Research 201: A Basic Introduction
© Brian Brown 1999-2000. All rights
reserved.
The History of
Research
Our current mode of thinking is very much a product of
our past. The discoveries and theories of previous generations
have influenced us. Ancient peoples gazed at the stars with
wonderment. They also considered the earth was flat. Today, we look at the
stars with a yearning for adventure, and for all but the die-hard,
believe the images shown to us from space of a round planet is
true.
We have fundamental core beliefs and values. Some of these beliefs change with time, learning, and the exposure and assimilation of new ideas. Fifty years ago we thought the universe was stable and constant. Einstein has been proved wrong; it isn't stable. Discoveries are being constantly made. We are exploring our world and surroundings more than ever before than in our past history, and, to a very large extent, our "research ancestors" are responsible for this.
To create a framework of our past is not easy. There have been many great thinkers that have markedly changed the course of thinking and influenced thought for generations to come. Yet, there are some we can readily identify. To understand their influence, you must also understand the time in which they lived, for often, their ideas are a rebellion of the mainstream thoughts that persisted at that time.
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A stone cutter by trade, Socrates was a
Greek philosopher who lived around the 5th
century BC. His students included Plato
and Aristotle. His motto was
"know thyself". Roaming the markets, he engaged
in discourse by asking people questions of ethics and
virtue that provoked discussion. At the age of 70, he was convicted of atheism, treason and corruption of the young and forced to drink poison. Socrates turned our attention inward, away from the heavens towards ourselves, and to our relationships and responsibilities to other people. |
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Born into an Athenian household, Plato
engaged in poetry as a young man. He believed that the
formation of a noble character was to be before all else.
How we think and what we take to be real have an
important role in how we act. Plato came to believe that a philosophical comportment toward life would lead one to being just and, ultimately, happy. |
 Portrait of Aristotle Courtesy of Corbis-Bettmann. |
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher,
student of Socrates, and tutor to
Alexander the Great. He proposed the concept that the
earth was the centre of the universe and consisted of
four elements, earth, water, air and fire. The heavenly bodies were perfect and divine and made of a fifth element called ether. Aristotle held similar beliefs to Plato, but disagreed that it was impossible for people to achieve perfect happiness, as Plato wrote in "the theory of forms". Rather, Aristotle believed that some people could achieve perfect happiness. |
The Scientific
Revolution
For thousands of years, the view that the earth was
the centre of the universe and that the heavenly bodies were the
dwelling place of God remained relatively unchallenged. However,
as cities started to develop, with the beginnings of
industrialisation (which includes rapid means of transport) and
dissemination of written material, this centralist view began to
be challenged.
Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543)
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A Polish astronomer, Copernicus held the
view that the earth was not at the centre of the universe.
He proposed the heliocentric model that placed the sun at
the centre, and introduced the idea that all the planets,
including the earth, orbited the sun. This new model proposed by Copernicus could accurately predict the position of the planets. |
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Discovered laws associated with falling bodies (two objects will fall at the same speed), and helped establish the Copernican hypothesis as a valid scientific theory. Galileo devised a number of ingenious experiments to measure things |
| Galileo constructed his first telescope
in July of 1609, and confirming Copernicus's
view of the universe, directly challenged Aristotle's
idea of the universe (its centrality and perfection). The
Roman Catholic Church, which held sway over much of the
civilised world at that time, saw this as a threat and
denounced Galileo. Threatened with the rack at around 70
years of age, Galileo recanted his theories and lived the
remainder of his life under house arrest. Galileo showed that observation and careful measurement are important tools in reaching an understanding of the world around us. |
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Lord Chancellor of English, Bacon is
considered one of the founders of modern scientific
thinking. Bacon set forth the empirical
method, using experiments and drawing conclusions from
them. Inductive reasoning,
according to Bacon, played an important part in any
investigation. Bacon was responsible for the King James version of the Bible. |
The word "empirical" is derived from the Greek word for "experience". It is concerned with that which can be measured or observed.
Inductive reasoning means looking at what some items have in common, then generalising that commonality to other items (extrapolating a general principle from a limited set of data). If it is true of A and B and C, then it could be true of D (please see the reference sites listed, as it has a good example of inductive reasoning using colours). Because the people you have met from Dunedin so far have tended to be of Scottish descent, you might say, "everyone from Dunedin is Scottish". You have constructed a general principle from a selected few cases. It is also not logically valid.
Renes Descartes (1596-1650)
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A French mathematician, philosopher and
anatomist, Descartes is considered the founder of modern
philosophy. He is famous for the rational and deductive approach. At the
age of 23, he experienced an illuminating vision, and
believed in the certainty of scientific knowledge. The key to understanding was mathematics, and he founded the field of analytic geometry. he also wrote on the difference between man and animals, much of which still today influences the field of artifical intelligence. |
One main theme is that of radical doubt. For Descartes, one must doubt everything except ones own existence. He is famous for the saying "Cogito, ergo sum" - "I think, therefor I exist". The essence of human nature lies in thought, and knowledge is achieved through intuition and deduction. Using the analytical approach, Descartes suggested breaking a problem into smaller pieces and then arranging those pieces in a logical order. With this approach, one could begin to understand the world around us. This is a systems approach to research, based on the presumption that "the sum of the parts is the whole".
Descartes mode of thinking is called Cartesian. This proposes a basic division between mind and matter. "There has to be a rational explanation for this!"
Deductive reasoning assumes that a specific case is true (an item has a particular property) because it is part of a generally accepted principle that is widely accepted as true (extrapolating a specific instance from a general principle). Deductive reasoning is logically valid. For example, if it was widely accepted principle that people drive on the left-hand side of the road in New Zealand, you could deduce that a particular driver drove on the same side of the road as the general population. You have constructed a specific case from a general principle.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
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Born in the year of Galileo's
death, this English scientist and mathematician is
responsible for developing the idea that the universe is
one huge mechanical system. To explain the motion of
bodies, Newton developed differential calculus. He used
this to derive the orbit the moon as around 27 days, but
was so concerned about others stealing his new brand of
mathematics, that he rewrote the proof in the
conventional mathematics of the time. Around 1665/66, Newton was struck on the head by an apple, an event that has been attributed to help him to develop the theory of gravity. |
Newton firmly dispelled the earlier views of the world, and his mechanistic model of the universe shattered the views espoused by the church. Newton also investigated the properties of colour using prisms.
Jean Bapiste
Lamarck (1744-1829)
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Jean Bapiste Lamarck proposed that all-living beings evolved from earlier simpler forms. A French naturalist, Lamarck founded modern invertebrate zoology by classifying the invertebrates. He claimed that man was a class of animal, and that animals passed on acquired characteristics to their offspring. |
Lamarck's theory is the beginning of the theory of evolution. Darwin later suggested that the passing of characteristics from one generation to another occur by the process of adaptation and natural selection. We now know genes (DNA) control this.