Foundations and Practice of Research

Adventures with Dooyeweerd's Philosophy

Andrew Basden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781351762472
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Many of the issues on which meaningful research is founded are seldom discussed; for example, the role of everyday experience, diversity and coherence of meaning in the world, the meaningfulness and wider mandate of research, the very nature and validity of theoretical thought, and the deep presuppositions of philosophy and how they undermine the success of research.

Such questions are material to the philosophies that guide research thinking in all fields, and since they cannot be satisfactorily addressed in a piecemeal fashion, this book employs the radically different philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd to consider them together. Parts I and II discuss these issues theoretically and philosophically, while Part III discusses them practically, specifically the adventures that researchers across the world have had using Dooyeweerd's philosophy.

Foundations and Practice of Research assembles a wide range of experiences of using Dooyeweerd's philosophy in research in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, the social sciences, design sciences and the humanities. Case studies demonstrate how Dooyeweerd's philosophy has been found fruitful in most stages of research, and the philosophical discussion backs this up. This book challenges researchers to join the adventures, including suggestions of potential research that could be carried out, as well as questions still left unanswered.

1
Introduction

To Help You Read This Book

This book is about research. Not research in any one field—social sciences, psychology, chemistry, theology, mathematics—but research as research, across all fields. It is about the practical realities encountered in all kinds of research. It is about what lies at the foundations of these realities in all research fields, which are often taken for granted.

This book is about problems that challenge all fields, though manifested differently in each, many being hidden but which we feel intuitively.

Much has been written about research in this or that field, but little on research as such. Why? Is it because approaches that suit one field do not suit other fields and, moreover, because this unsuitability is presumed to be fundamental? Is it because researchers in different fields do not understand each other but divide into camps?

People may think that what is meaningful and rational in one field is meaningless in another—for example physical concepts and laws in physics are usually of little interest in social science, while social factors are usually excluded from physical theories. Yet my own fields of information systems and environmental sustainability are interdisciplinary to a degree and so have built in me an awareness of a wide range of issues as potentially important and of interest across all fields.

This chapter’s sections are from the book title, in reverse order.

1–1. Adventures With Dooyeweerd’s Philosophy

Why has this book appeared? For two reasons.

The motivational reason: As I have carried out my research, I have discovered a “pearl of great price”, which I want to share. The “pearl” has proven not only beautiful but also valuable over the last 25 years and has made sense retrospectively of the 25 years before I discovered it. The pearl is Dooyeweerd’s philosophy. I want people to examine it to decide for themselves what it is worth.

The intellectual and practical reason: Research is fascinating, and I have found Dooyeweerd’s philosophy enriches it. Research is important, and I have found that Dooyeweerd’s philosophy can make research more effective. Research areas are fragmented, and I have found Dooyeweerd’s philosophy can provide some integration. Philosophy underlies research but often seems irrelevant, yet Dooyeweerd offers philosophy that approaches things in an eminently practical way. There are serious problems in philosophy, whether pre-modern, modern or postmodern, that I believe Dooyeweerd addresses, offering foundations that differ intrinsically from those offered by many philosophers. I have found Dooyeweerd’s philosophy can also be used as a conceptual tool and provide guidance, especially in directing research into healthy directions.

Readers who have not read the Preface may find it helpful to do so here, because it outlines the chronology of my “adventures with Dooyeweerd’s philosophy” and how the value of Dooyeweerd was opened up.

Throughout my life as a reflective practitioner and as researcher, I have felt, rather than crisply identified, problems. I have learned that such feelings often do indicate real, but hidden, issues, and that Dooyeweerd’s philosophy in particular has helped me to crystallise them. It was the problem of diversity in fields, in both scholarship and practice, that initially led me to Dooyeweerd (see Preface). The first idea of his that I encountered was his suite of aspects, with which I could understand that diversity and see how it is meaningful as a symphonic harmony. I discovered that he allows us to approach research—and indeed everyday life—from a radically different perspective. For instance, Realism and Anti-realism, so long presumed to be in opposition, are but part of a more nuanced, diverse and yet cohering reality (see §6–1). Quantitative and qualitative research, so often separated, come together in Dooyeweerd (§6–3.4, §11–7).

This book recounts my adventures with Dooyeweerd’s philosophy in several fields of research, especially information systems and sustainability, along with adventures some others have had.

Of course, I am biased; each treasures their own pearls and those pearls might not appeal to others. However, I wish to bequeath the pearl of Dooyeweerd to those who might value it. Though I lay out the benefits that I and others have found Dooyeweerd’s philosophy can bring to research, this is not an apologia for it; Chapter 12 discusses criticisms of Dooyeweerd. I believe that Dooyeweerd’s philosophy can bring genuine and unique benefit to research. I also believe there are limitations, but that these cannot be found merely by philosophic criticism, but only by seriously applying his philosophy. So this book is not a critical discussion of the philosophy as such, but an invitation to try the ideas out, so that they will be tested within research. Only then can real critical evaluation of Dooyeweerd’s ideas begin.

Though Dooyeweerd’s ideas are introduced and discussed in the book, readers are invited to dwell in them for a time, to see what issues emerge. It will turn out that issues emerge that are often overlooked or seem peripheral whereas Dooyeweerd makes them central. Thus readers might find this book useful, not only for their research but also for their teaching and their research supervision.

Who for? Researchers in any field—mathematics, physics, biology, psychology, linguistics, languages, philosophy, sociology, organisational sciences, economics and management, the arts, jurisprudence, ethics, theology, and many more. Though perhaps unreasonable according to C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures, the modern idea of rationality-driven progress, or the postmodern questioning of grand narratives, I have found that Dooyeweerd offers basic understandings in each field, sufficient to be able to make sense within it and take an interest. Readers are assumed to know something about research but not necessarily philosophy.

This is not a book about philosophy as such, but what might be called “applied philosophy”. As such, it includes an explanation of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy that I hope will interest philosophical as well as scientific researchers. It may be seen as a handbook for researchers who wish to join the adventure.

• Part I shows the direction in which research with Dooyeweerd tends to head, respecting everyday pre-theoretical experience, diversity, coherence and meaningfulness, and it explains the historical context of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy.
• Part II discusses the core of research, theoretical thought. It examines Dooyeweerd’s transcendental critique of theoretical thought to draw out a deeper understanding of this than most philosophy offers, which, paradoxically, offers a very practical basis for understanding fields, discourses, paradigms, and ideas and can tackle thorny issues like progress.
• Part III furnishes researchers with practical tools and understanding to undertake research using Dooyeweerd. It recounts actual experience of using Dooyeweerd in research, by this author and others, which has surprised me by its extent.
• Part IV is a call to join the adventure with eyes wide open, so as to learn together what benefits Dooyeweerd might bring and where he is to be avoided.

1–2. Research

Research has been defined as “critical and exhaustive investigation or experimentation having for its aim the discovery of new facts and their correct interpretation” (Webster 1971, 1930) or “systematically finding out things thereby increasing our knowledge” (Saunders et al. 2012). Yet, in reality, research is beyond concise definition. Researchers have found a much wider range of things to be important; research is

multi-disciplinary; an attitude to reality; developing ideas in exciting ways; triggering new ideas; a service to humanity; or a selfish occupation; curiosity about reality; highly diverse; a chore; stimulating; a joy; a great responsibility; or shirking responsibility; creative; puzzle-solving; fascinating; a way of life; a discipline; finding out and making sense; route to theoretical understanding; theoretical analysis and synthesis; deconstruction; construction; projects; paper-writing; bid-writing; promotion of ideas; critical discourse; intellectual elitism; paradigm-shifts; a contributor to our bodies of knowledge; a mandate and calling; “Thinking God’s thoughts after him” (Kepler); or the way humanity controls the world; humanity’s ultimate freedom and dignity; the way to truth; or an irrelevant sham; making a name for ourselves; necessary path to an academic career; pleasing university management; a privileged occupation; robbing the world of resources; a great community; back-stabbing; collaboration; competitive self-interest; too much in silos; too often trivial; a job; a vision; a commitment; pressure; resilience and perseverance.

I do not agree with all those, yet all are meaningful as facets of research, and hence worthy of consideration in a book like this.

1–2.1 The Mandate of Research

Despite the intricate fluidity that is research, we need to at least understand something of its mandate, to differentiate it from other complex activities. Why is it good to research? During my research life, I have taken the core mandate for research to be to offer theoretical findings to contribute to humanity’s bodies of knowledge that enhance our understanding of the way reality works. So have many others.

What are bodies of knowledge? In this book they are taken to be collections of beliefs about the way reality works, which are general and on which it is reasonable to rely, which exhibit some kind of coherence, and which offer the potential of bringing good into the world. The terms used, and the reasons for them, are explained later.

The following example, from my field of information systems, will be used as a case study throughout this book, along with examples drawn from other fields.

Example: Davis’ (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an established part of the body of knowledge of the information systems field. TAM was devised in its initial form, from theories of behaviour (the existing bodies of knowledge), to predict the degree of usage of information technology packages (then, email; today, others). Davis interviewed users of email to measure degrees of perceived usefulness and ease of use, and with this data analysed certain hypotheses. After TAM was published, it was widely adopted. Many researchers used it to investigate usage of other information systems in other contexts, which widened the community’s understanding of factors that are relevant, so revised versions were produced, as well as a different model, which are more universally applicable. Now TAM and its variants are widely accepted as part of the body of knowledge about information systems. TAM represented a paradigm shift, because it brought together two factors that had previously been treated separately: usefulness and ease of use. Doing so brought this “good” into the world, that the importance of both together, which many had felt intuitively, was now explicitly established. Chapters 3 and 7 explain TAM more.

In this book, bodies of knowledge are viewed more widely than elsewhere, such as Romme’s (2016, 211) view of them as collections of “values, constructs, models, principles and instantiations”, or as institutions, professions and regulations. The view here raises research and bodies of knowledge above personal, institutional or even national concern. Good research has always been trans-national and trans-individual.

The emphasis on the “good” that bodies of knowledge can bring is intended to transcend Foucault’s (1977) idea that bodies of knowledge express, and are a means of, power and control. Two kinds of more general good (or corresponding harm) can inform our discussions: (a) in practice, by applying the theories, and (b) in academic life, by offering reliable theoretical foundations on which further research depends (e.g. axioms of mathematical theorems or sociological conceptual models).

Bodies of knowledge are amorphous, and their boundaries cannot be precisely identified; they include each other, relate to eac...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: To Help You Read This Book
• PART I
• PART II
• PART III
• PART IV
• References
• Index