Research Epistemology 

This course introduces doctoral students in the humanities and arts to key epistemological questions that arise from different research practices. The nature of knowledge generated by research varies according to both the field of study and the methods applied. For instance, research may be seen as an effort to uncover aspects of an existing reality, or alternatively, as a process that creates the conditions necessary to reveal a specific truth. In the first scenario, it is presumed that realities or problems already exist, simply awaiting discovery or resolution, with their existence independent of the researcher’s subjectivity. Here, research is essentially a search for objectivity, which is characteristic of the natural sciences and scientific inquiry in general. Conversely, in the second scenario, research entails a more personal or human element, since the truths revealed are shaped by the particular manner and context in which they are perceived or interpreted. This subjective dimension is a significant feature of research within the humanities and the arts. Naturally, not all forms of subjectivity in research are relevant or meaningful. Throughout the series of lectures, these distinctions will be explored using concrete examples drawn from a range of research fields.

Topics

1. Knowledge: universal/personal

2. Forms of relative truths: history, culture, religion, gender, ethnicity

3. Objective reality/subjective creativity

4. Retrieval/discovery

5. Deduction/induction

6. Cause/effect

7. Certainty/belief

8. Necessity/choice

9. Verifiability/assumption

10. The human element

Bibliography

Paul Ricoeur (2007) History and Truth, Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

Michael Gibbons (1996) The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies, London: Sage.

Michel Foucault (2007) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, London: Routledge.

Charles Camic, ed. (2011) Social Knowledge in the Making, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jonathan Dancy (1991) An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Bertrand Russell (2007) An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, Nottingham: Spokesman Books.

Karl R. Popper (1972) Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

J. Greco and E. Sosa (1999) Blackwell Guide to Epistemology, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

D. M. Armstrong (1973) Belief, Truth and Knowledge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richard Rorty (1991) Objectivity, Relativism and Truth, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.