COMM 88 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Platonic Idealism, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Communication Studies
Comm 88 Lecture 2
April 5, 2018
Ways of Knowing
•Epistemology - the study of knowledge
•Some “truths” - how do you know?
•Vegetables are good for you
•People who are similar to each other tend to like each other
•Some “everyday” ways of knowing (& their problems)
•Method of tradition/tenacity
•Method of authority
•Problem with both: authorities and handed-down truths can be WRONG
•Method of observation
•Surface-level version: personal experience
•More rigorous version: “Baconian empiricism”
•Problem: inaccurate observation, selective observation, overgeneralization
•Method of intuition/logic
•Surface-level version: common sense
•More rigorous version: “Platonic idealism”
•Problems: incorrect premises, illogical reasoning
•Which do YOU tend to rely on?
•Ex: expired milk, date - authority, smell, taste - observation
•Everyday ways of knowing can even lead to conflicting ideas about “truth”
•Ex: long-distance relationships
•“Absence makes the heart grow fonder” OR “Out of sight, out of mind”
The Scientific Method
•Combines “platonic idealism” with “baconian empiricism”
•Logic/intuition → constructing theories
•Observation → gathering data
•Communication science: use empirical observations to test theories about comm processes
Unique Characteristics of Science
•How is “science” different from the other “everyday” ways of knowing?
•Scientific research is public
•Published in peer reviewed journals
•Opportunity to replicate studies
•Science is empirically rigorous
•Conscious, deliberate observations
•Many observations
•Science is “objective
•Control/remove personal biases
•Explicit rules, standards, and procedures
