My Life
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter looks at the methodology and sampling employed for the study and at the researcher’s epistemological stands. Methodological principles in the social sciences ensure that we are able to defend our findings, and are those guidelines that researchers agree on, that they rely on to give us acceptable research practices. Methodological principles further enable researchers to attain knowledge by providing the researchers with necessary techniques or tools.
3.2
EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE STUDY
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy which studies the nature of knowledge and truth – with what and how we know and the limits of human understanding. It comes from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (theory). Epistemologists explore questions such as the following: What is knowledge? What does it mean for someone to “know” something? How much can we possibly know? What is the difference between belief and knowledge, between knowledge and opinion, between knowledge and faith?
How do we know that 2 + 2= 4 or that the square root of 49 is 7? Says who, or what? Is there an ultimate ground of knowledge, a world of absolutes? Do we know something from reason or from direct observation, or from a little both?
But no one can “observe” 2 + 2 = 4, so how do we know that the statement (or formula) is true? What is truth? Is truth absolute or relative? What is the relationship between the observer and the observed, the knower and the known? Is there an external world which we can make meaningful statements
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about and know? Is an object of knowledge a construction of mind? Is the world my idea of it, as Schopenhauer would say, or does it exist independently of all observers? These are just some of the problems that epistemologists address.
Over and above, Epistemology − as a branch of philosophy that studies knowledge − furthermore attempts to answer the basic question: What distinguishes true
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter looks at the methodology and sampling employed for the study and at the researcher’s epistemological stands. Methodological principles in the social sciences ensure that we are able to defend our findings, and are those guidelines that researchers agree on, that they rely on to give us acceptable research practices. Methodological principles further enable researchers to attain knowledge by providing the researchers with necessary techniques or tools.
3.2
EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE STUDY
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy which studies the nature of knowledge and truth – with what and how we know and the limits of human understanding. It comes from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (theory). Epistemologists explore questions such as the following: What is knowledge? What does it mean for someone to “know” something? How much can we possibly know? What is the difference between belief and knowledge, between knowledge and opinion, between knowledge and faith?
How do we know that 2 + 2= 4 or that the square root of 49 is 7? Says who, or what? Is there an ultimate ground of knowledge, a world of absolutes? Do we know something from reason or from direct observation, or from a little both?
But no one can “observe” 2 + 2 = 4, so how do we know that the statement (or formula) is true? What is truth? Is truth absolute or relative? What is the relationship between the observer and the observed, the knower and the known? Is there an external world which we can make meaningful statements
42
about and know? Is an object of knowledge a construction of mind? Is the world my idea of it, as Schopenhauer would say, or does it exist independently of all observers? These are just some of the problems that epistemologists address.
Over and above, Epistemology − as a branch of philosophy that studies knowledge − furthermore attempts to answer the basic question: What distinguishes true