The methodology is an instrument aimed at validating scientific research and this, in turn, is part of the type of knowledge called science. Hence the relevance of giving a reasoned perspective to this subject by addressing the problem of knowledge and the problem of science. Knowledge comes to us as a process and not as a single act where we go from ignorance to truth at once, in this sense, scientific knowledge is one of the possible modes of knowledge, perhaps the most developed to respond our questions from the study of verifiable facts.
Science increasingly tries to define as precisely as possible each of the concepts it uses. Through science, the revision and discussion of the different theories is achieved, allowing them to be improved or modified to make them increasingly objective, rational, systematic and general. The objective of this article is to present a summary of the basic aspects of the concept of knowledge as a science based on the analysis of Chapter I of the book "Process of Scientific Research" by Carlos Sabino (2002).
It also contemplates the analysis of the moments of the investigation of two investigations, one qualitative and the other quantitative.
1. Introduction
Human beings have accumulated knowledge about the environment in which they live from increasing their theoretical and practical knowledge to transform the surrounding reality. This set of knowledge, as well as the human activity aimed at achieving it, is what is called science. However, the concept of science cannot be applied to any type of knowledge, but only to the knowledge that has been obtained through a methodology, the scientific method, and meets certain conditions.
Knowledge can be understood as conscious and substantiated knowledge that we are able to communicate and discuss; and it is thus distinguished from vulgar knowledge which is simply remembered and which we cannot criticize. At present knowledge is considered to be a process, previously it was traditional philosophy conceived it as something static.
For this reason, what characterizes current science is not the claim to achieve true knowledge, but rather to obtain rigorous and verifiable knowledge. Science as such cannot claim the illusory goal that its answers are definitive, or even probable; because their progress is directed towards an infinite purpose: that of unceasingly discovering new, deeper, more general problems, and justifying our responses in this regard.
It is noteworthy that the importance of science is not only to group or master a set of knowledge that meets certain requirements, but also, is in the way they are obtained, that is, the scientific method, which is to observe those facts that allow the observer to discover the general laws that govern them and describe the process of scientific research.
The new contributions on the concept of scientific method suggest that there is no method that allows to prove that scientific theories are true, there is no method that allows to conclusively refute scientific ideas. In this sense, the scientific method for some authors would only be the special way of exposing a theory to the constant and sharp criticism of the researcher, that is, that this would only be valid if it resists the continuous effort of falsification. For other authors, science advances on the falsification of the statements that it formulates, that is, on the experimental corroboration of the hypotheses that are posed or of the results obtained.
The objective of this article is to present a summary of the basic aspects of the concept of knowledge as science from the analysis of Chapter I of the book "Process of Scientific Research" by Carlos Sabino (2002). It also includes in a second part, the analysis of the moments of the investigation of two investigations, one qualitative and the other quantitative.
2. Development
2.1 Knowledge as a Problem
The acquisition of the immense amount of knowledge of human beings occurs constantly and naturally in everyday life thanks to social interaction and the degree of particular effort to obtain it. This knowledge turns out to be of diverse particular and social value, depending on the level of reliability of the source and the effectiveness of obtaining it, since they may be incorrect or incomplete approaches or conclusions. In this sense, the interest or concern to discover or know the certainty or falsity of what is known or to know, means something complex and interesting that translates into a problem. The study of methodology then deals with these situations.
2.2 Knowledge as a Process
Since its existence it seems that man has always been concerned with understanding or unraveling his world, we do not know why this occurs nor is it a reason for reflection in this summary. Knowledge arises inextricably linked to the vital practice and work of men, as an irreplaceable instrument in their relationship with an environment that they tried to put at their service. However, man was also interested in knowing other things that were not instrumental knowledge, such as: the cosmos and life, however this process that can be called man's awareness, the same process, that made him Facing his own death and ended up causing him anguish about his own destiny in the face of the unknown.We will conclude with these ideas that knowledge comes to us as a process and not as a single act where we go from ignorance to truth at once.
2.3 Different types of Knowledge
Man has made different cultural creations that should not be underestimated and that have been gradual processes of the conformation of knowledge, first he created a mythical world, another magical, a religious one, to prefigure the philosophical one creating on the one hand a rational, practical or instrumental and emotional knowledge based on intuition and other non-rational elements. There are then two types of knowledge: that which comes to us naturally and that which is the product of an intention to know something in particular. It is not that we are going to put these two concepts to compete to conclude that one is better than the other, but that what we want to highlight is the opposite: that there are several equally legitimate approaches to the same object.
2.4 Scientific Knowledge and its Characteristics
Current science does not consist in obtaining rigorous and verifiable knowledge, which may or may not be definitive or probable answers about a certain fact. Its advance is directed towards an infinite purpose: that of unceasingly discovering new, deeper, more general problems, and justifying our answers in this regard. But it is interesting to note here that science must be seen as one of the activities that man performs, as a set of actions directed and directed towards a certain end, which is none other than to obtain verifiable knowledge about the facts that surround him.
The specific qualities of science that make it possible to distinguish them from everyday thought and from other forms of knowledge are those that we will mention below.
- First: objectivity, which means that we try to know something that agrees with the reality of the object that describes or explains it as it is and not as we would like it to be. Second: rationality, this is another important characteristic to define scientific activity and refers to the fact that science uses reason as a weapon to reach its results. Scientists work as much as possible with concepts, judgment and reasoning, and not with sensations, images or impressions. Third: systematicity, science is systematic, it is concerned with building coherently organized systems of ideas and including all impartial knowledge together, each broader.Generality: The scientific concern is not so much to deepen and complete the knowledge of a single individual object,but to make each partial knowledge serve as a bridge to reach a broader understanding, in this way it tries to reach the general and does not stop exclusively in the particular.
And finally fallibility, Science is one of the few man-made systems where the very possibility of mistake is explicitly recognized, of making mistakes in this awareness of its limitations is where its true capacity to self-correct and overcome itself, to detach itself from all the elaborations accepted when its falsity is verified. Thanks to this feature our knowledge is constantly renewed.
2.5 Classification of Sciences
Scientific activity tends to specialize for various reasons, each type of knowledge, better said with each type of problem, requires the use of specific methods and techniques, and the individual researcher cannot cover a very wide range of problems.
Hence the sciences that deal with ideal objects and in which they operate deductively like mathematics or logic are the so-called formal sciences. And the sciences that deal with the facts of the physical world in any of its manifestations are the factual sciences, here it includes physics, chemistry, biology and sociology. The sciences that treat human beings and their behavior are also factual, but they are located in the human sciences or culture sciences as a way of recognizing the specific and to distinguish it from the natural sciences. and applied sciences.
The pure sciences are those that propose to know the general laws of the phenomena studied and the applied sciences for their part are those that propose to solve specific problems. The division between pure and applied sciences is not to be understood as a rigid boundary of two opposite and unconnected fields.
2.6 Knowledge and method
If before we talked about the process as knowledge is obtained, now we have to examine how that process develops. First point: subject and object. The knowledge process is conceived as a complex relationship between two elements, the knowing subject and the object or part that you want to know. The subject is the person or team of people that acquires or elaborates knowledge, knowledge is always knowledge for someone, thought by someone, in someone's consciousness.
So there is no knowledge without a subject, but also knowledge is always knowledge of something, of something, whether it is an abstract-ideal entity, or a phenomenon of the same consciousness, in any case what is known is called object of knowledge.
2.7 Abstraction and Conceptualization
Knowledge is a conceptual representation of objects, it is an elaboration that occurs in the minds of men, it is an intellectual activity that always involves an operation of abstraction. Abstraction is learning the object of reality, distinguishing and decomposing it; and conceptualization would be to formally verbalize the elements that make up that object in the form of a synthesis.
2.8 Method and Methodology
Science is a particular and specific type of knowledge, but in order to achieve knowledge of a scientific nature, certain procedures must be followed, it is not possible to obtain rational, systematic and organized knowledge acting in any way, it is necessary to follow a method, a path that brings us closer to that certain goal, the scientific method is therefore the procedure or set of procedures that are used to obtain scientific knowledge, is called Methodology and covers the justification and discussion of its internal logic, the analysis of the various specific procedures that are used in research and discussion about their different characteristics.
With the methodology we can obtain verification and inference. Inference is deductive reasoning, that is, drawing consequences from a principle or assumption, and verification is when the phenomenon studied is verified in practice. This type of operational reasoning is called a deductive hypothetical model.
2.9 Scientific Research, the process and its moments.
Scientific research is the activity that allows us to obtain scientific knowledge, that is, objective, systematic, clear, organized and verifiable. Scientific research is carried out according to the general guidelines of the knowledge process (points already outlined above).
We attend to the approach of the subject and the object on the one hand, and to the verification of the elaborated theories confronting them with the data of the reality on the other. Four moments occur in the process. The first moment that is the one that the researcher uses to order and systematize his concerns, formulates his questions and elaborates the knowledge that constitutes the starting point of the research process, then reviews and assimilates what is already known regarding the problem that has already occurred. has been raised, it is the moment in which the delimitation or distinction between subject and object occurs since there the researcher is concerned with defining what he wants to know and with respect to what facts, it is the initial theory, so to speak, the theoretical model from which we start,What will have to be verified is the moment in which the basic knowledge of all inquiry is formulated and when rationality and logical coherence must be attended to.
The second moment the researcher sets his strategy before the facts that he will study the greatest concern during this phase is to develop reliable and possible investigation systems. The third moment, the technical moment, once the strategies have been chosen, we must look for the complete procedures to collect data and organize the information.
Finally, when the researcher has the data, a new phase opens with the purpose of carrying out a new theoretical elaboration based on the acquired data. He thus turns from facts to theory, from subject to object, closing the cycle of knowledge, although not definitively. This is the fourth moment, the moment of theory and synthesis.
The four moments:
MOMENT I….. MOMENT II….. MOMENT III….. MOMENT IV
… LOGICAL….. METHODOLOGICAL …… TECHNICAL …….. THEORETICAL
- The logical moment. This moment is also called projective moment and here, the researcher in the points: Introduction, approach and delimitation of the problem and objectives prefigures the entire investigation. The methodological moment. The researcher elaborates the verification systems and the theoretical-methodological strategies and the methods to be used. The technical moment. It mainly refers to the most appropriate techniques for collecting information, tabulation, coding and information processing. The theoretical moment. This refers to the preparation of conclusions, hypothesis testing and synthesis of the final report. The findings.
It is important to point out before concentrating on the analysis of the annexed investigations, that all these moments are located in different spaces of the final investigation report or the scientific article. And that represents a synthesis.
3. Conclusions
Knowledge turns out to be natural and daily, of different value and benefit. The interest to discover or know the certainty or falsity of what is known or to know, represents a problem to solve. The problem of knowledge has been a constant motivation of man to understand or unravel his world. That is why knowledge is defined as a process that comes to us naturally and as a product of an intention to know something in particular.
The set of actions aimed at and obtaining verifiable and rigorous knowledge is defined as science. Within this context, the knowledge process is conceived as a complex relationship between two elements, the knowing subject and the object or part that one wishes to know. This process arises from the abstraction and conceptualization of the object. Knowledge in order to be scientific must possess several distinctive qualities: it must be objective, rational, systematic, general and reliable. It must also have an open and dynamic character.
Throughout history, there have been different scientific disciplines to solve or group each type of problem by using specific methods and techniques that must be the domain of the researcher (sciences: human, factual, formal, social, cultural, philosophical, applied, pure, among others). These methods or procedures to obtain a rational, systematic and organized knowledge, that is, scientific, is known as the scientific method that allows verification and inference.
The methodology allows the justification and discussion of its internal logic, the analysis of the various specific procedures used in research, and the discussion about their different characteristics. Within the approach to the subject and the research object, and to the verification of the elaborated theories confronting them with the reality data by the other, four moments are presented in the process: scientific, projective, methodological and technical.
In the study and reasoning of knowledge as a science and the scientific method, it is very useful to approach a process of scientific research and for the integral training of the researcher.
Bibliography
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