Let us leave aside cynicism and concentrate upon what we are doing when we study something. There are two important ways of approaching this. There are two ways of viewing what we are doing when we start out as students.
Think of walking along the path. We can look at the path on which we are to walk. We can look at our action in walking. We can look at the student path. Or we can look at ourselves making progress down this path.
The first is to identify the basic elements of our world-view and to then relate them to our student path. This way we look at this path in relation to all the other paths (or activities) we can take. By approaching our studies in this way we begin to explain the meaning of our studies by comparing and contrasting it with other activities available to us. And so we view ourselves going down the path of study as but one way of giving expression to the meaning and purpose of our lives. It then becomes possible to discuss the meaning and purpose of our studies - studying is one of the many things we can do in life. It has its own character and demands us to respect it in its own terms.
The second way is a more demanding way. We don't only look at the path and compare and contrast it with other paths; we don't only look at study and compare it with family life, shopping, sport, work and the arts. We begin to look carefully at what we are doing when we study. We consider the way we study the things lying along our path. We are required to look closely at the different things that are placed on our path and we learn to look out for particular things. We begin to address the question of the kind of thinking that is required of us in our studies. At first we talk and reflect in general terms and as we go alone we begin to discover peculiar ways of thinking and doing things that are peculiar to our particular study path.
The first way of view the student path relates to what can be called "world-view" issues. How does study fit in with everything else that exists? The second way begins to explore the particular characteristics of what we call scientific reflection. The term "science" is used here as a general term which means disciplined knowledge/ study; scientific knowledge is possible in a variety of areas.
You will have noticed that I made a sharp distinction between these two fundamental ways of exploring study. There are two sets of questions which all students face as they start out on the road to being a student. The first set of "world-view" questions involves questions like :
Ø what is my world-view and what are its basic principles?
Ø from where can I obtain an authoritative statement of the principles of my world-view?
Ø how do I refine my understanding of these principles?
Ø how does my world-view help me relate the scientific path I am on to all the other activities in my life?
At this point we are discussing how a student relates to "world-view". Those of us who take up the task of studying, in whatever area that might be, have questions about "world-view", which those who are not students will not have to worry about. We may all have to answer some basic questions in some way or other, but when students consider their "world-view" they can't help but ask questions that relate to their work as students. Not everyone has to ask the questions which seem so natural to seriously-minded students.
When we seek answers to these questions we get a picture of study “from above”, an “overview”; as well we begin to develop a view of all the different areas of life which can be studied and we relate them to each other in some framework within the full gamut of our human responsibility. We begin to carefully compare and contrast our studying activity with, say, gardening, music or sport. And immediately we notice that some students study agriculture or horticulture, others attend the conservatorium and still others have enrolled in sports management courses. So you'll appreciate that the above "world-view" questions are as relevant for them as for any one else. They do not go away - they are intrinsic to whatever course a student may enrol in.
There is the other set of questions which we now need to consider. These are concerned not so much with how our studies relate to the other things that we do but with how we understand the nature and character of study itself. You'll probably already have grasped the fact that these two sets of questions cannot be separated into closed-off compartments in our thinking. We separate them in a peculiar way; we distinguish them one from the other. We say this because in truth they cannot be separated absolutely. They are always at work mutually reinforcing each other. We cannot begin to address the second set of questions without having some basic understanding of the issues raised by the first set.
I've used the word "study" a lot here. I could have used the term "science". It would fit just as well, but in everyday parlance science takes on a more specialised connotation and in many areas of science it is viewed as a bookish and laboratory thing for experts. But there are indeed sciences of horticulture, musicology and management and we'll come back to this. It is important.
In a rough-and-ready way we could say that the first set of "study questions" addresses the question : Who am I when I engage in any human activity, includes studying? By addressing this question and developing a coherent answer we indeed begin to give ourselves an overview of the scientific task. But as we address this question we also contribute to our own maturation as a member of a family, as a citizen, as a friend, as an employee.
The second key question is science specific and is goes like
this : What is it precisely that I am doing when I am engaged in such study? Via this question we take
a stand which is also at the very beginning of the scientific task itself.
If you have followed and understood what I have outlined above about the two sets of questions we ask when setting out on the student path, you may have begun to understand how the cynical approach, outlined in the first chapter, comes about. To the cynic, the "meaning question" needs to be short-circuited by "getting on with it." But in fact it is the cynical approach which is short-circuited when we adopt the approach I have outlined here. Cynicism tries to ignore the questions everyone has to answer, and so will not see any value in distinguishing the two sets of questions we ask as we set out on the student path.
This book is a book about social science. And that is why for much of our discussion we will be concerned with issues that flow from the second set of questions. It is a matter of scientific emphasis to do it this way. But I hope I have said enough to demonstrate that we will not be able to make much progress if we fail to attend to the first set of (world-view) questions which requires us to adopt an intensely personal engagement with our work as committed students. To put it simply: we need to think about what we are doing!
As we do so we deepen our awareness of how our experience hangs together. Our experience, as ours, has its own human character. This experience is multi-facetted. Science finds its place within ambit of our experience. It has its own character, its own distinctive integrity, its own distinctive way of relating to everything else we experience. We might say that science deals with two great truths: God has created things, each with its own peculiar character; and God has so ordered the things He has created that each thing is related in a variety of ways to every other thing.
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August 2004 © A
Christian Calling in Social Theory and Research is a work written by Bruce
C Wearne (PhD), 29 Lawrence Rd., Point Lonsdale Vic 3225 AUSTRALIA,
61-3-5258-3913. Each chapter may be photocopied or retransmitted in its
entirety only with full acknowledgement of the author and the source. It shall
not otherwise be reprinted or transmitted without permission. This
personal project aims to encourage a positive Christian student
engagement in universities around the world which need to better understand the
vocation of science as an expression of our love for God and our
neighbour. Your comments are welcome. Email can be sent to bcwearne@ozemail.com.au
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bcwearne/index.html