ONE STEP BEYOND - SEARCHING THE INTERNET IN TOPICS SUCH AS PHILOSOPHY.
By Brian Morgan. Presentation given on 15 July 10
SOFTWARE; POWERPOINT 2007 ON WINDOWS 7; also Family Tree Maker 2009:
Snipping Tool 9 - see Anthony Jordan's Summary dated 1 Jul 2010, of his
EXCEL presentation (All very user friendly and part of Microsoft Office
2007).
The presentation starts with an overview of the researcher's approach,
attitudes and skills, which may be obvious to the initiated but helpful
to those who have not researched an academic subject such as history
or philosophy. It then summarises the approach to data sources,
collection and management, using a genealogical software (FTM 2009) as
a comparative model to examine the complexities of data and its
manipulation; the many uses of data in different formats and contexts,
etc. The disciplines found in genealogy will be enough to encourage an
otherwise inexperienced researcher to have a go at something more
abstract! It concludes with the approach to some Internet tools and
sites available to assist in collecting and analysing data prior to
assembling your findings.
THE RESEARCHER; an overview.
Be Honest, Accurate and Thorough; be ready for shocks and surprises
and be respectful of (but not deferential to) the views and feelings
of others.
You will already have skills, you know them, use them well. Be sure
always to:-
do a reality check; use your critical faculties; respect your intuition;
call up your own knowledge of the subject; be continuously contemplative
and above all be persistent - don't give up until you feel sure you can
get no further.
Housekeeping: make your constant companion a hard-backed A4 or A5
notebook in which to keep ideas; essential and useful notes;
conversations; and sources. Keep it in date order and up to date, just
like your computer records.
COPYRIGHT. FOLLOW THE RULES. Always attribute, give credit, where it is
due. Your 'snips should where possible include the web address of the
source and for whole pages don't delete such data.
YOUR QUEST SHOULD NORMALLY HAVE TWO STAGES to start with:
FIRST: Define and understand both your SUBJECT and your OBJECTIVE, which
you should start at the beginning; if the beginning is not obvious, FIND IT.
Methodology.
Establish, so far as possible, under these headings WHAT (happened to WHOM),
WHERE, WHEN, HOW, and WHY. And even Who DUNNIT?! Establish the CONTEXT; the INTERGRITY of the information; the credibility of the SOURCES, etc.
Inspirational Note: THE ROYAL SOCIETY has a motto that can be a useful maxim
for you, "Take nobody's word for it'. Find out for yourself! Go one step or
more beyond the obvious, view the subject from more than one point of view.
SECOND: DATA MANAGEMENT. RULE 1 – GIGO = Garbage in = Garbage Out. Validate
your data, which brings you to “The Rule of Three”; aim to have more than
one source for your data, ideally three sources but life being what it is,
do your best. ESSENTIAL LFE SAVER - Always have your computer data backed
up with the latest data being held outside the computer, so that if the
system crashes you can always restore.
Plan how you will manage data; in computer or on hard copy, in conventional
files, or both. For permanence always print your finished work and keep it
safe.
An item of data has no meaning until it is linked to another and another,
ad inf.. Your first name on its own is valueless and except to someone who
realises it is a name it is also meaningless. Link it to another piece of
data, a surname, give it a context, say ‘born 1999’ and a whole vista of possibilities emerges. So context is everything; always be sure of the
context and the more ways that information is examined, the better will be
your understanding and your chances of making useful links leading you
possibly to somewhere new.
For example, we know that biology dictates that every mammalian infant,
let’s say Zac, has two parents, a male and a female. It is axiomatic that
they and every preceding ancestral male and female parent must each have
a male and female parent, and so going back in that manner there will be
after 8 generations, 256 ancestors, 128 of each gender. Zac could not
have existed without any one of those 256 people. It also means,
biologically, as we all know, that Zac, or you or me are each made up
from the DNA of 128 of each of the genders; broadly speaking we are each
half man, half woman. So whichever of those halves we present to the
world, we must always be kind to our other half!
Besides being amusing and moral that is an example of how something we
all know is capable of being presented in an unfamiliar way, simply by
thinking around it. When previously has this biological imperative been
used to show how equal we all are and how silly is the fight for gender
superiority, when nature has determined that we are all much of a
muchness, better at some things than others?
WHICH LEADS NICELY INTO RESEARCHING THE INTERNET FOR PHILOSOPHY.
Search engines are those fantastic invisible mammoths of software that
find in less that 2 seconds anything you want to know. They are very
easy to use, just type into Google or your engine of choice, these
four words:
Runner beans yellow leaves - which is the summation in keywords of
the problem you may have with your runner beans, their leaves are
turning yellow at the foot of the plant. Just four words and you
will get a couple of pages which will offer you solutions, some of
them will be promoting products. Take your pick.
That is all you need to know about how to search. Pick the words
carefully or just use one, Empedocles, will give you a few entries,
Pavlov just a couple. Do take note that some findings at the very
top of the answers page will be sponsored and are paid for by
advertisers to get your attention first. Ignore those and with
experience you will get to spot the best answers (often they are
close to or just after the Wikipedia entry).
If you haven’t done so already, use a reputable dictionary, such as
the Oxford Reference Dictionary for the meaning of the word
PHILOSOPHY. Then search for Parmenides and Socrates; find Empedocles,
he who said we are made up of the four elements, earth, fire air and
water. Find Plato, his Cave and “The Republic” and Aristotle, the
authority on all things natural who first recognised what Newton
called Gravity and postulated that the earth had a material cause,
it started somewhere.
Follow your nose from those people you will come across specialist
sites “The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”. The “Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy” (IEP), both trustworthy free sites
(inviting donations), giving notes on sources and how to attribute
them. Then the use the wide angle lens of Wikipedia, another free
site (inviting donations)and inviting contributions of knowledge,
citations etc. This is an invaluable source to many links which you
should explore to widen your knowledge and to gain confidence in
learning which stuff to trust and of which to be sceptical.
WHERE NEXT?
The Open University offers free taster courses where you can on the
Internet work through and be tested on what you have learnt. This is
not open to discussions but the course is worth a go. I’d be
interested if you try it, to know what you think.
It is up to you! Cogitate; reflect; discuss; write. Keep the subject
in your mind and let your subconcious mind play its part – sleep on
it.
Happy hunting, for truth!
