Research: Theory, Method, Practice

1
Research Theory, Method, Practice Stefan
Arnborg, KTH
2
Courses FD3001 7.5hpDA2205 3hp of 7.5
Examination Presence on lectures with external
lecturerHomework 2 papers
DA2205 2 from list FDD3001
2 from list, except 1 and 21 Self-presentation 2
Press Release 3 Grant Application4 Paper
Analysis5 Fraud Investigation6 Proposal
Review 7 Media Event 8 Self presentation and
press release 9 Elective (must be approved by me)
3
Norms of Academic Science Merton 1942

• C communism (or communitarianism)
• U universality universal knowledge
• D disinterestedness no personal stakes(except
  honour)
• O originality NEW knowledge
• S scepticism try to falsify
• Mertons context relation between power and
  scientist in dictatorships (Hitler, Stalin).
  Border between society and science demarcated.

4
Post-Academic Science Ziman 2000

• P proprietarian ( IP, business opportunity)
• L local related to local network of stakeholders
• A authoritarian hierarchical control
• C commissioned (researcher is consultant)
• E expert role is problem-solver
• Zimans context Universities are like any
  corporations, and output directly economically
  measurable. Globalization
• Etzkowitz Triple Helix Academy/Region/Industry

5
CUDOS, PLACE, or both?
Fuller(2000) criticized the idea that an ancient
CUDOS system was recently replaced by Mode 2 or
PLACE or triple helix, since the two sets of
norms have (almost) always co-existed, as they
dotoday with occasional outburst of activity to
change the balance. EXAMPLE Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute,now Fraunhofer Institute.
6
What is Truth?

• Plato Rationalistic, Cave simile, observations
  unreliable. Cf Meno.
• Aristotle Deductive truth What follows from
  true assumptions is true. Whats opposite can be
  deductively refuted is true. (cf proof by
  contradiction, statistical hypothesis tests)
  Aristotle Inductive truth What regularly
  obtains is true (cf statistical inference)
• Peirce What a community of scholars eventually
  agrees upon is Truth.
• Latour Something is True if it cannot be
  resisted, tied into a network of irresistible
  microsociological relations between humans, ideas
  and material artefacts.(ANT)

7
Progress of Science

• Accumulation of observations, experiments and
  theories (Francis Bacon, Comté). Naive
  positivism.
• Theories are prior to observations, the latter
  Confirm (Carnap) or Falsify (Popper) theories.
  Logical Positivism
• Scientific progress is revolutionary (Kuhn,
  Feyerabend). Paradigms, or ANYTHING GOES.

8
Kuhn Paradigms in Science

• Normal Science Exemplar to take after,filling
  in gaps, goldplating
• Anomalies Try to explain anomalies by
  interpretation of experiments and observations.
  No rejection of theory
• Crisis Anomalies are serious enough to reject
  theory and force a new PARADIGM.
• Typically, a new paradigm is not universally but
  only gradually accepted.

9
Feyerabend - Against Method
Science is an essentially anarchistic
enterprise The only principle that does not
inhibit progress is ANYTHING GOES Hypotheses
contradicting well-confirmed theories give us
evidence that cannot be obtained in other
ways If there is a driving force in science, it
is aesthetics.
10
Hawthorne and Placebo

• Clients of Healers Homeopathists, subjects in
  the no-intervention group can also see
  positive changes
• Is this pseudoscience?(Kathy Sykes TV
  programmes)
• Brains reward system releasessignal substances
  that have thesame type of effect as drugs?

11
Paradigm shifts in mathematics?

• Environment Computer and Biology challenge.
  Internalized.
• Scientific Computing, SIMULATION
• Stochastic computations (MCMC)
• Neural and bioinspired computation?

12
This book argues that conceptual metaphor plays
a central, defining role in mathematical ideas
within the cognitive unconscious- from
arithmetic and algebra to sets and logic to
infinity in all of its forms transfinite
numbers, points at infinity, infinitesimals,
and so on.
13
Is Praxiteles work already in the marble? NO
Structure of Science (and Truth) is the outcome
of a practice Which claims can be
resisted? Which can be made? Which allies can be
brought in?Which links resist? Scientific truth
defined in centers of calculationand verified
in galleries of a community of
practiceextending through societyas an actor
network Callon, Latour ca 1985
14
Lyotard

• The post-modern condition Commissioned work for
  Montreal Education authority - prophetic
• Fight against concept of Grand Narrative as
  opposed to complex web of micro-narratives

15
Goals in Research, sketch

• Humanities Understanding Phenomena
• Social Sciences Improve society
• Natural Science Predict outcome of experiments
• Mathematics 1Solve problems - prove
  theorems2Create Landscape in which theorems can
  be defined and proved.

16
Qualitative Research

• Margaret Mead Best known (to American public)
  scientist before Einstein
• Coming of Age in Samoa, 1925 - controversies
  settled or not?
• Immersion, constructing

17
Three Inconvenient Germans

• Karl Marx (1818-1883) Class, Organization of
  Production, RevolutionFounder of latest state
  religions
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Aesthetics
  revolutionized, existentialist and post-modernity
  icon
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1938), discoverer of the
  unconscious

18
Why Greek science??

• Well studied and documented
• Greek classicism shapes our way of seeing the
  world.
• Greek society cruel Slaves, Wars,
  Racism,Oppression of women(i.e., like Europe)

19



Thales -585



Anaximander 611-547



Anaximenes -502


Pythagoras
570-508 Parmenides
510-



Zenon 488- Empedokles 450


Herakleitos
540-480


Anaxagoras 500-428 Herodotos 425


Protagoras 420


Demokritos 460-370


Sokrates 469-399, Antisthenes


Platon 428-348


Aristarkos


Aristoteles
384-322 Arkimedes -300
E


Euklides



Appolonius



Epikureos 342-270 Selevkos


Epiktetus 50-125
Poseidonius 100 Hipparkos
20
Theory of Evolution

• First account by Anaximandros, including sketch
  of natural selection
• Based on mechanistic view, not Intelligent Design
• Restated by Empedocles
• Rejected by Aristotle as implausible.Teleological
  explanation. Important paradim shift (in wrong
  direction).

21
Modern theory of Evolution

• Based on careful collection of supporting
  observations (many of which can also be found in
  Aristotle Parts of animals)
• Refutable by age of earth (Kelvin could not know
  about heating by radioactivity ) and lack of
  understanding of genetics (Mendels work had been
  unnoticed)
• Still considered somewhat daring, but (almost)
  only remaining hypothesis.

22
Greek Astronomy

• Relied on Eastern knowledge (Persia, India,)
• Predict eclipses (Thales, 585 BC)
• Sizes of earth, moon, the zodiac to within 1
• Size of sun Aristarkos 180 times earth
  -gtHeliocentrism as a plausible model
• Poseidonius (teacher of Cicero)Size of sun 6000
  times earth (50 low)Explanation of tidal water
  (sun, moon) -made possible tidal water tables

23
Greek Astronomy

• Relied on Eastern knowledge (Persia, India,)
• Predict eclipses (Thales, 585 BC)
• Sizes of earth, moon, the zodiac to within 1
• Size of sun Aristarkos 180 times earth
  -gtHeliocentrism as a plausible model
• Poseidonius (teacher of Cicero)Size of sun 6000
  times earth (50 low)Explanation of tidal water
  (sun, moon) -made possible tidal water tables

24
Astronomy

• Aristotle Hipparkus and Ptolemai geocentrists
• Appolonius Defined both conic sections andthe
  epicycle system. and in the west?
• Copernicus Sun might be the center because of
  its majestic appearance?
• However, predictions based on heliocentrism
  inferior
• It took more than 100 years before Kepler saved
  the heliocentric view by using Appolonius conic
  sections instead of his epicycles.If the
  heliocentricists had followed a scientific
  method, they should have rejected their
  hypothesis.

25
Tycho Brahes system

• The moon and sun circle around earth, but planets
  around the sun
• Absence of stellar parallax indicates geocentrism
• Also convenientand safe wrt church

26
Atomism

• Not unique for Greek philosophers
• Democrit, Leukippos, from observations of life
  cycles and chemical processes
• Epikuros combined it with an ethics of no
  after-life, explicated in one of the great
  antique works of literature, Lucretius De Rerum
  Natura, On the Order of Nature.

27
The Dark ages

• Greek science and literature survived in the
  Byzantine and Muslim worlds
• Applied to rational analysis of theological
  problems (Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina, Ibn Khaldun)
• Grinding halt after destruction of Baghdad (1258)
  and conquest of Constantinople (1453)
• Translated to Latin from Greek and Arabic (Plato,
  Aristotle)
• Aristotle surpasses Plato as the
  Philosopher,treated as semi-god rather than
  human.
• Scholasticism - fascinating, but not in line with
  course

28
Islamic Science

• The first islamic law schools (ca 800) developed
  the academic degree system and CV concept
  (Doctors degree, promotion and hat) which were
  taken over by Bologna and Padua, and still exist

29
Islamic Scholars

• Ibn Sina (Avicenna), ca 1000, practice based
  medicine (antibiotics, vaccines (inoculation).
• Ibn Rushd (Averroes), ca 1200, precursor of
  scholasticism, mixing axioms in the form of
  Quran statements with observations, deriving new
  truth by syllogism. Saved Aristotle.

30
Ibn Khaldun (ca 1360)Muqqadimah

• Politician, social scientist, historian,
  economist.
• First statements of market theory, importance of
  stable institutions, property right, stable
  currency
• First scientific Marxist (without political
  program) Power and wealth distribution depends
  on how production is organized
• Anyone can have ideas, but only through words
  and language can you convince

31
Newton, (1642-1727)
1665 - Alchemy 1666 - Calculus 1667 - Fellow,
Trinity College1669 - professor 1682-4
Principia1689 - Parlamentarian1692 -
Opticks 1696 - Royal Mint 1703 - Royal
Society1733 - Daniel and Apocalypse First
modern or last ancient??
32
(No Transcript)
33

• Cambridge Wranglers
• Created the math you studied
• Green, Stokes, Macauly, Routh Maxwell, Larmor,
  Cunningham, Dirac
• Competitive math examination aimed at ranking
  candidates for fellowships --
• Appointments for life with no particular duties
  -- often awarded at age 20-25