Knowledge is a complex, multifaceted concept. Information sources for clinical practice vary in dependability and validity. A brief discussion of some alternative sources of evidence shows how research based information is different. Nursing has historically acquired knowledge through traditions, authority, experience, borrowing, trial and error, role modeling and mentorship, intuition, reasoning and research.
Sources of Acquiring Knowledge:
Various Methods of Obtaining Knowledge
Various Methods of Obtaining Knowledge
NON-SCIENTIFIC WAYS OF OBTAINING KNOWLEDGE
1. Â Â Â Â COMMON SENSE: that which is self-evident
2.     TENACITY: what we have known to be true in the past — holds firmly to beliefs because “it has always been so”.
3. Â Â Â Â AUTHORITY: established belief based on prominence or importance of source
4.     INTUITION: something that just “stands to reason” — use of rational processes with benefit of experience
5. Â Â Â Â METAPHYSICS: investigates principles of reality
(visible and invisible), the essence of things. Construct theories on the basis of a priori knowledge, that is, knowledge derived from reason alone.
6. Â Â Â Â RA TIONALISM: criterion of truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive.
7.     EMPIRICISM: relying on the “observable”; through one’s own experience
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Research Methods in the Social Sciences
• The social sciences have adopted the scientific method as a way of “knowing”
–      Empirical (rather than normative)
–      Objective (rather than subjective)
–      Systematic (rather than random)
–      Rigorous (meticulous, painstaking)
This method has evolved from a very long debate about truth and knowledge.
•      Socrates (469-399 BCE): “I know that I know nothing”
•      Aresilaus (314-241 BCE) said he was not even certain that he was uncertain.
•      Carneades (213-128 BCE) knowledge and truth is impossible.
•      Sextus Empiricus (CE 200) science based on reason or logic is not to be trusted.  Experiences is our best guide.
•      Pyrrho (365-275 BCE): one must neither trust nor reject your senses.
For many centuries, intellectuals who were interested in knowledge hoped that if scientific inquiry could become sufficiently empirical, it could be our best guide to certitude or, at least, probability.
From these early thinkers came the early modern effort to establish an empirical “scientific method.” This way of thinking had great influence on the scientific revolution of the 17th century.
Scientific Revolution (16th & 17th Century)
•      For example Galileo argued explicitly against traditional Greek traditions and against the principle of intellectual authority. Facts are determined by nature, not by books or men-not even the pope.
•      The authors of this time, rejecting authority, believed that for the first time, with proper method, the human mind was looking on God’s work with understanding.
Francis Bacon (1561-1621)
–      Natural philosophy (science) must be separated from theology
–      The method of induction, from particular to the general, is tested by experiment
-Science is a dynamic, cooperative, cumulative enterprise.
–      Science is always self-correcting
Science and the Scientific Method
•      This class, and much of our field, assumes that the scientific method is the best method for answering questions in the physical, social, and political world.
•      Not everyone is convinced that the scientific method is obtainable or appropriate, but before you reject the approach you must first master it.
Why is a scientific approach better?
Even as far back as the pre-Socratics (6th/5th centuries BCE) like the Milesian physicists, who rejected the supernatural and religious explanations, scholars have argued for a more naturalistic and scientific approach.
