Climbing Down off the Fence: Locating Our Standpoint and Values

Abstract

Approaches and methods used to generate knowledge are diverse and, on the surface, are often seen to be a pragmatic choice based on timing, accessibility and sample size. What we tend to forget is that our methodological choices are also critically linked to the epistemological and moral value judgements we embrace:

To be a scientist is to commit oneself to a certain kind of morality (Polanyi, 1962), rather than to adapt to this or that technique. Investigative techniques are determined by metaphysical commitments not by professional affiliations.

(Harré, 1993: 101)

The research standpoint we adopt extends far beyond practical issues because our choices are inspired by our values. These determine how we wish to conduct our research, what we conceive to be its objectives and, ultimately, how we will treat our data. In short, they determine our beliefs concerning knowledge foundations.