Philosophy, from the Greek ‘love of wisdom’ is difficult to define since it does not possess a specific object of inquiry. In a broad sense, philosophy is concerned with fundamental problems that arise in every area of human thought and activity, and which cannot be resolved by a specific method. Thus, philosophy is an activity of human reasoning about problems that come up in the world of humans. If research is a study of a phenomenon with a view of understanding it, then there is a relationship between research and philosophy – they both seek to understand problems, but understanding alone is not enough; research acts after understanding to solve problems; thereby making the world a better place to live in.
The way in which research is conducted may be conceived of in terms of the research philosophy subscribed to, the research strategy employed and so the research instruments utilised (and perhaps developed) in the pursuit of a goal – the research objective(s) – and the quest for the solution of a problem – the research question.
In general, the key philosophies behind research include: positivism, post-positivism and pragmatism.
Positivism
Positivism refers to working with observable social reality and the outcome is always law-like generalizations, as is the case with physical or natural scientists. Positivism as an epistemology (a way of knowing how knowledge is derived and how it is to be validated) is based on the idea that science is the only way to learn about the truth. The positivist determines truth a priori (a Latin term meaning, ‘from what comes before’. And a priori proposition is one that is known to be true or false, without reference to experience). As a philosophy, positivism adheres to the view that only ‘factual’ knowledge gained through observation (the senses), including measurement, is trustworthy. This school of thought posits that the researcher is limited to data collection and interpretation in a subjective way; and that, research findings are usually observable and quantifiable. In the positivism paradigm, the researcher is independent of the study and there are no provisions for human interests within the study; he or she depends on facts to deduce results from the research. Positivism is applied mainly in Basic Science in which experiments are used to discern natural laws through direct manipulation and observation. So to the positivist, research is subjective; the findings must be subjected to natural laws and principles to make them valid. Positivism employs the Quantitative approach to research which is much more numbers-driven. The emphasis is on the collection of numerical data that can be studied and categorized into frequencies and described in percentages and other descriptive statistical methods such as mode and mean charts and graphs. The conclusion then makes inferences based on that data.
Post-Positivism
Postpositivists believe that a reality exists, but, unlike positivists, they believe reality can be known only imperfectly. Postpositivists also draw from social constructionism in forming their understanding and definition of reality. Post-positivists are constructivists who believe that we each construct our view of the world based on our perceptions. The epistemology of the post-positivist is that; truth can be known objectively by recognizing the possible effects of biases. The post-positivists postulate that theories, background knowledge and values of the researcher can influence what is observed. They are of the view that research is objective; the findings are open-ended because they could be influenced by a number of factors, including the biases of the researcher. Finding of research on a topic may differ from one researcher to the other because they see reality from different perspectives. Post-positivists use their thought in applied research. The post-positivist considers both quantitative and qualitative methods as valid approaches to research. The Qualitative research approach is descriptive in nature because it deals with non-numerical and unquantifiable things. The research might involve some numerical data in that the researcher would document the number of observations; however, the observations themselves would be descriptive of what the animals do.
Pragmatism
Pragmatism emphasizes utilizing both positivist and interpretivism philosophy and views both of them as a continuum rather than contradictions. Pragmatism is derived from the Greek word pragma, meaning action. Pragmatism is a deconstructive philosophy in which truth is not seen as an absolute but a moveable and usable construct for understanding the reality of nature. The pragmatists’ epistemology is that truth is ‘what works’ rather than what might be considered absolutely and objectively ‘true’ or ‘real’. The pragmatists hold the view that there are many different ways of interpreting the world and that in conducting research, no single point of view can ever give the entire picture because there may be multiple realities. In terms of research, the pragmatists integrate multiple approaches and strategies such as Qualitative, Quantitative and Action research methods within the same study. Action research is an approach applied in the Social Sciences. Action research goes through a cycle – planning, acting, observing, reflecting, planning and then reporting the findings.
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