04:192:200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Status Quo, Axiology, Metatheory

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Communication
• Course: 04:192:200
• Professor: Craig Scott

Document Summary

Meta-theoretical commitments (cid:1: theory framed at many levels. Micro, meso, macro; mid-range; meta, etc. (cid:1: meta-theory is theory about theory . Concerns the philosophical commitments of theorists (cid:1: meta-theoretical commitments define different approaches to theory development and inquiry (cid:1, five important considerations of meta-theory: Ontology, epistemology, axiology, voluntarism, and stability/change (cid:1) Nature of the social world (nature of reality/existence) The social world is seen as consisting of real entities, independent of an individual"s perception. Nominalist stance ( ) (opposite to the realistic stance): (cid:1) The social world consists of names and labels we use to structure reality. We create the social world through an intersubjective ( ) process of communicative interaction (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) And then treat that as though it were real. Causal( ) explanations of the social world are developed through separation of knower and known and the scientific method. Emergent and local understandings of the social world are developed through situated knowledge and reports of cultural insiders.