Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

III. Methods and tools
the scientific repertoire in the 17th
Entering
observation and experimentation have
century,
the eighteenth and early nineteenth
Throughout
observation and experiment were understood
centuries,
work hand in hand: observation suggested conjectures
to
could be tested by experiment, which in turn gave
that
to new observations . . . . Observation discovered
rise
discerned; experiment tested and proved.
and
starting in the 1820s, prominent scientic writers
But
to oppose observation to experiment … . In
began
new scheme of things, experiment was active and
this
passive: whereas experiment demanded
observation
and ingenuity on the part of a creative researcher,
ideas
was reconceived as the mere registration
observation
stubborn and inaccurate claim that
The
is passive while experimentation
observation
active persisted for a very long time, but
is
was not always seen as the
experimentation
method. The relationship between
preferred
and experimentation turned a
observation
the concern about the influence of
Certainly,
on observation was not resolved in the
theory
As recently as 1950s, paleoanthropologist
1800s.
Leakey selected his young administrative
Louis
untrained in science, as the ideal
assistant,
to undertake an immersive study of
person
in the wild, the first of its kind. The
chimpanzees
woman possessed “a mind uncluttered
young
unbiased by theory” (Goodall 2000), with
and
she set out on a long-term research
which
in the Gombe Stream National Park
assignment
Tanzania. Her name was Jane Goodall, and her
in
work with primates revolutionized
pioneering
understanding of, and kinship with, other
our
This early part of Goodall’s prolific
animals.
is explored in the 2017 National Geographic
career
terms: National
Search
Jane movie
Geographic
long shared history. Historians of science
a
Daston and Elizabeth Lunbeck give us
Lorraine
assistants. The reasons for this shift . . .
untrained
complex, but prominent among them was the
were
that overly engaged scientists might contaminate
fear
with their own preferred theories. . . .
observation
program to deskill scientic observation was driven
[A]
anxieties about how more sophisticated researchers
by
be tempted … to ‘forge,’ ‘hoax,’ ‘trim,’ or ‘cook’ the
might
Although skilled, sophisticated observation was
data.
numerous mid-nineteenth-century scientists
praised,
that skill and sophistication might open the door
worried
Do you have different answers for
2.
disciplines? If so, why do you
different
looking at observation and
Before
in greater detail, let us
experimentation
the relationship between each of
consider
and theory. Can we separate theory
them
practice—that is, from observation and
from
As Daston and Lunbeck say
experimentation?
scientists have long been concerned
above,
“contaminating” their observations
about
theories, expectations and/or desires.
with
addition to this problem, there is the
In
of theorizing about non-observable
concern
As Box 7.8 shows, this raises a
phenomena.
7
III.1 Observation and experimentation
the following overview.
to subjectivity or even fraud.
(Daston, Lunbeck 2011)
of data, which could, some claimed, be safely left to
For ref lection
The relationship between
observation and experimentation
What would you say is the relationship
1.
observation and experimentation
between
number of times before the 19th century.
now?
think your answers vary?
documentary “Jane”, linked here.
few questions.
194