This course began with
abstract discussions based on the works of Socrates and Kant. We reasoned
around what knowledge was, how we interpret it and where we gain knowledge
from. As we read Theaetetus, a dialogue between Socrates and Theaetetus where
they discuss three definitions of knowledge. Together with this dialogue and
Kant’s forms of intuition and faculties of knowledge we engaged in
philosophical discussions of knowledge acquirement for babies raised in
solitude to whether a pen that lies on a table is a pen or not and how that determination
varies depending on who makes the observation, when and how. The terms a
priori and posteriori were new to me and highly participant during the theme. They enabled for
interesting discussions when debating what knowledge we acquired a priori versus
posteriori. Even though we had learnt the distinction, it was still hard
to give any example of posteriori-knowledge that didn’t circle back to
being a priori. Through this theme, and mainly the seminar, I feel that I look upon
knowledge in a new way. I now reflect on what the knowledge I have and how I
received it. It had influence in the continuation of the course and will most
likely have influence in my future work.
During the second theme we
studied the dialectic of enlightenment and nominalism. In addition
to what we previously knew of the enlightenment as an epoch where people
began questioning religion in favor of science and that which was possible to
prove, we discussed enlightenment as a necessity to question everything we are
faced with; all the knowledge we perceive. Parallel to enlightenment we
discussed nominalism - a view in which the only thing objects have in common is the name by which
we call it. Here we used the analogy of Plato’s cave, where we are
exposed by the mindset that the world is only as we perceive it. The truth we
know is only the truth we have perceived, no matter what the world might be
like in reality. The reality that you perceive is the reality you present in.
And how we perceive the world varies of course between each individual. These
food-for-thought discussions enable us to become more aware of how to tackle
future problems; we must be critical to all that we face and acknowledge that
what might be claimed as truth does not necessarily apply to everyone. Choose
the approach that is optimal for your specific task.
Until now, near all that we
had been through was new to me. But as we went on to the third theme and learnt
what theory is, my initial feeling was that this theme processed an area
that I had previous experience within from writing all kinds of reports as well
as an overall understanding of theory from everyday life. Even so, I had
never before thought about the concept in that kind of depth as done during the
lecture and following seminar. It turned out that defining what theory is, is
not as black and white and certain as I had previously imagined. Trying to define
theory was no easy task even though I have worked with many different
theories in many various tasks and also daily life. Even though I feel that I
have an understanding and know how to use and apply theories it still turned
out to be hard to describe. I found this interesting and made the seminar
discussions more intriguing.
As we passed to the second
half of the course and began working with quantitative and qualitative
research methods I felt more familiar with what we were lectured on as well
as what we read in the articles. However, similarly to how I interpreted theory
when analyzing the concept further, I had a hard time seeing the clear distinction
between the two. This in spite of having conducted researches of both methods
before. The same applied for case studies. One insight I know will
follow me is the eye-opening for quantitative methods. The choice of method
obviously varies depending on what the research concerns but not until now have
I really grasped the strength and potential this methods holds. In addition,
combining the two, can often strengthen even more, certainly a piece of
knowledge I will bring with me for the future. Design research, is a
process that I felt confident about beforehand. And as we worked with theme 5,
it turned out to align quite well with my prerequisites. Through multiple
courses at KTH we have performed different types of design researches to
improve our further work which apparently has contributed to my understanding
of the method.
When I look back at what we
have done during this course and what we have learnt, I feel that even though
most themes regarded concepts I have previously worked in before, my
perspectives have broadened. New light has been shed, making my
understanding more versatile. In short, I can summarize my newly acquired
knowledge for optimizing a research process in a few steps: put effort
in defining your problem definition, it will help you on your project path;
analyze your definition and investigate what you aim to achieve, this in order
to determine what research method suits your project best. Combine methods if
necessary to ensure optimal results. Be critical of your work and try to view
the work from multiple angles to find flaws and weaknesses. Look for the best
one and be thorough. These and more will surely be of use in future work,
especially for the upcoming master’s thesis during next semester!
