This course (taught in English) addresses doctoral students from all faculties of the Vienna University of Technology and is taught in cooperation with the University of Vienna. It gives both a theoretical overview on the foundations of (philosophy of) science and a hands-on introduction into practicing science and, more specifically, the process of creating radically/profoundly new knowledge. By completion of the course, students should be able to reflect the theoretical basis of their PhD thesis and to apply state-of-the-art knowledge creation tools.
The course design encompasses two parts:
1 | What is science?
In the first part, we explore what science is, what its goals are, what it does, how it works, what its limits are, and what are its basic assumptions about knowledge, methods, the world, etc. We take a closer look at the knowledge processes involved in developing scientific theories/models (e.g., observation, measuring, interpreting data, creating theories, planning and conducting experiments, etc.). These knowledge processes are reflected from the perspective of the participants´ respective discipline and research questions. It will become clear that the epistemological status of the resulting (scientific) knowledge is questionable and—as a consequence—we will have to question classical concepts of science, such as that science gives us a true and objective picture of the world, that science is independent of observer and cultural influences, etc. Alternative concepts, such as Kuhn’s scientific paradigms, the constructivist perspective, and others will be discussed as possible ways out.
2 | Knowledge Creation
The second - and main - part of this course addresses a crucial process in science: the generation of(radically) new knowledge. Students conduct a practical knowledge creation/ innovation project in interdisciplinary teams. The goal of this project is to achieve an expertise in state-of-the-art knowledge creation techniques (and their theoretical background), such as dialogue, reflection, world café, making implicit assumptions explicit, U-theory/presencing, different modes of deep observation, conducting generative interviews, deep knowing/understanding, methods from design thinking, etc. This part of the course aims at practically experiencing the socioepistemological process/technology of generating (radically) new (scientific) knowledge in an interdisciplinary and collaborative context.
Students are asked to do presentations, co-create new knowledge in knowledge creation teams and participate actively in the sessions. In addition they have to write a learning journal and regularly submit tasks.
