Post Theme 3

I'm actually quite satisfied with my explanation of theory from my pre theme post, however I will make some small adjustments to it with some more clarification that was gained in this weeks seminar discussions.

Theory is not the same thing as a hypothesis. A hypothesis could just be a statement, and a good hypothesis is falsifiable through tests. A hypothesis can through tests supply you with data that you can analyse. A theory should include some kind of logical reasoning of why we believe or predict something, and be backed up by either an analysis of different previous theory or empirical data gained from tested hypotheses. Worth to note is something we also discussed in the seminar, that theory often precedes hypotheses. The latter could be seen as a tool to find holes in a theory, test its limitations or scope etc.

Something I want to put emphasis on in this post theme reflection is the fact that theory is not the same thing as a 100% proven fact. Some of the most famous theories out there like the gravitational theory are often wrongly seen as laws of nature by the average Joe. While it might be the best and widely accepted explanation of WHY e.g. a pen that you drop falls to the ground, a paradigm shift in the future might change our view of the world. While this might seem unlikely today, who knows if a new Copernicus comes along and turn everything upside down...

However, the definition of theory does vary between fields of study, and giving a general definition would be impossible. The definition I have given is what I would have given to a media technology student. A philosophy student would most likely not give empirical data much merit but rather focus on ideas as a foundation for logical reasoning.

I think I was very active during this weeks seminar giving my points of view in the small group discussions. However we did not really have that different opinions on what theory is so our discussions ended up being a lot of confirmation of our own ideas rather than let's call it dialectics (yea I had to bring in a buzzword).

The last thing we talked about was the five types of theories from Gregor's article. I know that none of the four first types are to be seen as better than the other, but I still can't fully let go of the idea that it's a tier list where an EP theory attempts to go deeper than an analysis theory.

Overall I think this theme was pretty interesting, mainly because my master thesis is coming up next semester and I see this as good exercise in both what to think about when gathering information and getting used to reading research papers. The paper I chose this week has nothing to do with what I want my thesis to be about, but rather a personal interest of mine. But why not mix business with pleasure every now and then.