how the researchers values influence the research approach and process

10:48 how the researcher the act of research and the research process influenced those involved and the ethics of such influence then are they specific values like religious or cultural political values for instance that should be specifically prioritized and valued in our research these are all axiological questions then epistemology now as i said before all of research lies within the area of epistemology because research is about knowledge but for this very reason there are many different ways of thinking about knowledge in the research context so the trunk of our research tree is epistemology of research itself our

11:35 beliefs about knowledge when it comes to social research our epistemological beliefs include things like what kinds of knowledge are acceptable reliable trustworthy and so on for studying certain phenomena what can be known about a certain phenomena and what can not be known what are the limitations of knowledge in other words what can be considered an acceptable knowledge product in a research context and what is the relationship between the people participating in the research and the knowledge then part of epistemology is our beliefs about how we could and should go about acquiring or creating knowledge this is uh called methodology specifically the

12:22 study of methods now methodology is the practical know-how of knowledge now we will talk a lot more about the details of methodology in future tutorials but in social science research our methodological beliefs come down to things um like what's their general research approach how should the research be designed which specific methods and techniques and processes we use to collect and analyze data now there are so many different ways of describing one's philosophical beliefs or assumptions for the purposes of research but i want to talk about some of the concepts we often use as descriptors of research philosophy now we can almost only scratch the surface

13:07 here as there are so many ways to talk about this now if we look at the some of the ways some of the concepts and terminologies we use to describe our beliefs our research beliefs in the first place we get the term objectivism which is sometimes used interchangeably with the word realism in terms of ontology on objectivism or realism is the belief that there is a real objective definitive world or reality of a phenomenon or a social reality and it exists in itself within itself external to us in others and independent of what we might think about it in many ways that the terms are the same

13:52 but i would say that realism is more the ontological position whereas objectivism would better describe the epistemological position of being objective the knowledge is about objective facts and that meaning and truth are independent of the human experience now when we speak about this in terms of axiology we believe that research should be value free also seen as a separation of facts and values and scientific and normative sides of life then we come to a concept almost in direct opposition to objectivism and realism and those are concepts like subjectivism relativism or idealism even

14:38 now when talking about reality these terms denote the belief that reality or existence of a phenomenon resides in the hearts and minds of people and that there are many different realities rather than one single reality a reality that is like absolute like objectivism or realism would have it but relative so to speak hence the word relativism and that it consists of our ideas of it hence idealism in terms of knowledge subjectivism means that knowledge is basically opinions that are mind-dependent and located within a specific context like a social cultural historical context when we look at this line of thinking

15:23 and the axiology associated with it we recognize knowledge and science and research as being bound to human values so all knowledge is laden with the values of those who participate in the research process then we come to terms like universality multiple realities and meanings and another one pluriversality now universality refers to a single reality or a single meaning and then there's the belief in multiple possible realities and multiple possible truths and then plurity which basically means that there are many possible ontologies or many different beliefs about truth and reality and different

16:09 epistemologies so different beliefs about knowledge or different axiologies like different value systems that exist at the same time and are in connection with one another next is a term constructionism now constructionist ontology is the belief that reality is inter-subjectively created through social interactions between people so in terms of knowledge or epistemology we can say that knowledge is constructed knowledge it's intersubjective and knowledge is a transactional process because knowledge and meaning is made between people with different subjectivities as they interact with

16:55 each other in a way constructionism is about reality or knowledge not being an issue of the individual but a collective human thing where subjectivism may be understood as an individual subjectivism constructivism is that collective inter-subjective way of seeing things this brings me to a related concept relationality relationality we often use in afro-centric research contexts and as an ontology in epistemology relationality is the belief that social reality and knowledge is understood through the relations between people between people and non-living beings between people and the land the earth on the whole animals

17:42 other beings we also use relationality to refer to a value system in research and the axiology that relationships are the most important thing in research and that research should be relationally accountable reciprocal and promote respectful interaction of all people involved then we get a large collection of terms and concepts that show some kind of ontological or epistemological suppression or marginalization for instance some people refer to things like ontological difference ontological density ontological inferiority and other terms like that to show that

18:29 some realities of some ways of being are believed to be less less human or inferior to other ways of being where ways of being and ontologies have been erased maybe by colonial histories and some phenomena like black or african carries less ontological weight or has less ontological density than phenomena such as white or western we also see this called ontological racism along similar lines we use concepts like epistemic racism and the coloniality of knowledge and epistemicide

19:16 to show that certain forms of knowledge are suppressed or have been suppressed and marginalized by colonialism and by its remaining trends coloniality there are so many different and interesting concepts you come across when you start studying research philosophy it's like like i said at the beginning we we can't even scratch the surface here but let's get back to to what i want to do with this tutorial and that is to show you the links between the different trees like the tree of our normal life and our research um philosophy tree between the different levels of beliefs and and how things

20:02 come together now from the concepts you can already see how the different areas of research philosophy are linked because for many of these concepts you can use them to say something about your ontology about your epistemology about your axiology and even your methodology depending on how you use the term now in many instances this type of thinking will line up between the areas of research philosophy and you can have a realist ontology an objectivist epistemology an axiology of value free or value neutral research sometimes it's not that straightforward and you could perhaps have a realist ontology but a constructionist epistemology like if you believe that an organization just is what it is it's objectively a

20:49 place in which people work it's a separate entity that exists independent of what people think about it but you could also believe that organizational knowledge is made between people as they work together so your knowledge belief is constructionist this is also the place where your personal beliefs like your personal tree intertwine with your research beliefs because you could hold a personal belief that god created the church to gather his people and if you are doing research about the church as an organization this belief about what the church is and what the purpose of the church is is both a personal and a research ontology or you could have a feminist political belief that men and women matter equally but that our way of being is structured

21:37 on gendered power relations that privileges men over women this is both a personal and a research belief and it's also both ontological so about reality and axiological about values it can even become more specific like um than that and weave together a number of things you can have a constructionist decolonial ontology an african african eco-spiritual cosmology a relational axiology and epistemology as an example if you study employee communications or internal communication but you believe that the lived realities of black africans are still being marginalized as our understandings of communication

22:24 management was and is constructed by only euro western versions of life along that same line you can then bring in a cosmology and a spirituality by specifically acknowledging beliefs about interconnections between the living and the non-living and from there flows an epistemology and axiology of relationality so relationality as a form of knowledge and relationality as the moral importance now as an academic researcher your disciplinary field also comes into play if you study public relations and specifically maybe the contribution of public relations to the bottom line of a company you can almost not get away from

23:11 some degree of objectivism as your discipline or your topic or your area accepts that single reality that companies are there to make money and the bottom line is about profits if your philosophic beliefs are dependent on so many things it's of course also possible to hold different epistemological ontological and axiological beliefs about different things and even different things in the same study that's the reason why we often rather talk about philosophical assumptions and not philosophical beliefs as i've been referring to when it comes to research projects because we are not always referring to something we personally believe in but

23:57 rather to things that we assume to be true for the sake of our study so here's an example you are studying stakeholder relationships and the focus is on the relationship between the company and their suppliers so suppliers are those other businesses that give goods and services provide goods and services you are using an instrumental version of stakeholder theory and the stakeholder management theory and those theories imply that it's the nature of business to make money that stakeholder relationships are instrumental to this mission to making money and that stakeholder relationships are based on subjective human experiences so in terms of ontology you have a realist or objectivist stance about the

24:44 nature of organizations but a subjective stance towards the nature of stakeholder relationships also in terms of epistemology stakeholder relationships can only be known subjectively but their contribution or their instrumental value to an organization can be known objectively can you see that these beliefs in in this example also don't have much to do with your personal beliefs but they are assumptions made about reality and assumptions made about knowledge based on your theory and your area of interest so your ontological and epistemological assumptions include both objectivism and subjectivism in this example

25:32 now let's bring it back to where we started research philosophy on the whole belongs to the area of epistemology because all research is essentially about knowledge creation knowledge seeking of knowledge and so on but as a specialist philosophy research philosophy is often expressed by referring to the ontology epistemology axiology and methodology so we express our axiological ontological episodical and methodological beliefs or assumptions and those have a great influence on how we approach research projects and which topics we choose and which theories we

26:19 we favor and which methods we use in the next tutorial we will move on from this basic introduction to research philosophy to looking at specific paradigmatic positions and paradigmatic positions are almost like a template or like a a combo of different ontological epistemological axiological and methodological beliefs that kind of fit together to form specific frameworks or race a piece for for research while it's all built on these assumptions of research philosophy i think the next tutorial will also greatly inform you about how to go about doing research see

27:06 you next time