Before this seminar I read the articles and interpreted them. I also went through different examples of journals in order to find a relevant research paper for this theme. After the lecture and the seminar I feel that I have got a clearer picture of different terms that are essential when doing research and writing a report.
Among what I feel like I have learnt there is the term hypothesis. During our seminar we held discussions about this term both in a smaller group and then went over our thoughts all together.
The main question was, what is it that sets a theory and a hypothesis apart? We discussed how theory and hypothesis are not the same. To know the difference the conclusion was that a hypothesis helps answer the question at hand. However it is not a question in itself.
Theory on the other hand was not as easily explained. After reading, having written my first seminar post for this theme and attending the lecture and seminar I thought that maybe the term theory would become more of a clear concept. I have realised that it is difficult to pin point or to give a short and precise summary of theory in one single sentence. However I found it easier to understand theory in terms of that it is what means to give an explanation of the information on, and/or hypothesis that we have about, for example a certain phenomenon or object. It is not solely equal to one of the terms that often are presented in a research paper such as method, analysis etc.
Instead these terms can help form a theory and make it seem reasonable. For example data can give a theory examples of situations it is applicable to. However this I believe would mean the perception of theory as “scientific theory” which was presented during the lecture. However this was the definition that made it easier for me to grasp what theory could mean.
To end this blog post:
I think that other keywords for our seminar was paradigm and paradigm shift. The reason being that theory was mentioned not to be equal to the truth.
Theory can be considered to lead to knowledge, albeit not an everlasting knowledge per se. When new theories are presented, and if the argumentation for them being more accurate than old theories seems the most convincing, the new theories will replace the old ones.
An example of a paradigm shift that took place could be when Copernicus developed a new concept about how the Sun stands in the centre of the universe instead of the Earth.
Hej,
SvaraRaderaYour understanding of hypothesis as "answering a question at hand" is probably right for a lot of hypotheses. But what if I came up with a hypothesis about something new that does not need to be answered - couldn't that be a hypothesis, as well?
I actually had the feeling that I had gotten a pretty good understanding about theory and hypothesis, but reading so many different blog posts now actually starts to get me confused again..
Hi Marcus!
SvaraRaderaI agree with you that theory and hypothesis were the main concepts of this theme. I do not know however if I agree with you that " a hypothesis helps answer the question at hand", I believe that the hypothesis in itself does not provide an answer to questions but is the step prior to getting an answer to a question and that theories answer questions as to "why?".
Te discussion about truth and paradigm shifts is something I also found very interesting! The notion that all truts are relative is something I will really take with me from this course.
Keep up the good work!
Hi,
SvaraRaderaI like your reflection and think it great important to express our own idea in essays. It is great that your reflection
fully contains your own thought. From your analyzing,I have a better understanding on theory and have a new idea on "paradigm
shift ".I like your instance of Copernicus work. Hoping you could do better and better.