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College of Business Research Director and Prof. of Mgt. & Quant. Methods
Ph. D. in Business Administration (Strategic Management), 1983
Honors/Awards/Recognitions:
Recipient of the Outstanding University Researcher Award
(One of only three COB faculty who have ever received it)
Recipient of the Manahan Family Award for Teaching Excellence
Designated as a Caterpillar Faculty Scholar
Recipient of the Outstanding College of Business Researcher Award
Recipient of the Outstanding MQM Department Researcher Award
Member of Editorial Review Boards of 3 research journals
Recipient of many Outstanding Research/Best Paper Awards at various conferences
Reviewer for several other journals and national/international conferences
Published approx. 40 research articles in academic and professional journals
Published many chapters/articles in various books.
Presented more than 60 research papers in international/national conferences
and published them in the proceedings of those conferences
Extensive business consulting/management training experience
Caterpillar, Country Insurance & Financial Services, Hardees Enterprises, City of
Bloomington, Childrens Foundation, Digital Monitoring Solutions, etc.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
FO C US OF THE COURSE?
Meaning of Methodology???
A sub-field of epistemology which is, in turn,
a branch of philosophy (see next slide).
Methodology:
The Science (and art) of conducting science
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PHILOSOPHY means love of wisdom
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THE VERY BEGINNINGS
Important Discoveries in Numbering Systems:
Then by Greeks
3. Began in Europe during the 16th & 17th century scientific revolution
and the 18th century enlightenment era (the age of reason).
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology Through
Philosophical, Religious, and Political Crossroads
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Through Philosophical, Religious, and Political Crossroads
Believe: Just as the human person is guided by the power of his mind,
the world is also guided by a knowing power that operates the universe
in an orderly fashion based on some natural laws.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
With Plato and Aristotle, a long-standing philosophical debate
began surrounding the theory of knowledge,
centering around the following issues:
b. We are born with a blank slate (tabula rasa) and, thus, knowledge is only
attainable through interaction with the material world--through experience
and sense perception (Empiricism)
4. But, observable objects (particulars) of the experiencible phenomenal world are NOT
perfect (since many of each exist, & multiplicity rules out perfection).
So, they must not have primary reality and must be just illusory/shadowy imperfect
reflections/copies of the real thing (i.e., Ideas/Forms).
This is why the experience-based understanding of these material things (particulars)
is unreliable and subject to disagreement.
6. TRUE KNOLEDGE, being certain and infallible (there is only one truth),
must pertain to the perfect reality represented by Ideas/Forms. 15
History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Therefore, real knowledge involves concepts/definitions, NOT objects.
7. Since true knowledge CANNT be learned through interacting with/ experiencing the
material world (phenomenal world), then, it:
Plato
a. must be (like in mathematics) deduced intuitively/intellectually (427 BC - 347 B C )
through contemplation and intellectual reasoning in the mind.
Where we are NOT hand-strung by physical/perceptual limitations.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Aristotle (Continued):
It is through the ability to reason & to articulate that man
translates observations (sense experiences) into useful knowledge.
Centuries later, used as the basis for the development of first the
Islamic and, 2-3 centuries later, Christian Scholastic Theology. ? ? ? 18
History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Accepted Christianity
End of persecution of Christians.
4th - 5th cent., Christianity penetrates every aspect of the Roman state.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Earthly power and glory in the City of Man are nothing compared to the glory of the
spiritual and heavenly City of God.
A call on the Christian Europe to build a Heavenly City on the ashes of fallen
of Rome. 22
History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Platos highest Form Good or the One emanated everything from itself, in the
order of diminishing completeness/perfection:
First, created the nous (mind/intelligence).
Next, created the soul.
Then created nature (the world of material objects).
Then endowed nature with life and soul.
The soul, being chained to the body (a lower Form), longs to return to its original
source.
Virtue, meditation, cleansing oneself from bodily desires, and freedom from dependence on
material things can help soul ascend to reunite with the One.
So, contemplating God must be mans mission in life.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Augustines Epistemology (inspired by Platos philosophy):
Discounting the present life and physical world (i.e., City of Man).
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
The defeated Christian Europe saw the allure of the Heavenly City
and responded to St. Augustines call.
The long obsession with God
End of secular/creative thought/activity
Western Europe took its 600-year plunge into its Dark Ages.
Shortly after . . .
Persian Empire (e.g., Iran, Mesopotamia, parts of Turkey, parts of Syria, Azerbaijan,
Caucasus, Afghanistan, parts of Pakistan)
With Roman Empire falling to barbarians & Persian Empire to Arabs, philosophy died in
most parts of the world (until mid-8 th century).
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Ibn Sina or Abu Ali Sina (Latin name: Avicenna) (Iran, 980-1037)
Describes as one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history,
A poet and a statesman with 450 treatise on medicine, astronomy, chemistry, geology, psychology, logic, paleontology,
mathematics, and physics.
The first to: correctly document the anatomy of the human eye (& such eye afflictions as cataracts),
discover contagious and sexually transmitted diseases, introduce quarantine, describe symptoms & complications of
diabetes, and describe workings of the heart as a valve.
The first to introduce experimental medicine, randomized controlled trials, and efficacy tests.
Epistemologically, he criticizes the Aristotelian method and, in its place, developed a
"method of experimentation as a means for conducting scientific inquiry.
His The canon of Medicine, an immense 14-volume encyclopedia of medicine,
remained the standard medical text in universities throughout Europe until Latin copy of the Canon of Medicine,
1484, P.I. Nixon Medical Historical
31 Library
the end of the 18th century.
University of Texas
History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Khayyam, Omar
(Iran, 1048-1131)
Recognized as the author of the most important treatise on algebra before modern times.
The first to derived general geometric method for solving cubic equations and equations of higher order.
Measured the length of the solar year as 365.24219858156 days and reformed the solar calendar.
His Jalali calendar was more accurate (error = 1 day in 5000 years) than the Gregorian calendar developed 500 years
later (error = 1 day in 3300 years).
Many believe that he may have proposed a heliocentric theory well before Copernicus.
Edward FitzGerald (180983), made Khayym the most famous poet of the East in the West through his celebrated
translation of Khayym's quatrains (Rubaiyat)
Epistemologically, he supported the view that laws of nature explained all phenomena of observed life.
Net Results:
a. Denying any role for human reason/discretion in interpreting
theological edicts
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
3. By the 10th century, virtually all philosophical & scientific activity had
migrated to Iran (in the east) and Spain (in the west) where it
flourished for another 200 years or so.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
EUROPES AWAKENING & TURNING POINT--THE NEW MILLENIUM:
New hope and optimism: surviving the millennium and the apocalyptic
dooms day prophecy
Rediscovery & revival of secular Roman Law and its incorporation into
canon law
The Crusades and exposure to the philosophical work of the Muslim
scholars
OUTCOME: For the next 300 years, Aristotle & the Scripture
became the main sources of answer to virtually all questions,
worldly and divine.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
He argued. . .
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
A Franciscan friar, and best and most notable scholastics after Aquinas
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
There are only two ways for acquiring knowledge about this world:
Ockham stressed:
There is no obligatory connections between Gods freely created universe
and mans desire for a perfect rational world.
Mixing the two constitutes imposing mans mental limitations onto God
Man is given two distinct realities, each with its own separate logic:
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Man, by virtue of his rationality, did not need to be shepherded all the time.
No conflict between piety and wanting to grow/develop, live a good life, pursue
success, appreciate beauty, live in a just society, etc.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
The 1400s:
Voyages of Discovery
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Art & literature began to reflect the fact that Man was once again claiming
the center stage in human affairs.
It inspired:
a. 17th century scientific revolution
b. 17th -18th democratic revolutions (English, American, French)
c. 17th 18th century free-market economic revolution.
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History of Scientific Knowledge: Evolution of Epistemology
Nominalism: Platonic Forms are NOT real entities. They are simply conceptual
fictions that are abstracted in the human mind based on empirical observation.
Realm of science only includes observable material objects, i.e.,
Particulars.
Luther, like Ockham, believed in the separation of realm of reason from sphere
of faith.
Fused the reformed Catholicism with the best of the educational tradition from
the Renaissance.
Exposed students to many works with classical, humanist, liberal, and pluralist
viewpoints.
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Scientific Revolution and the Evolution of the Philosophy of Science
The Third Knowledge Explosion & The Scientific Revolution:
Discoveries in Astronomy kicked off a full-fledged scientific revolution.
NOTE: Copernicus (like Ptolemy) erroneously assumed planets orbits to be perfect circles.
Keplers 3 laws of planetary motion later proved that the orbit of every planet
is an ellipse (oval) with the Sun at a focus.
Scientific Revolution and the Evolution of the Philosophy of Science
The Copernican model was corroborated by Galileo & Kepler and, thus,
established an indisputable Heliocentric vision for the Universe.
Their work led, eventually, to Newtons General Laws of Motion and Gravity
and emergence of the modern physics.
b. Undermined the special status of Man (as the crown jewel of creation)
and Earth (as center of the universe).
a. Believed that nature is profoundly lawful, and its laws are intelligible.
b. Believed the causes of natural phenomena are impersonal and physical.
a. Called for removing all supernatural forces from explanation of worldly events.
c. Called for abandoning the Aristotelian scholastic method.
d. Dismissed the value of knowledge derived from faith, authority, and intuition.
They advocated the use of the human capacity to think, and to learn from
experience, as the chief criteria for distinguishing fact vs fiction, true vs false,
reality vs fallacy, right vs wrong, real vs imagined, etc.
Descartes (father of modern philosophy) stressed the need to rid the mind of all
preconceptions. He declared:
Everything must be doubted.
accept nothing as true until it was established beyond doubt.
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Scientific Revolution and the Evolution of Philosophy of Science
Man has innate/inborn ideas about etched in his mind before birth.
So, knowledge is acquired through logical analysis of these innate ideas.
Descartes became the first to present a view of the world that was
different from the Aristotelian-Christian outlook.
A break with the tradition that saw nature as having motives and feelings of
love and hate.
The Aristotelian deductive method implied that the natural world can only
be described in general terms.
Nature is too subtle to lend itself to exact description and, thus, its details
always elude precise analysis.
Sir Francis Bacon Galileo Galilei Thomas Hobbes John Locke Sir Isaac Newton David Hume John Stuart Mill
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(1561-1626) (1564-1642) (1568-1679) (1632-1704) (1643-1727) (1711-1776) (1806-1873)
Scientific Revolution and the Evolution of Philosophy of Science
John Locke rejected the rationalist view that man comes to the world with a
priori (inborn) knowledge that he simply has to rediscover.
He maintains: The mind arrives at the world stage entirely blank and
all knowledge is to be discovered only through experience.
Locke, on the other hand, called on scientists to seek less ambitious, but
empirically-grounded, thus more realistic, explanations that were more
relevant in their applications.
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Scientific Revolution and the Evolution of Philosophy of Science
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Scientific Revolution and the Evolution of Philosophy of Science
Rather, they are merely expected as a result of our experience and habit.
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Scientific Revolution and the Evolution of Philosophy of Science
The knower plays an active and creative role in the knowing process
(i.e., partly enacts his/her known reality), through operations of the mind.
Science is NOT a belief system; scientific explanations must be anchored in reality, NOT just in
beliefs/intuition/common sense/casual subjective judgment. That is:
Propositions must appeal to evidence, and not just to beliefs or even reason.
Francis Bacon who was an advocate for a worldly utilitarian science argued:
The only knowledge of importance to man is knowledge that is rooted in the
natural/physical world (which can be experienced in time and space).
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Empiricism in social/behavioral sciences:
Result of pioneering works of:
Auguste Comte , the founder of Positivism in social sciences:
Positivists believe that scientific research should NOT be compelled
to start with a deductive theory-building process.
That is, scientific knowledge must receive its positive affirmation from
data/evidence and does not have to be rationally justifiable.
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CHARCTERISTICS OF THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
Testability
Precise Language/Rhetoric
People understand words in slightly different ways .
This can lead to distortions and flaws in knowledge.
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CHARCTERISTICS OF THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
Assumption of Determinism
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CHARCTERISTICS OF THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
3. Modern/Scientific Outlook (A Deterministic Perspective):
There is order in nature and the world around us does NOT operate
randomly/accidentally.
Baruch Spinoza: Everything that happens occurs through the operation
of NECESSITY,?
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CHARCTERISTICS OF THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
Tentativeness
Unlike religion, science is not a belief system.
Science does NOT subscribe to certitude and absolutism.
Scientific findings are NOT to be considered final/complete.
Popper states:
Corroboration gives only the comfort that the theory has been tested and survived
the test, that even after the most impressive corroborations of predictions, it has
only achieved the status of not yet disconfirmed.
In other words, "not proven false" is not the same as "being true. 73
CHARCTERISTICS OF THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
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CHARCTERISTICS OF THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
Falsifiability
Investigations must start WITHOUT any pre-suppositions /belief
regarding the truth/falsity of the proposition/explanation.
Propositions must not only have the potential to be verified, but also the
potential to be falsified/refuted.
Idiographic Research
Is concerned with examining and identifying many unique
considerations that lie behind a particular phenomenon/ event/action
(e.g., case studies, archival studies, historical research).
Nomothetic Research
Is aimed at discovering the relatively few, but very important,
considerations that explain a general class of events/actions.
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CHARCTERISTICS OF THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
Generalizability
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SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE:? ? ?
Scientific knowledge is our tentative and falsifiable explanations
about natural phenomena developed on the basis of careful logical
analysis and objective examination of publically reviewable
observational evidence.
FUNCTIONS/OBJECTIVES OF SCIENCE: ? ? ?
To Describe:
Specifying what makes a phenomenon occur and how.
What are the factors contributing to its occurrence, and how?)
To Explain:
Why? What are the reasons? What are the underlying logic and
dynamics?
To Predict:
What is the likelihood of the phenomenon occurring under a given
condition? Under what conditions is a phenomenon likely to occur?)
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What has been the contributions of this new science to our prosperity
and socio-economic and technological progress?
It is estimated that it took 12,000 years until the beginning of the century industrial
revolution, for worlds per capita GDP (in 1990 fixed dollars) to double.
By contrast, in only the 250 years between the industrial revolution and year 2000, per
capita GDP rose more than 36 folds.
Despite the worldwide population explosion from 720 millions in 1750, to 6.3 billions in 2000.
But, it is fair to ask if this material prosperity been achieved at the expense of a diminishing
quality of life?
Did the Medieval life involve greater richness, spirituality, higher general happiness, or a
higher sense of subjective wellbeing?
The answer is an emphatic NO; all the evidence points to the contrary . . .
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QUESTIONS OR
COMMENTS
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