the power of literature by Sir Dr Sohail Ansari

Assignment #33: Prose walks, poetry dances. For the Departments of English & Media Studies by Prof Dr Sohail Ansari

April 16, 2019

Form of poetry, in effect, is like the doughnut that may be said to be nothing in a circle of something or something around nothing; it is either the outside of an inside, as when people speak of “good form” or “bourgeois formalism,” or the inside of an outside, as in the scholastic saying that “the soul is the form of the body.” Taking this principle, together

ادب کی قوت اور اسلامی تحریک

ڈاکٹر شاہ رشاد عثمانی

ادب 

کی طاقت کا پرتو تمام آسمانی کتابوں میں موجود ہے، بلکہ یہ تقاضا کیا گیا ہے کہ اس کےعلَم بردار 

ادب کی طاقت کو معرکۂ خیروشرمیں استعمال کریں۔ خود مدینہ منّورہ میں جب اسلامی مملکت کا قیام عمل میں آیا اور بزم رسالت سجائی گئی تو آخری پیغمبر حضرت محمد مصطفیٰ صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم نے  ارشاد فرمایا:’’جنھوں نے اللہ اور رسولؐ کی مدد تلواروں سے کی ہے، آخر وہ شعر و ادب سے     اس مقصد ِخاص کی اشاعت کیوں نہیں کرتے؟‘‘ یہ سنتے ہی حضرت حسّان بن ثابت ؓ [م:۶۷۴ء] جو اپنے زمانے کے جلیل القدر شاعر تھے ،اُٹھے اور عرض کیا: ’’میں اس خدمت کے لیے حاضر ہوں‘‘ ۔
چنانچہ اس دور میں جب حق و باطل کی قوتیں نبر د آزماتھیں،اس بات کی ضرورت محسوس ہوئی کہ مخالفین کا سر نیچا کرنے کے لیے فن ہجو گوئی سے بھی کام لیا جائے۔عرب میں یہ صنف بہت زیادہ مقبول اور مؤثر تھی۔ اس وجہ سے مشرکین قریش کی ہجو شعراے اسلام نے لکھی۔ حضرت حسان بن ثابتؓ اس فن میں زیادہ دست گاہ رکھتے تھے۔ رسول اکرم ؐ نے ان کے بارے میںفرمایا کہ: ’’حسان کے اشعار مخالفین اسلام پرتیرسے کہیں زیادہ ضربِ کاری لگاتے ہیں‘‘۔ حضرت حسّان بن ثابت ؓ، کعب بن زہیرؓ [م: ۶۶۲ء] اور نابغتہ الجعدی [م: ۶۷۰ء] وغیرہ نے اپنے شعر و ادب سے اس عہد کی تحریکی ضرورتوں کو خوب خوب پورا کیا ہے۔

“Anyone with a watch can tell you what time it is,” said Valéry, “but who can tell you what is time?”

“Baby, if you got to ask the question, you’re never going to know the answer.”

The painter Marcel Duchamp’s elegant remark on what psychologists call “the problem of perception”: “If no solution, then maybe no problem?”

 Poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.

Exercise:

Can you give any example of imaginative awareness of experience?

Arrange meaning of language for a specific emotional response

Poetry is the other way of using language. Perhaps in some hypothetical beginning of things it was the only way of using language or simply was language tout court, prose being the derivative and younger rival

Exercise: .

              Use language for the hypothetical beginning of things

The French poet Paul Valéry said that prose was walking, poetry dancing.

Exercise:

               Bad poetry walks and a good prose dances. Discuss

The poet T.S. Eliot suggested that part of the difficulty lies in the fact that there is the technical term verse to go with the term poetry, while there is no equivalent technical term to distinguish the mechanical part of prose and make the relation symmetrical.

Exercise:

Can you suggest any technical term?

The French poet Paul Valéry said that prose was walking, poetry dancing.

Indeed, the original two terms, prosus and versus, meant, respectively, “going straight forth” and “returning”; and that distinction does point up the tendency of poetry to incremental repetition, variation, and the treatment of many matters and different themes in a single recurrent form such as couplet or stanza.

Exercise:

Can poetry cease to be poetry if the repetition is not incremental?

Can prose be called poetry if it tends to return?

American poet Robert Frost said shrewdly that poetry was what got left behind in translation, which suggests a criterion of almost scientific refinement: when in doubt, translate; whatever comes through is prose, the remainder is poetry. And yet to even so acute a definition the obvious exception is a startling and a formidable one: some of the greatest poetry in the world is in the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible, which is not only a translation but also, as to its appearance in print, identifiable neither with verse nor with prose in English but rather with a cadence owing something to both.

Cadence synonyms: rhythm  The pattern

Exercise:
‘My work is called poetry because there is no word for it’ Can we apply this line to King James Version of the Bible

Exercise:

If poetry is what got left behind in translation then poetry is limited to enlightened and sophisticated and that limits its influence. Discuss

If poetry is not susceptible of translation then how we can understand it?

In place of further worrying over definitions, it may be both a relief and an illumination to exhibit certain plain and mighty differences between prose and poetry by a comparison. In the following passages a prose writer and a poet are talking about the same subject, growing older.

Between the ages of 30 and 90, the weight of our muscles falls by 30 percent and the power we can exert likewise…. The number of nerve fibres in a nerve trunk falls by a quarter. The weight of our brains falls from an average of 3.03 lb. to 2.27 lb. as cells die and are not replaced…. (Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Biological Time Bomb, 1968.)

Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age
To set a crown upon your lifetime’s effort.
First, the cold friction of expiring sense
Without enchantment, offering no promise
But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit
As body and soul begin to fall asunder.
Second, the conscious impotence of rage
At human folly, and the laceration
Of laughter at what ceases to amuse.
And last, the rending pain of re-enactment
Of all that you have done, and been….
(T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets.)

In the following passages a prose writer and a poet are talking about the same subject, growing older.

Indeed, the original two terms, prosus and versus, meant, respectively, “going straight forth” and “returning”; and that distinction does point up the tendency of poetry to incremental repetition, variation, and the treatment of many matters and different themes in a single recurrent form such as couplet or stanza.

Exercise:
In above passages prose tends to incremental repetition if it is so then prose should be called poetry?

Before objecting that a simple comparison cannot possibly cover all the possible ranges of poetry and prose compared, the reader should consider for a moment what differences are exhibited. The passages are oddly parallel, hence comparable, even in a formal sense; for both consist of the several items of a catalog under the general title of growing old. The significant differences are of tone, pace, and object of attention. If the prose passage interests itself in the neutral, material, measurable properties of the process, while the poetry interests itself in what the process will signify to someone going through it, that is not accidental but of the essence; if one reads the prose passage with an interest in being informed, noting the parallel constructions without being affected by them either in tone or in pace, while reading the poetry with a sense of considerable gravity and solemnity, that too is of the essence.

Exercise:
How both passages are oddly parallel?

What are the measurable properties of the process?

What is of essence and not accidental?

One might say as tersely as possible that the difference between prose and poetry is most strikingly shown in the two uses of the verb “to fall”:

The number of nerve fibres in a nerve trunk falls by a quarter  

As body and soul begin to fall asunder

Exercise:
Can you give some other word than fall?

It should be specified here that the important differences exhibited by the comparison belong to the present age. In each period, speaking for poetry in English at any rate, the dividing line will be seen to come at a different place. In Elizabethan times the diction of prose was much closer to that of poetry than it later became, and in the 18th century authors saw nothing strange about writing in couplets about subjects that later would automatically and compulsorily belong to prose—for example, horticulture, botany, even dentistry. Here is not the place for entering into a discussion of so rich a chapter in the history of ideas; but the changes involved in the relation of poetry and prose are vast, and the number of ways people can describe and view the world are powerfully influenced by developments in science and society.

Exercise:
How can the description of world be influenced by developments in science and society?

Poetic diction and experience

Returning to the comparison, it is observable that though the diction of the poem is well within what could be commanded by a moderately well-educated speaker, it is at the same time well outside the range of terms in fact employed by such a speaker in daily occasions; it is a diction very conscious, as it were, of its power of choosing terms with an effect of peculiar precision and of combining the terms into phrases with the same effect of peculiar precision and also of combining sounds with the same effect of peculiar precision. Doubtless the precision of the prose passage is greater in the more obvious property of dealing in the measurable; but the poet attempts a precision with respect to what is not in the same sense measurable nor even in the same sense accessible to observation; the distinction is perhaps just that made by the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal in discriminating the spirits of geometry and finesse; and if one speaks of “effects of precision” rather than of precision itself, that serves to distinguish one’s sense that the artwork is always somewhat removed from what people are pleased to call the real world, operating instead, in Immanuel Kant’s shrewd formula, by exhibiting “purposefulness without purpose.”

Exercise:
What is purposefulness without purpose?

Does poetry deal with effects of precision or of precision?

To much the same point is what Samuel Taylor Coleridge remembers having learned from his schoolmaster:

I learnt from him, that Poetry, even that of the loftiest and, seemingly, that of the wildest odes, had a logic of its own, as severe as that of science; and more difficult, because more subtle, more complex, and dependent on more, and more fugitive causes. In the truly great poets, he would say, there is a reason assignable, not only for every word, but for the position of every word. (Biographia Literaria, chapter 1.)

Exercise:
What are fugitive causes and assignable reasons?

Perhaps this is a somewhat exaggerated, as it is almost always an unprovable, claim, illustrating also a propensity for competing with the prestige of science on something like its own terms—but the last remark in particular illuminates the same author’s terser formulation: “prose = words in the best order, poetry = the best words in the best order.” This attempt at definition, impeccable because uninformative, was derived from Jonathan Swift, who had said, also impeccably and uninformatively, that style in writing was “the best words in the best order.” Which may be much to the same effect as Louis Armstrong’s saying, on being asked to define jazz, “Baby, if you got to ask the question, you’re never going to know the answer.” Or the painter Marcel Duchamp’s elegant remark on what psychologists call “the problem of perception”: “If no solution, then maybe no problem?” This species of gnomic, riddling remark may be determinate for the artistic attitude toward definition of every sort; and its skepticism is not confined to definitions of poetry but extends to definitions of anything whatever, directing one not to dictionaries but to experience and, above all, to use: “Anyone with a watch can tell you what time it is,” said Valéry, “but who can tell you what is time?”

Exercise:
What does ‘competing with the prestige of science on something like its own terms mean? And what are the terms of science?

What we say to if best words in the ordinary order or ordinary words in the best order ?

Define ‘this definition, impeccable because uninformative’

Discuss all these species of gnomic, riddling remark

Can we relate the statements below of Oscar with Valéry?

In Lady Windemere's Fan, Oscar Wilde had Lord Darlington quip that a cynic was 'a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.' As with so much of what Wilde wrote or said, it's more than just a nice turn of phrase – it hits at the heart of the problems of society.

“Anyone with a watch can tell you what time it is,” said Valéry, “but who can tell you what is time?”

Happily, if poetry is almost impossible to define, it is extremely easy to recognize in experience; even untutored children are rarely in doubt about it when it appears:

Little Jack Jingle,
He used to live single,
But when he got tired of this kind of life,
He left off being single, and liv’d with his wife.Exercise:
If something is difficult to define then how it is easy to recognize?

It might be objected that this little verse is not of sufficient import and weight to serve as an exemplar for poetry. It ought to be remembered, though, that it has given people pleasure so that they continued to say it until and after it was written down, nearly two centuries ago. The verse has survived, and its survival has something to do with pleasure, with delight; and while it still lives, how many more imposing works of language—epic poems, books of science, philosophy, theology—have gone down, deservedly or not, into dust and silence. It has, obviously, a form, an arrangement of sounds in relation to thoughts that somehow makes its agreeable nonsense closed, complete, and decisive. But this somewhat muddled matter of form deserves a heading and an instance all to itself.

Exercise:
How imposing work have gone down not deservedly?

What is agreeable nonsense closed?

What an instance all to itself mean?

Form in Poetry

People nowadays who speak of form in poetry almost always mean such externals as regular measure and rhyme, and most often they mean to get rid of these in favour of the freedom they suppose must follow upon the absence of form in this limited sense. But in fact a poem having only one form would be of doubtful interest even if it could exist. In this connection, the poet J.V. Cunningham speaks of “a convergence of forms, and forms of disparate orders,” adding: “It is the coincidence of forms that locks in the poem.” For a poem is composed of internal and intellectual forms as well as forms externally imposed and preexisting any particular instance, and these may be sufficient without regular measure and rhyme; if the intellectual forms are absent, as in greeting-card verse and advertising jingles, no amount of thumping and banging will supply the want.

Exercise:
what is the importance of intellectual forms?

Form, in effect, is like the doughnut that may be said to be nothing in a circle of something or something around nothing; it is either the outside of an inside, as when people speak of “good form” or “bourgeois formalism,” or the inside of an outside, as in the scholastic saying that “the soul is the form of the body.” Taking this principle, together with what Cunningham says of the matter, one may now look at a very short and very powerful poem with a view to distinguishing the forms, or schemes, of which it is made. It was written by Rudyard Kipling—a great English poet somewhat sunken in reputation, probably on account of misinterpretations having to do more with his imputed politics than with his poetry—and its subject, one of a series of epitaphs for the dead of World War I, is a soldier shot by his comrades for cowardice in battle.

I could not look on Death, which being known,
Men led me to him, blindfold and alone.

The aim of the following observations and reflections is to distinguish as clearly as possible—distinguish without dividing—the feelings evoked by the subject, so grim, horrifying, tending to helpless sorrow and despair, from the feelings, which might better be thought of as meanings, evoked by careful contemplation of the poem in its manifold and somewhat subtle ways of handling the subject, leading the reader on to a view of the strange delight intrinsic to art, whose mirroring and shielding power allows him to contemplate the world’s horrible realities without being turned to stone.

Exercise:
what is the shielding power and how it can stop one from turning to stone?

There is, first, the obvious external form of a rhymed, closed couplet in iambic pentameter (that is, five poetic “feet,” each consisting of an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable, per line). There is, second, the obvious external form of a single sentence balanced in four grammatical units with and in counterpoint with the metrical form. There is, third, the conventional form belonging to the epitaph and reflecting back to antiquity; it is terse enough to be cut in stone and tight-lipped also, perhaps for other reasons, such as the speaker’s shame. There is, fourth, the fictional form belonging to the epitaph, according to which the dead man is supposed to be saying the words himself. There is, fifth, especially poignant in this instance, the real form behind or within the fictional one, for the reader is aware that in reality it is not the dead man speaking, nor are his feelings the only ones the reader is receiving, but that the comrades who were forced to execute him may themselves have made up these two lines with their incalculably complex and exquisite balance of scorn, awe, guilt, and consideration even to tenderness for the dead soldier. There is, sixth, the metaphorical form, with its many resonances ranging from the tragic through the pathetic to irony and apology: dying in battle is spoken of in language relating it to a social occasion in drawing room or court; the coward’s fear is implicitly represented as merely the timorousness and embarrassment one might feel about being introduced to a somewhat superior and majestic person, so that the soldiers responsible for killing him are seen as sympathetically helping him through a difficult moment in the realm of manners. In addition, there is, seventh, a linguistic or syntactical form, with at least a couple of tricks to it: the second clause, with its reminiscence of Latin construction, participates in the meaning by conferring a Roman stoicism and archaic gravity on the saying; remembering that the soldiers in the poem had been British schoolboys not long before, the reader might hear the remote resonance of a whole lost world built upon Greek and Roman models; and the last epithets, “blindfold and alone,” while in the literal acceptation they clearly refer to the coward, show a distinct tendency to waver over and apply mysteriously to Death as well, sitting there waiting “blindfold and alone.” One might add another form, the eighth, composed of the balance of sounds, from the obvious likeness in the rhyme down to subtleties and refinements beneath the ability of coarse analysis to discriminate. And even there one would not be quite at an end; an overall principle remains, the compression of what might have been epic or five-act tragedy into two lines, or the poet’s precise election of a single instant to carry what the novelist, if he did his business properly, would have been hundreds of pages arriving at.

It is not at all to be inferred that the poet composed his poem in the manner of the above laborious analysis of its strands. The whole insistence, rather, is that he did not catalog 8 or 10 forms and assemble them into a poem; more likely it “just came to him.” But the example may serve to indicate how many modes of the mind go together in this articulation of an implied drama and the tension among many possible sentiments that might arise in response to it.

In this way, by the coincidence of forms that locks in the poem, one may see how to answer a question that often arises about poems: though their thoughts are commonplace, they themselves mysteriously are not. One may answer on the basis of the example and the inferences produced from it that a poem is not so much a thought as it is a mind: talk with it, and it will talk back, telling you many things that you might have thought for yourself but somehow didn’t until it brought them together. Doubtless a poem is a much simplified model for the mind. But it might still be one of the best models available. On this great theme, however, it will be best to proceed not by definition but by parable and interpretation.

Exercise:
How can we proceed by parable and interpretation?the 

difference among, concept, model, theory, paradigm, model, concept, theory, opinion, belief, conceptual framework, theoretical framwork,

What is the difference between concept, model, and theory?

Concept

I have this concept of a unicorn in my thoughts. I know unicorns do not exist but I have this idea of what they would look like if they existed

Model

I had this model made to make it easy to explain my concept. You can see from my model my concept idea looks like a horse with a horn growing from the forehead

Theory

I have a theory that unicorns might exist on other planets and that is where our concept of unicorns comes from. I intend to test my multiple ideas into the theory of unicorns on our planets by checking people who think about unicorns and what planets they also think of. Perhaps I can narrow it down to 1 planet

Concept - Generally (there can be exceptions) a idea about something which does not exist or a idea about something which might exist if we build it

Model - Build a model or make a drawing to show what the concept will look like if made

Theory - A collection of ideas which can be arranged or linked together to produce a new idea which can be tested to see if agrees with reality.

A concept is similar to an idea. Conceptualizing an object, for instance, in your mind without it being finalized or finished. A model is a material object that represents a finished product but possibly not to scale or not complete. A model may be the physical reality of a concept. A theory sometimes comes before a concept. A theory may harbor a mathematical reality of the concept. Quora.com

Difference Between Model and Theory

Key difference between model and theory

Models and theories have to be understood as two forms used in comprehending phenomena, and between which some differences can be identified. In various disciplines, both in the social and natural sciences, various models and theories are being used to understand phenomena. This can relate to society, individuals, the human brain, plant life, etc. Although both theories and models are used, these two are different from one another. By paying attention to the definitions of the two words, we can understand the key difference between a model and a theory. A model can be understood as a representation of something. A model provides us with a structure. On the other hand, a theory is a set of ideas that provide us an explanation to something.This is the key difference between a model and theory. This article attempts to elaborate the difference between the two. Let us begin with the word model.

What is a Model?

A model can simply be defined as an example of something. A model provides the individual with a structural representation of the phenomenon, allowing him to gain a fuller understanding of it. In various disciplines, models are used to comprehend the phenomena. This allows the individual to build his theory based on the constructed model. In some cases, models are used by scientists to support their ideas.

When speaking of models there are various types. There are mathematical models, analytical models, conceptual models, statistical models, etc. Having a model makes it easier for students to gain a better understanding of the concept.

What is a Theory?

A theory can be defined as a set of ideas that provide an explanation to a phenomenon. Once the researcher has gained sufficient data, he builds the theory based on the information that he has gathered. In some cases, the information can come in the form of a model. However, in other cases, it is through observation and analysis of data.

When formulating theories, most scientists use a proper scientific methodology so that the theory holds validity. Also, theories can be tested in order to check this validity. Theories usually do not remain the same in a field for a long period of time. Very often theories become disproven as scientists expand their horizons.

 

What is the difference, if any, between  belief and opinion?

A “belief” is a subjective commitment to the truth of a proposition. It can be based upon anything — facts, evidence, reasoning, faith, or anything else. However, people usually opt to use the word “belief” to indicate specifically that the commitment is not based on sufficient reason or evidence to justify claiming to have knowledge.

The term “opinion” is used several different ways.

Sometimes it’s used to indicate a statement made as if it was universal fact where the person is not actually claiming a universal fact. For example, if I say, “Vanilla is the best ice cream flavor”, you might respond that that’s just my opinion. What you mean is that I’m really just claiming that I liked vanilla, but using the same words we would use to report an objective fact like “vanilla is the best selling ice cream flavor”.

It is also used to describe factual claims that one is not as confident about or cannot justify sufficiently. For example, if someone claimed that Abraham Lincoln believed in legal equality for all men despite not explicitly saying so for political reasons, you might say that was just their opinion. But you don’t mean that they’re really making a different objective claim. What you mean is that their conclusion is not based on sufficient reason and evidence to justify the considering the conclusion to be known to be true. They’re definitely claiming something is a universal fact, they’re just doing it without the justification normally required to make such a claim.

So something that is a “matter of opinion” could be something that is just not a universal fact claim. Which ice cream flavor tastes best is a matter of opinion in this sense. But also can be a case where we just don’t have enough evidence to know what universal fact we should believe. Lincoln’s true feelings about racial equality is a matter of opinion. 

Belief is based on fact. Believers are only saying that they do not have all the knowledge that another being has. You believe your doctor, for instance, who has more knowledge than you.

Opinion has nothing to do with some being having more knowledge and insight than you do. It is not humbling. We are asked to give our opinions almost as if we are deciding to like something or not like it. We are asked to think for ourselves and form an opinion so we can acquire the things we need, vote, and make decisions that effect how we live.

Belief means someone knows more than we do. Opinion means we think over what we know to take action.

What exactly is a Paradigm?

 

. a paradigm is a set of rules and regulations that does two things:

(1) it establishes and defines boundaries; and

(2) it tells you how to behave inside those boundaries to be successful."

He adds:

"... Words that represent subsets of the paradigm concept:

theory, model, methodology, principles, standards, protocol, routines, assumptions, conventions, patterns, habits, common sense, conventional wisdom, mind-set, values, frames of reference, traditions, customs, prejudices, idealogy, inhibitions, superstitions, rituals, compulsions, addictions, doctrine, dogma.

Words like culture, organization, worldview, business, education did not appear because they are forests of paradigms.

Thomas Kuhn introduced the notion of a scientific paradigm in his seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. From there, the term paradigm was popularized and generalized to refer to a framework that we use to understand and do things. We could define a paradigm more precisely as having the following components:

Exemplars. A paradigm’s exemplars are usually its creators who are then held up as pedagogical models for later generations to emulate. For example, Newton.

Symbolic generalizations. These are formulas expressed in the paradigm’s technical language which state its fundamental principles. For example, F=ma.

Ontological models. These are the metaphysical assumptions or beliefs about the nature of reality which are held by members of a community adhering to a common paradigm. For example, physical reality consists of material bodies in space and forces that act upon them.

Shared values. This includes things like aesthetic standards, such as simplicity and elegance, which guide scientists in their selection of competing theories.

Epistemological criteria. These criteria determine what a community accepts as being valid ways to gain knowledge.

So, a paradigm shift is a change from one paradigm to another, typically involving basic changes in the fundamental concepts that define the paradigm. In physics, for example, quantum theory represented a new paradigm that changed some of the basic notions of the nature of matter and energy.

A paradigm is not a process, but a normative perceptual worldview that is a reflection of what the practitioner views as reasonable or unreasonable, possible or impossible. The term was originally coined in 1962 by Thomas Kuhn in his work, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” A paradigm is your fundamental conceptual framework for how you make sense of the world around you. Most people are not aware of their perceptual limitations due to the pervasive and hidden impact of a paradigm, in much the same way as you wouldn’t notice the air that you breathe. To Thomas Kuhn’s point, much of science has progressed through a series of paradigm shifts that demonstrate the scientific community arriving at a new way of thinking about the world, for example, Newtonian Physics, Galilean Astronomy, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, etc. The challenge with paradigm shifts is that, by definition, one only realizes it has occurred until after the fact, or if you are in the brave unappreciated minority trying to boil the ocean.

More recently, the internet has created communities of people who share fringe paradigms such as a fear of vaccines or a belief that the world is flat. The term has largely fallen out of favor in most business circles as a lofty expression that demonstrates the speaker’s lack of familiarity with modern innovation concepts for generating pragmatic solutions. The ubiquitous expression “paradigm shift” or '“paradigm change” is most likely to show up in a corporate game of Buzzword Bingo. Usage of the term peaked in the 1990’s as managers would try to compel their team members to “think outside the box” and “seek a new paradigm,” usually resulting in eye-rolls, snickers, and content submissions to Scott Adams for another Dilbert cartoon.

 

Defining Paradigms

Have you ever stopped to consider all of the little pieces that make up the culture in which you live? There are, of course, many traditions and institutions, like public schools, but what about the beliefs that you share with those around you, like friends and family? These ideas, concepts, and beliefs that you and others share about religion, nationality, and other pieces of culture are probably a big part of your individual and collective identities, but how often do you consider where they came from or how they might change?

The collection of beliefs and concepts is what is known as a paradigm, which is a set of theories, assumptions, and ideas that contribute to your worldview or create the framework from which you operate every day. For example, you've probably heard the phrase 'the American way of life,' which is a paradigm because it refers to a collection of beliefs and ideas about what it means to be American. For people who find this paradigm very important, it may serve as the foundation of how they view or interact with the world around them. This emphasizes one of the most important purposes of a paradigm, which is that it is comprised of beliefs and ideas that form a framework to approach and engage with other things or people.

Where Do Paradigms Come From?

In sociology, paradigms originated in the work of some key European philosophers, like Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, during the mid-to-late 19th century. Although they may not have specifically labeled them paradigms, these thinkers constructed a number of theories to explore how certain elements of society were related or to address social problems caused by, among other things, the growing power of capitalism. Throughout the 20th century, sociologists built on these earlier concepts and theories to form the basis of modern sociological approaches and traditions.

Margaret Eisenhart (1991) has identified three types of research frameworks: theoretical, practical, and conceptual.

Theoretical Frameworks

A theoretical framework guides research activities by its reliance on a formal theory;that is, a theory that has been developed by using an established, coherent explanation of certain sorts of phenomena and relationships—Piaget’s theory ofintellectual development and Vygotsky’s theory of socio-historical constructivism are two prominent theories used in the study of children’s learning. At the stage in the research process in which specific research questions are determined, these questions would be rephrased in terms of the formal theory that has been chosen.Then, relevant data are gathered, and the findings are used to support, extend, ormodify the theory.

People also ask

What is a formal theory?

Formal Theory is a vibrant field in the OSU Political Science Department, growing both in size and in breadth of applications. It emphasizes the use of mathematics in constructing theories of political phenomena.

Practical Frameworks

This kind of framework is not informed by formal theory but by theaccumulated practice knowledge of practitioners and administrators, the findings of previous research, and often the viewpoints offered by public opinion. Research questions are derived from this knowledge base and research results are used to support, extend, or revise the practice (Scriven, 1986)

A practical framework guides research by using “what works” in the experience of doing something by those directly involved in it.

Conceptual Frameworks

A conceptual framework is an argument that the concepts chosen for investigation, and any anticipated relationships among them, will be appropriate and useful given the research problem under investigation. Like theoretical frameworks, conceptual frameworks are based on previous research, but conceptual frameworks are built from an array of current and possibly far-ranging sources. The framework used may be based on different theories and various aspects of practitioner knowledge, depending on what the researcher can argue will be relevant and important to address about a research problem.

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of each type of framework?

What is a Conceptual Framework?

The conceptual framework of a research study is the system of concepts, assumptions, expectations, beliefs and theories that will support and inform the research. The conceptual framework may be a visual or a written product that would explain the main things to be studied, that is, the key factors, variables, and concepts and the presumed relationships among them. Hence, all these concepts, theories, etc should be considered in the literature review. Note however that the literature review should not be just about those you considered in the conceptual framework.

The most important thing to understand about conceptual framework is that it is primarily a conception or model of what is out there that one plans to study, and of what is going on with these things and why—a tentative theory of the phenomena that one is investigating. The function of this theory is to inform the rest of the research design—to help assess and refine goals, to develop realistic and relevant research questions and select appropriate methods and to identify potential validity threats to conclusion.

What is the difference between a conceptual framework and a research paradigm?

 

A conceptual framework is really just names for things, including relationships between things. These relationships maybe empirical and based on well established ways of looking at the world or a field, and in particular include “a kind of” and “a part of” as well as ownership relationships and spatiotemporal relationships and causal relationships.

A research framework may or may not build on a particular conceptual framework or naming system for the target domain or application area. But once established it will tend to name the features and putative causal relationships that are assumed or predicted. However, more important than any of that is the methodologies used, including experimental paradigms, data collection conventions, statistical approaches, mathematical models, computational techniques and simplifying assumptions.

For example deep learning using neural networks, or deep neural networks trained with particular algorithms, are (resp. general and specific) research paradigms that are agnostic to any target domain, application area or conceptual framework. The same might be said for statistical methods in general, and Bayesian Statistics in particular.

On the other hand, established theories associated with specific names, often will have both an associated conceptual framework that helps explain and further develop the theory, as well as a research paradigm that delimits what approaches are and are not acceptable in order to advance the theory.

Differences between theory and study

Theory is something that is believed to be true because experiments and/or Maths have proved it to be true or because no better explanation currently exists. Chaos Theory, for instance, is the idea that seemingly unrelated events actually work in tandem to an inevitable end. This has been proven true in many cases but remains unproven in far more cases. The theory of evolution, similarly, is simply the best available theory. It contains too many scientific loopholes to ever be conclusively proved to be true, in any specific case.

Study is a very general term. It means disciplined observation. Study includes research, theory, and principle, but is not limited to these things. Research, theory, and principle, are the results of study. However,study also results in the dismissal of certain types of research, theory, and principle. For instance, even rudimentary study of eugenics dismisses the value of research, theory, and principle underlying eugenics and/or associated with eugenics.

Differences between theory and previous study

Bottom of Form

 Most of the time previous studies means exactly that: studies published were disseminated in the past that report results of research findings. This could mean the authors tested a specific hypothesis, test the tenets of the theory, or tried to answer a specific research question. For the most part studies are published in peer-reviewed journal articles, however research findings are also sometimes disseminated as standalone monographs, independent reports, or as books or chapters in books.

On the other hand, theories are proposed explanations of observed phenomena or relationships, usually based on some systematic analysis of the existing literature, or on the preponderance of evidence observed in case studies.

.What is a construct in research methods?

A construct is an indicator variable that measures a characteristics, or trait. For example, college admission scores are constructs that measure how well a student is likely to do in their first year. Construct validity measures how well the observed construct predicts the outcome expected.

Roughly stated, a construct is a variable with no physical being. For example, “personality” or “job satisfaction” or “organizational commitment” don’t physically exist. They are more like concepts.
This is part of what makes a field like Organizational Behavior tougher than the physical sciences. So many of the variables in our field can’t be directly measured (they’re constructs). We have to transform these constructs into something measurable (e.g., responses on a survey or a given behavior in an experiment) in order to get some approximation of them.

It would be useful for you to not only understand the terms ‘construct’ and ‘variable’ but should first have an improved understanding of the term “concept”. A concept is a verbal abstraction drawn from observation of a number of specific cases. For example, we can observe people paying money for occupying a place and can call it the concept of ‘rent’. In similar lines, we observe individuals and find some of them heavily build while some others are seen to be thin, and from these observations we generate the concept “weight”. It is important to understand that concepts are “observed”, because it means that there is a direct link between the concept (the abstraction) and its referents (the reality).

Constructs are theoretical creations that are based on observations but which cannot be seen either directly or indirectly. Examples of constructs are satisfaction, happiness, norms, IQ, values, etc. construct serves the same function as a concept, but it is more abstract. Importantly, constructs are not characterized by a direct link between the abstraction and its observed manifestations. Thus, even though we can use the term satisfaction in the same way as a concept, but we should recognize that we cannot directly observe different levels of satisfaction directly. Constructs are built from the logical combination of a number of more observable concepts. For example, if we talk about the construct source credibility, then we could define the construct as the combination of the concepts of expertise, objectivity, and status. Each of these concepts can be more directly observed in an individual.

Both, concepts as well as constructs, could be variables if they are free to vary else  they are constants.

key differences between model, theory and concept in research

What is the difference between concept, model, and theory?

Concept

I have this concept of a unicorn in my thoughts. I know unicorns do not exist but I have this idea of what they would look like if they existed

Model

I had this model made to make it easy to explain my concept. You can see from my model my concept idea looks like a horse with a horn growing from the forehead

Theory

I have a theory that unicorns might exist on other planets and that is where our concept of unicorns comes from. I intend to test my multiple ideas into the theoryof unicorns on our planets by checking people who think about unicorns and what planets they also think of. Perhaps I can narrow it down to 1 planet

Concept - Generally (there can be exceptions) a idea about something which does not exist or a idea about something which might exist if we build it

Model - Build a model or make a drawing to show what the concept will look like if made

Theory - A collection of ideas which can be arranged or linked together to produce a new idea which can be tested to see if agrees with reality.

A concept is similar to an idea. Conceptualizing an object, for instance, in your mind without it being finalized or finished. A model is a material object that represents a finished product but possibly not to scale or not complete. A model may be the physical reality of a concept. A theory sometimes comes before a concept. A theory may harbor a mathematical reality of the concept. Quora.com

Difference Between Model and Theory

Key difference between model and theory

Models and theories have to be understood as two forms used in comprehending phenomena, and between which some differences can be identified. In various disciplines, both in the social and natural sciences, various models and theories are being used to understand phenomena. This can relate to society, individuals, the human brain, plant life, etc. Although both theories and models are used, these two are different from one another. By paying attention to the definitions of the two words, we can understand the key difference between a model and a theory. A model can be understood as a representation of something. A model provides us with a structure. On the other hand, a theory is a set of ideas that provide us an explanation to something.This is the key difference between a model and theory. This article attempts to elaborate the difference between the two. Let us begin with the word model.

What is a Model?

A model can simply be defined as an example of something. A model provides the individual with a structural representation of the phenomenon, allowing him to gain a fuller understanding of it. In various disciplines, models are used to comprehend the phenomena. This allows the individual to build his theory based on the constructed model. In some cases, models are used by scientists to support their ideas.

When speaking of models there are various types. There are mathematical models, analytical models, conceptual models, statistical models, etc. Having a model makes it easier for students to gain a better understanding of the concept.

Let us take an example. In the sociology of health, attention is paid to some of the models in medicine. One such model is the biomedical model. This is a conceptual model that allows the sociologist to identify a specific manner of understanding diseases, illness, and the individual. In the biomedical model, the focus is mainly on the biological factors of the person alone. It completely ignores the social and cultural factors related to health. On the contrary, the psychosocial model focuses not only on the biological factors, but also stresses the necessity of social, cultural, and psychological factors as well.

The Solar System Model 

What is a Theory?

A theory can be defined as a set of ideas that provide an explanation to a phenomenon. Once the researcher has gained sufficient data, he builds the theory based on the information that he has gathered. In some cases, the information can come in the form of a model. However, in other cases, it is through observation and analysis of data.

When formulating theories, most scientists use a proper scientific methodology so that the theory holds validity. Also, theories can be tested in order to check this validity. Theories usually do not remain the same in a field for a long period of time. Very often theories become disproven as scientists expand their horizons.

In order to comprehend the nature of theories, let us take a theory from the urban sociology. Ernest Burgess came up with the theory of concentric urban zones in 1925. According to this theory, most cities have a tendency to spread outwards like ripples on a pond. He believed that in each zone a specific class of people inhabits. In order to explain his theory, he presents a model of the city as well. This can be considered as a fine example of theory and model merging in order to explain a phenomenon.

Theory of Concentric Zones 

What is the Difference Between Model and Theory?

Definitions of Model and Theory:

Model: A model is a representation of something that provides us with a structure.

Theory: A theory is a set of ideas that provide us an explanation to something.

Characteristics of Model and Theory:

Structure:

Model: A model provides with a structure.

Theory: A theory can provide us with a structure, but there is a possibility that it may not be so as well.

Explanation:

Model: A model provides us with a simplified understanding of a phenomenon.

Theory: A theory explains a phenomenon.

Foundation:

Model: A model can lay the foundation for a theory.

Theory: A theory can be used to create a physical model.

Image Courtesy:

1. A solar system model donated by Albert Einstein to Ben Shemen youth village in 1928 By Avi1111 dr. avishai teicher (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

2. Burgess Model By Zeimusu [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons