Foundations and Practice of Research

Andrew Basden is Professor of Human Factors and Philosophy in Information Systems at the University of Salford, UK. He has been active in research for 40 of the past 50 years, informed by 12 years of professional practice.

• List of Tables List of Figures PrefaceAcknowledgementsChapter 1. Introduction1-1. ADVENTURES WITH DOOYEWEERD'S PHILOSOPHY1-2. RESEARCH1-2.1 The Mandate of Research1-2.2 Clarifying Concepts Used in This Book1-2.3 Some Requirements for Research1-2.4 Research Content, Activity and Application1-2.5 Range of Fields1-3. PRACTICE1-4. FOUNDATIONS1-4.1 Foundations of Research1-4.2 Philosophy1-4.3 Dooyeweerd and Philosophy1-4.4 Resources1-5. GUIDE FOR READERS1-5.1 The Structure of the Book1-5.2 Some Tips on ReadingPART IChapter 2. Research and Everyday Experience2-1. SOME PRELIMINARIES2-1.1 Differences Between Research and Everyday Experience2-1.2 Relationships Between Research and Everyday Experience2-2. THE RESEARCHER-WORLD RELATIONSHIPS: DETACHED OR PARTICIPANT OBSERVER?2-2.1 Is Detached Observer Possible?2-2.2 Is Detached Observer Desirable?2-2.3 Dooyeweerd's View of the Researcher-World Relationship2-3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORETICAL AND PRE-THEORETICAL THINKING2-3.1 Is Neutral Theoretical Thinking Desirable?2-3.2 Is Neutral Theoretical Thinking Possible?2-3.3 Dooyeweerd's View of Theoretical and Pre-theoretical Thinking2-4. THE VALUE OF THEORETICAL AND PRE-THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE2-5. UNDERSTANDING EVERYDAY, PRE-THEORETICAL EXPERIENCE2-5.1 Interest in Everyday Experience2-5.2 Appealing to Everyday Experience2-5.3 Starting with Everyday Experience2-6. EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE AND RESEARCH2-6.1 The Everyday Experience of Applying Research2-6.2 Research Activity as Everyday Experience2-6.3 Everyday Experience in Research Content2-7. CONCLUSIONSChapter 3. Diversity and Coherence3-1. A PHILOSOPHICAL LOOK AT DIVERSITY AND COHERENCE3-2. DOOYEWEERD'S ASPECTS3-2.1 An Initial Look At Diversity3-2.2 Aspects as Modes3-2.3 Irreducibility of Aspects3-2.4 Inter-aspect Coherence3-2.4.1 Aspectual simultaneity3-2.4.2 No conflict among aspects3-2.4.3 Inter-aspect analogy3-2.4.4 Inter-aspect dependency3-2.4.5 The Order of Aspects3-3. DIVERSITY AND COHERENCE OF RESEARCH ACTIVITY3-4. DIVERSITY AND COHERENCE OF RESEARCH APPLICATION3-5. DIVERSITY AND COHERENCE IN RESEARCH CONTENT (THEORIES)3-5.1 Diversity and Coherence of Research Fields3-5.2 Diversity and Coherence of Data Collected in Research3-5.3 Diversity and Coherence Within Concepts3-5.4 Diversity and Coherence in Research Findings / Theories3-6. CONCLUSIONChapter 4. Meaning in Research and Reality, and an Overview of Dooyeweerd's Understanding of Reality4-1. PRELIMINARIES4-2. TREATMENT OF MEANING IN PHILOSOPHY4-3. MEANINGFULNESS AS THE FOUNDATION FOR ONTOLOGY, EPISTEMOLOGY AND AXIOLOGY4-3.1 Diversity and Coherence of Meaning4-3.2 Aspects: Spheres of Meaningfulness4-3.3 Meaningfulness as the Ground of Being4-3.4 Types and Identity4-3.5 Structural Relationships4-3.6 Meaning and Rationality4-3.7 Meaning, Value and Good4-3.8 Law, Functioning and Repercussion4-3.8.1 Law: the possibility of functioning and repercussion4-3.8.2 Multi-aspectual functioning4-3.8.3 Society, progress and meaningfulness4-3.8.4 Meaningful properties and functional relationships4-3.9 Subject and Object in Terms of Meaningfulness and Law4-3.10 Prior Meaningfulness and the Metaphor of Ocean4-3.11 Towards a Model of Meaning4-3.11.1 The proposed model4-3.11.2 Application to philosophy4-3.12 Meaningfulness and Knowing the World4-3.13 Knowing Meaningfulness Itself: Delineating the Aspects4-3.14 Meaning, Time and Self4-4. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE FOR RESEARCH4-4.1 Meaningfulness and Research Application4-4.2. Meaningfulness and Research Activity4-4.3 Meaning and Research Content4-5. CONCLUSIONChapter 5. Research and Philosophy5-1. ROLES OF PHILOSOPHY IN RESEARCH5-1.1 Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology5-1.2 Philosophy as Approach5-1.3 Philosophy as Foundation5-1.4 Philosophy as Source of Conceptual Tools and Methods5-2. LEVELS OF PRESUPPOSITION5-2.1 Worldviews5-2.2 Ground-motives5-2.3 Ground-motives as Presuppositions not Truths5-2.4 Differences Between Dialectical and Pluralist Ground-motives5-3. STANDPOINTS5-3.1 Problems Resulting from the Immanence Standpoint5-3.2 Alternative Standpoints5-3.3 Towards a Different Standpoint5-4. THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOOYEWEERD'S PHILOSOPHY5-4.1 Struggles with the Immanence Standpoint5-4.2 Seeking a "Christian" Philosophy5-4.3 Fresh Insights for Research5-5. CROSSING RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY BOUNDARIES5-6. CONCLUSIONPART IIChapter 6. On Theoretical Knowledge and Research6-1. THE CHALLENGE OF TRUTH6-1.1 Realism and Anti-Realism: Is There Generic Truth?6-1.2 About Truth6-1.3 Dooyeweerd's Critique of Truth6-2. ON THE NON-NEUTRALITY OF THEORETICAL THOUGHT6-2.1 Dooyeweerd's Immanent Critique of Theoretical Thought6-2.2 Dooyeweerd's Transcendental Critiques of Theoretical Thought6-3. DOOYEWEERD'S SECOND TRANSCENDENTAL CRITIQUE OF THEORETICAL THOUGHT6-3.1 Preparing to Understand the Transcendental Problems6-3.2 The Starting Question6-3.3 First Transcendental Problem (TP1), Abstraction: Thinker and Diversity of World6-3.4 Second Transcendental Problem (TP2), Reuniting That Which Was Set Asunder: Rationalities and Responsibility6-3.5 Third Transcendental Problem (TP3), Grounds of Critical Self-Reflection: Origin of Meaning6-3.6 Ground-motives as Origins of Meaning6-3.7 Summary6-4. DOOYEWEERD'S PERSPECTIVE ON TRUTH6-5. CONCLUSIONChapter 7. Ground-Ideas: How Philosophies Work7-1. DOOYEWEERD'S NOTION OF THREE-PART GROUND-IDEA7-1.1 Ground-Ideas of Philosophy: A Tool for LACE7-1.2 Diversity of World7-1.2.1 Data from the world7-1.2.2 On sources of data7-1.2.3 Secondary data and use of instruments7-1.3 Coherence of Rationalities7-1.4 Wider Meaningfulness and Origin of Meaning7-1.5 Ground-Idea Analysis: Example from Sociolinguistics7-1.6 Reflection7-2. ON PROGRESS AND ADVANCE IN KNOWLEDGE7-2.1 Clarification Offered by the Notion of Ground-Idea7-2.2 Accounts of Dialectic7-3. GROUND-IDEAS A BASIS FOR DIALOGUE7-3.1 An Example: Positivist, Interpretivist and Socio-critical Approaches7-3.2 Reflection7-4. APPLICATIONS OF GROUND-IDEAS IN RESEARCH PROJECTS7-4.1 Ground-Ideas as Research Philosophy7-4.2 On Bias in Research7-5. CONCLUSIONChapter 8. Fields of Research8-1. UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH FIELDS AND DISCIPLINES8-1.1 Some Approaches8-1.2 Fields as Centred on Aspects8-1.3 Secondary Aspects8-1.4 Wider Meaningfulness: Applications and Interdisciplinary Research8-1.5 Conclusions About Fields8-2. ON PARADIGMS8-2.1 The Idea of Paradigm8-2.2 A Dooyeweerdian View: Paradigms as Meaningfulness8-2.3 An Example: Linguistics and Sociolinguistics8-3. CONCEPTS AND IDEAS IN A FIELD8-4. CONCLUSIONPART IIIChapter 9. Dooyeweerd's Suite of Aspects9-1. DESCRIPTION OF EACH ASPECT9-1.1 The Quantitative Aspect9-1.2 The Spatial Aspect9-1.3 The Kinematic Aspect9-1.4 The Physical Aspect9-1.5 The Organic / Biotic Aspect9-1.6 The Psychic / Sensitive Aspect9-1.7 The Analytical Aspect9-1.8 The Formative Aspect9-1.9 The Lingual Aspect9-1.10 The Social Aspect9-1.11 The Economic Aspect9-1.12 The Aesthetic Aspect9-1.13 The Juridical Aspect9-1.14 The Ethical Aspect9-1.15 The Pistic Aspect9-2. GROUPING THE ASPECTS?9-3. COMPARISON WITH OTHER SUITES9-4. ON TRUSTING DOOYEWEERD'S SUITE9-5. CONCLUSIONChapter 10. The Complex Activity of Research10-1. OVERALL APPROACH: "LACE"10-1.1 The Elements of LACE10-1.2 Example of LACE with Information Systems Approaches10-1.3 Examples of LACE with Foundations of Information Systems10-2. RESEARCH AS MULTI-ASPECTUAL FUNCTIONING10-3. THE MORE VISIBLE ASPECTS OF RESEARCH ACTIVITY10-4. SOME LESS-OBVIOUS ASPECTS OF RESEARCH ACTIVITY10-4.1 Less-obvious Pistic Functioning in Research10-4.2 Less-obvious Ethical Aspects in the Activity of Research10-4.3 Less-obvious Juridical Functioning in Research10-4.4 Less-obvious Aesthetic Functioning in the Activity of Research10-4.5 Less-obvious Economic Functioning in Research10-4.6 Less-obvious Social Functioning in Research10-4.7 Less-obvious Lingual, Formative and Analytic Functioning in Research10-4.8 The Early Aspectual Functioning in Research10-5. A CASE STUDY: ACTIVITIES IN A KNOWLEDGE PROJECT10-6. CONCLUSIONSCHAPTER 11. Experience of Research Using Dooyeweerd11-1. STAGES OF RESEARCH USING DOOYEWEERD11-2. UNDERSTANDING THE DISCOURSES AND LITERATURE OF A FIELD WITH DOOYEWEERD11-2.1 Methods Involving Ground-motives11-2.2 Joneidy's Analysis of Seminal Papers11-2.3 Understanding Collections of Papers11-2.4 More Complex Inter-Discourse Analysis11-2.4.1 Breems' study11-2.4.2 Basden's study11-2.4.3 Reflection on heatmaps11-3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS: DOOYEWEERDIAN ADVENTURES AMONG PARADIGMS11-3.1 Critique of Paradigms in Statistics11-3.2 Paradigms and Frameworks in Systems Thinking11-3.3 A Multi-aspectual Paradigm in Sustainability11-3.4 A New Paradigm of the State and Civil Society11-3.5 New Paradigm in Knowledge Management and Tacit Knowledge11-3.6 New Paradigms and Frameworks in the Information Systems Field11-3.6.1 ISD: Information systems development, including programming11-3.6.2 IT features11-3.6.3 IT/IS use11-3.6.4 IT and society11-3.6.5 Nature of information and computers11-3.7 Broadening Paradigms in Engineering11-3.8 Reflection11-4. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS: CLARIFYING CONCEPTS AND IDEAS11-4.1 Understanding a 'Simple' Concept: Diagrams11-4.2 Exploring a More Complex Concept: Idolatry11-4.3 Multi-aspectual Concepts: Information, Documents11-4.4 Complex Notions Inforporating Antecipations and Retrocipations11-4.5 Contributing Ideas to Philosophy11-5. USING DOOYEWEERD TO DISCUSS RESEARCH METHODS11-6. DATA COLLECTION WITH DOOYEWEERD11-6.1 Using Aspects to Design Questionnaires11-6.2 MAKE: Multi-aspectual Knowledge Elicitation11-6.3 MAIT: Multi-aspectual Interview Technique11-6.4 Practical Reflections on MAKE and MAIT11-6.5 Philosophical Reflections on MAKE and MAIT11-6.6 Eliciting Detailed Expertise11-7. USING DOOYEWEERD IN DATA ANALYSIS11-7.1 Simple Aspectual Analysis11-7.2 Finding Hidden Meanings: What Motivated Seminal Papers11-7.2.1 The method11-7.2.2 Results11-7.2.3 Challenges11-7.3 Researching Everyday Down-to-earth Issues11-7.3.1 The first study11-7.3.2 The second and third studies11-7.3.3 Quantitative and qualitative analyses11-7.3.4 Comparative analyses11-7.3.5 The value of extra, volunteered information11-7.3.6 The literature versus everyday experience11-7.3.7 Reflection on aspectual analysis of down-to-earth issues11-7.4 Complex Quantitative Comparisons11-7.5 Complex Qualitative Comparisons11-7.6 Overview11-8. EXTENDING THESE IDEAS: NEW ADVENTURES AWAITED11-8.1 Using Dooyeweerd at Beginning and End of Research11-8.2 Using Dooyeweerd in Observation11-8.3 Using Dooyeweerd in Natural and Mathematical Sciences11-9. CONCLUSIONPART IVCHAPTER 12. Criticisms of Dooyeweerd12-1. CRITICISMS OF DOOYEWEERD'S IDEAS12-1.1 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's Approach to Everyday Experience12-1.2 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's View of Non-Neutrality or Non-Autonomy of Theoretical Thought12-1.3 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's Approach to Diversity and Coherence12-1.4 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's Idea of Meaning(fulness)12-1.5 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's Notion of Being as Meaningfulness12-1.6 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's idea of Good and Evil12-1.7 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's idea of Aspectual Functioning12-1.8 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's View of History and Progress12-1.9 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's View of Ground-motives12-1.10 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's Idea of the Immanence Standpoint12-1.11 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's Transcendental Critiques of Theoretical Thought12-1.12 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's idea of Antithesis between Christian and Non-Christian Thought12-1.13 Critiques of Dooyeweerd's Aspects12-2. REFLECTIONChapter 13. Summary and Conclusions13-1. SUMMARY OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO RESEARCH13-1.1 Overall Benefits13-1.2 Contributions to Research Content13-1.3 Contributions to Research Activity13-1.4 Contributions to Research Application13-2. THE CHANGING WORLD OF RESEARCH13-3. COVERAGE OF DOOYEWEERD'S PHILOSOPHY13-4. THE ADVENTURE IS JUST BEGINNINGReferencesIndex

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