I Think Therefore IB

Today we discussed Rationalism as part of our exploration of the Way of Knowing of reason. It is late evening (I am almost headed to bed) and I am doing some reading for my MA dissertation in a book that explores research methods in applied linguistics and considers the “paradigm war” between quantitative and qualitative research. Now, how is that of interest to you? Well, read on, and peruse first a description of the scientific method (which I am quoting here simply because it is a good review for us):

[T]he scientific method postulates three key stages in the research process: (a) observing a phenomenon or identifying a problem; (b) generating an initial hypothesis; and (c) testing the hypothesis by collecting and analysing empirical data using standardized procedures. Once the hypothesis has been successfully tested and further validated through replication, it becomes accepted as a scientific theory or law. Thus, the scientific method offer[s] a tool to explore questions in an ‘objective’ manner, trying to minimize the influence of any researcher bias or prejudice, thereby resulting in what scholars believed was an accurate and reliable description of the world. (Dörnyei 31)

In its origins, the scientific method “was closely associated with numerical values and statistics, along the line of Nobel prize winner Lord Rutherford’s famous maxim that any knowledge that one cannot measure numerically ‘is a poor sort of knowledge’” (ibid, my emphasis).

Here we have it: a Nobel prize winner’s (!) claim that a particular type of knowledge is superior to another – the type of knowledge that is objective, mathematically measurable and, essentially, logical in its nature. Any thoughts on this? Do ponder… and also consider the very carefully worded “to explore questions in an ‘objective’ manner” (Why the single quotation marks?) and “resulting in what scholars believed was an accurate and reliable description of the world” (Why “believed” rather than “knew”? Why “was” rather than “is”? What counterclaims are embedded here? What have we since conceded about the objectivity of the scientific method?).
 

P.S. English A1 students: I’m listening to the An Equal Music CDs.

Bibliographical Reference:

Dörnyei, Zoltán. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.