QUANTITATIVE VS.

QUALITATIVE REASEARCH
PART-I
POPULAR VIEWS
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 PARAPHRASE OF THIS
VERSE

1. The human mind is inaccessible.

2. The human mind is veiled.
3. The human mind cannot be quantifiable in terms of outer space-time.
4. I cannot make an entry into this dense mind.
5. If I can mingle my mind with that deeper mind, I may have an access to my identity.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Analysis
Please Note that they are put in a way—
 As if they are in binary opposition.

 They are antonyms.

The questions are:

 What are the differences?

 Are antonyms antithetical to each other?

 Do we find anything beyond binary oppositions? N-

nary possibilities?
We must keep in mind such questions and we will
always question any imperatives or
injunctions.
 “WHY”-QUESTIONS ARE
PROHIBITED IN SCIENCE
•Reasoning begins with facts.
•Facts are being observed and collected from the
objectified space. These “corpus” is recorded in
scientific notations.
•These facts are tested and scrutinized in a controlled
environment. This is the stage of experiment.
•Objectified subjects are now in an ideal laboratory
state.
•The tested facts are compounded in a more general
statements, i.e. natural law is “discovered” by
applying rules for discovery.
•After completing this inductive as well as empirical
investigations, the results are discussed without
putting any why-questions.
 POPULAR/KNOWN VIEWS ON
THIS POLEMIC--I
SUBJECTIVE-OBJECTIVE DIFFERENCE
 QL: Researcher tends to become

subjectively immersed in the subject

matter. Subjective - individuals
interpretation of events is important, e.g.,
uses participant observation (Ethno-
methodology), in-depth interviews etc.
Therefore, it is more subjective as it
describes a problem or condition from the
point of view of those experiencing it.
 QN: Researcher or objective observer
tends to remain objectively separated from
the subject matter. Objective analyst seeks
precise measurement & analysis of target
concepts, e.g., uses surveys,
questionnaires etc. It is more objective:
provides observed effects (interpreted by
researchers) of a program on a problem or
condition.
 What is objectivity? What is
subjectivity?
The difference between –
 I (subject)

 Non-I (object)

There are subsequent 2 –“isms” on the

subject of knowledge:
 Realism

 Idealism
 RUSSELL’S QUESTION???
“We all start from ‘naïve realism,’ i.e., the doctrine the
things are what
they seem. We think that grass is green, that stones are
hard and snow is cold. But physics assures us that the
greenness of grass, the hardness of stones, and coldness
of snow are not the greenness, hardness and coldness
that we know in our own experience, but something very
different. The observer, when he (sic) seems to himself
(sic) to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be
believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself
(sic). Thus science seems to be at war with itself:
when it most means to be objective, it finds itself
plunged into subjectivity against its will. Naïve
realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows that
naïve realism is false. Therefore naïve realism, if true, is
false; therefore it is false.” (Russell, 1940:15)
Then how could we distinguish
between

Facts
&
 Fiction?
 Anthropocentric limit
Anthropos= human being or homo
Keywords: Subject of knowledge, subject-object,
sapiens essence/ true nature, structure, signifier-
enlightenment,
signified (in relation to Realism and idealism), foundation of
science, Naïve Realism. (The debate between)
Realism/objectivism and Idealism/subjectivism, positional
subjectivity versus positional objectivity, egocentricism,
verification and induction, hermeneutics, falsification,
standpoints, perception, truth-room(s), (problems of)
scientific objectivism, Hermeneutics.
 POPULAR/KNOWN VIEWS ON
THIS POLEMIC--II
INDUCTION-DEDUCTION
 QL.The design emerges as the study unfolds. There is
no presupposition. Researcher may only know
roughly in advance what he/she is looking for.
Qualitative data is less able to be
generalized. Primarily inductive process used to
formulate theory

 QN:All aspects of the study are carefully designed

before data is collected. There is/are presuppositions.
Researcher knows clearly in advance what he/she is
looking for. Primarily deductive process used to test
pre-specified concepts, constructs, and hypotheses
that make up a theory
What is Induction?
What is deduction?
 In case of induction, one can infer
from particular to general “truth” and
in case of deduction, one can infer
from general truth to particular
“truth”.
 Misnomers
 QN depends on Model-theoretic
approach.
But, Model-theoretic approach does
not entail deductive process—
 As data (particulars) is also collected

to fit it in a certain model

 Generalization has to be done AFTER

data-collection
Sherlock Holmes’ Misnomer
 Sherlock Holmes’ Misnomer
 In A Study in Scarlet, there is a chapter
on “The Science of Deduction”
 However, it is “The Science of Induction”
 Why?
 Holmes collected huge data.
 Then observed it.
 Then, after generalization, he made
predictions on the basis of his
experiences.
Classic instances of deduction-1
 Stars with light rays that passed near the
Sun would appear to have been slightly
shifted because their light had been
curved by its gravitational field of the
adjucent bodies. (Einstein) DEDUCTION
 This effect is noticeable only during
eclipses, since otherwise the Sun's
brightness obscures the affected stars.
Eddington showed it by observing a solar
eclipse. INDUCTION
Classic instances of deduction-2
 “All humans are capable of creating infinite
sets of sentences out of finite sets of
words.” (Noam Chomsky)
From this general deductive truth, one can
infer deductively particulars like
 “ John, the speaker of English, capable of
creating infinite sets of sentences out of
finite sets of words.” And from these many
particulars, one can induct the universal or
general “truth” about creative
Speaking/Hearing Subjects.
What is Model-Theoretic approach?
Models are different kind of Truth
Rooms (TR) and they do have some
problem-solving capacity and certain
“truth(s)” of its own. By means of
mathematics and logic, models are being
hypothetically made to solve supposed
problems of economics, psychology or
linguistics or human science in general.
Models are served as blueprints for the
respective TRs of different sciences.
 Algocentric Discourse

A discourse that is motivated by metamathematical

formalism or computational algorithmic simulation
and which ignores the non-algorithmic constitutive
“rules” is called algocentric discourse.
 Some Models
 Game Theory
 Item Response Theoretic approach
 Different syntactic models proposed
by Chomsky to understand human
cognitive domain
 RUSSELL’S PARDOX
“One Calcuttan says that all Calcuttans
are liars”
 GOEDEL’S THEOREM
 no formal system is complete enough
to handle all the problems within a
formal paradigm (a Truth-Room or
Little Box).
Keywords:
Gödel’s Theorem, Russell’s
Paradox, Metamathermatics, Bell’s
Theorem, non-anthropocentric
social engagement, Model as a
closure, simulations, metonymic
transformation/approximation of
human beings into binary
alphabets.
 SOME ANTI-MODELS
 Paul Feyerabend
 Imre Lakatos

 J. Derrida

What are their anti-methods???

 POPULAR/KNOWN VIEWS ON
THIS POLEMIC—III
Number Counts
 “There's no such thing as
qualitative data. Everything is
either 1 or 0”
S/He, a homo spiens, cannot go
beyond anthropocentric binary
system.
Is it “true”?
 "all research ultimately has a

qualitative grounding"
QL:
 Text-based

 Deals with descriptions.

 Data is in the form of words, pictures or objects.

 largely depends on skill and rigor of the

researcher.

QN:
 Number-based -- deals with numbers. Data is in

the form of numbers and statistics.

 Statistical tests are used for analysis.

 largely depends on the measurement device or

instrument used.
 Structured techniques such as online

questionnaires, on-street or telephone interviews.

 What is number?
Is it invented/created or discovered?

•Numbers are invented by

human beings.
•Platonists thought god invented
it.
•Discoveries are made in
Mathematics after inventions.
•Mathematics is also a language
or metalanguage.
 When we are ascribing weights of numbers to human
beings, they are
1. REDUCED
2. CONDENSED
3. DISPLACED
Because, researchers are taking only the momentary
reactions of the subjects without considering subjects’
fragmentary identities in different contexts and
situations.
• We call this condensation as metonym.
• We call this displacement as metaphor.

COURTSEY: LACAN
“We are just numbers. I am
69N.”
-- A gold-mine-worker in Tagore’s play
Red Oleanders.
 Zeno’s paradox
 When the arrow is in a place just its
own size, it’s at rest.
 At every moment of its flight, the arrow

is in a place just its own size.

 Therefore, at every moment of its

flight, the arrow is at rest.

Then how do researchers capture a living
being, if such a paradox persists???
 THE SOLUTION
 CONSIDER THAT SUBJECT’S MOMENT
AS STATIC OR DEAD MOMENT.
 AND GENERALIZE—THAT’S ALL.
 ARE WE DEALING WITH DEAD
BODIES THEN?
 Kristeva’s Semanaysis
(Derived from Lacanian
Psychoanalysis)

 There is no stable subject with

transcendental ego.
 LAKATOS ANSWERED
“Nobody will doubt that some problems of
Mathematical theory can only be approached
after it has been formalized, just as some
problems about human beings (say concerning
their anatomy) can only be approached after
their death. But few will infer from this that
human beings are ‘suitable for scientific
investigation’ only when they are presented in
‘dead’ form, and that biological investigations
are confined in consequence to the discussion
on dead human beings-- although, I should not
be surprised if some enthusiastic pupil of
Vesalius in those glorious days of early
anatomy, when the powerful new method of
dissection emerged, had identified biology
with the analysis of dead bodies.” (Lakatos,
1976: 3)
 Violence & Science
If we are making dead bodies and
dissecting them, an ethical question
arises: is it not a violence?
It was answered by

ASHIS NANDY
 THEN

• Why are we researching?

• Why are we (re-)searching truth?
• What is “truth” really?
 FOUCAULT’S ANSWERS:
 It is anatomo-bio-political intervention
into the docile body of the subject.
Therefore,
1. It is subjection (for governmentality)

2. It is subjectification (birth of disciplines)

*State-statistics nexus*
1. It is objectification (making dead bodies)
 Are antonyms antithetical to each
other?
 Black market
 Black money

 Kala dibas (Black Day)

 Black mail

Therefore, “Black” means “bad”,

“ugly”.
 Then, what’s about
 Black man???
 Black woman???
This undicidability is called APORIA
It deals with
 Undecdable decidables

 Decdable undecidables

 Non-contradictory contradictions
IN SEARCH OF METHODS
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Bricoleur vs. Typecast engineer

•Claude Levi-Strauss

•Jaques Derrida

•Gilles Deluze

•Felix Guattari
•Typecast Engineer: There are
blueprints, presupposed models.

•Bricoleur: There is no blueprint,

presupposed models.
Plurimethod/anti-method.
Xduction .

•Work of Bricoleur = Bricolage

 Claude Levi-Strauss
bricolage means any spontaneous action,
further extending this to include the
characteristic patterns of mythological
thought. The reasoning here being that,
since mythological thought is all
generated by human imagination, it is
based on personal experience, and so the
images and entities generated through
'mythological thought' rise from pre-
existing things in the imaginer's mind.
 'mythological thought’
Jung to Girindrasekhar Basu—a long
tradition in Psychoanalysis

Yayati Complex
(to be discussed latter)
 Jaques Derrida
"If one calls bricolage the necessity of
borrowing one's concept from the text
of a heritage which is more or less
coherent or ruined, it must be said
that every discourse is bricoleur."

[ this enunciation is suffering from

“ativyapti dosa”]
 MIRA MUKHERJI
IN SEARCH OF VISWAKARMA

Viswakarma:Apparently dispersed community of

bricoleurs, who call themselves as Visvakarmas or
son of Visvakarmas, a group of engineers devoted
to technological inventions in the realm of almost
all the 64 kalas that include architecture,
musicology, civil engineering, art etc.
 Viswakarma the bricoleur
Once Brahma was eager to see works
of different artisans from the different
parts of the country. After all the other
workers finished the job, Visvakarma
had come and made a camel out of
some garbage without any planning.
Due to the late coming of Visvakarma,
Brahma cursed him that Visvakarma
would not earn more than his work so
that there would be no savings.
 Gilles Deluze
Felix Guattari
Bricolage is

 the characteristic mode of production

of the schizophrenic producer .
 The production of divided selves.
 Brecht’s alienation effect

 Actor is at a time x and non-x

 S/he is at a time Hamlet and non-Hamlet

 S/he is at a time analyzer and analyzed.

 S/he has empathy and alienation.

THUS IT VIOLATES LAWS OF EXCLUDED

MIDDLE & it gives birth to a
schizophrenic self,i.e., a bricoleur.
It prevents the audience
from losing itself
passively and completely
in the character created
by the actor, and which
consequently leads the
audience to be a
consciously critical
observer . A PARTICIPANT
OBSERVER WITH
EMPATHY AND
ALIENATION.
 law of excluded middle
 In logic, the law of excluded middle so
known as the principle of excluded middle
or excluded middle or excluded third) is
the principle that for any proposition, either
that proposition i(al s true, or its negation is.
The principle can be expressed in either a
logical or a semantical form. The semantical
form uses the non-logical word "true", as
above. The logical form uses only logical
expressions "either", "or" and can be
expressed by the formula "P ∨ ¬P": "either P
or not P", where "P" is schematic.
PLURIMETHOD
“compare different
“theories with other
theories rather than with
‘experience’, ‘data’, ‘fact:’
and I will try to improve
rather than discard the
views that appear to lose
into competition”.
(Feyerabend, 1987: 33)
 JAINA ANEKANTAVADA
1. syadasti = May be, it is.
2. syatnasti =May be, it is not.
3. syadasti syatnasti ca = May be, it is and it is not.
4. syadavaktyavyah =May be, it is indeterminate.
5. syadasti avaktyavyasca = May be, it is and it is
indeterminate.
6. syatnasti ca avaktyavyasca = May be, it is not and it is
indeterminate.
7. syadasti nasti ca avaktyavyasca =May be, it is and it is
not
and it is indeterminate.