ANALYSIS OF "THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE" (part 42 - The Finale)

Advantages of Systematic Research

by

Charles Lamson

Careful research is perhaps the best way to create valid and reliable knowledge about the state of the social world and how it works. It is the best way for several reasons. First, by using standard widely accepted means of finding things out, we can control personal biases. If we can do this we are less likely to mistake what we would like to be true for what is really true.

Suppose, for example, I believe that democratic work organizations are better than authoritarian ones and, would therefore like to believe that they are also more efficient. My bias would be to look only for evidence that supports my belief. But if I use a standard method of assessing efficiency and use it carefully and fairly to compare democratic and authoritarian work organizations, I will have to accept whatever I find. My bias would thus be cancelled out, or at least controlled.

Second, research can get us beyond personal experience and casual observation, because to research is to look beyond what is obvious to us from where we stand. It is to look for ideas and information that might challenge the common sense that gets us through daily life. It means considering the quality and correctness of knowledge created by others, even if we find their knowledge irritating. All this can be difficult, because our usual habit is to settle comfortably into believing that we already know what is right.

A third reason for doing research is that it lets us check up on each other. If we use methods that others agree are proper, they can look at our results and say, "Hmmm, yes, you did it right; these results must be correct." Or they can say, "You went astray here at this point, so your conclusions are not trustworthy." We can make the same judgments when others offer us knowledge they have created in this way. by working together we can do better at dispelling illusions, and in the long run, creating knowledge that is valid and reliable.

It may seem that Schwalbe has only good things to say about knowledge that comes from research. does this mean that one should accept as true whatever is published in a scientific or scholarly journal? No. Knowledge from any source should be critically interrogated. Careful research is just a way to avoid problems that are common when knowledge is created in other ways. And if research is done properly it can yield as much foolishness as any other method.

The larger point here is that we should be mindful, to the extent we can, of where our own knowledge comes from. We can be mindful in this way by asking ourselves how we know what we claim to know. Is some piece of knowledge a result of logical deduction? (If so have we reasoned correctly? How do we know that our premises are correct?) Is some piece of knowledge a result of personal experience or observation? (If so, are we claiming to know more than our personal experience can warrant? Is it possible that we have observed only what we want to believe is true, or that our observations have been limited in some crucial way?)

The point of asking ourselves these questions is not to arrive at a paralyzing state of doubt about what we know but to more wisely decide how much faith to put in what we know. If we can do this, we can open ourselves to new knowledge, without fear of surrendering our minds to yet another fishy belief system. 

*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, 2001, MICHAEL SCHWALBE, PGS. 

END