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¶ … philosopher Rene Descartes can be regarded as the supreme rationalist. Descartes believed that only through our rational minds could we fully know God and find evidence of God. Empirical knowledge was not sufficient justification to prove the existence of God because our senses could delude us or be faulty (such as through madness or blindness). In contrast, through rational inquiry we could first demonstrate our own existence on a mental plane: even if all is a delusion regarding the body there must be some 'mind' doing the thinking, rationalized Descartes. And, as the human mind can conceive of a greater intelligence known as God, a level of perfection human beings cannot approach, then within the very structure of our mind lies the evidence of God.
David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, however, takes the opposite, empiricist point-of-view. In the dialogue, three figures known as Demea, Cleanthes, and Philo engage in a debate over how and if God can be proven to exist. Cleanthes, in opposition to Demea and the Cartesian point-of-view,...
"You will find it to be nothing but one great machine...therefore, the effects resemble each other, we are led to infer, by all the rules of analogy, that the causes also resemble; and that the Author of Nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man, though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work which he has executed" (Hume 143). Philo, in contrast, is an absolute skeptic. "Nothing exists without a cause; and the original cause of this universe (whatever it be) we call God; and piously ascribe to him every species of perfection" (Hume 142). This, however, is due to our mental gymnastics, not to any innate causal connections that really occur.
Both the rationalist and the empiricist method can be used to justify the existence of God in a similar fashion. Because the mind can conceive of greater perfection than itself there is a God; because the world shows an…
Recommended during latter phases of research projects. Recommended during earlier phases of research projects. Projects in different areas are not linear in approach. All aspects of the study are carefully designed before data is collected. The design emerges as the study unfolds. The study of a drug interaction in x population is different than a study of language variation in y population. Researcher uses tools, such as questionnaires or equipment to collect numerical data. Researcher is the
Descrptive Design Research Method and Design Proposal A research design is the approach utilized for a study used as a guide in gathering and analyzing data. There are two popular methods of research; qualitative and quantitative research methods. Qualitative research is an inductive, holistic, subjective, and process-oriented method technique employed to understand, interpret, describe, and establish a theory on a given topic, phenomena, or setting. Investigators employ this technique when their studies
(Niglas, 2004) Stated to be research questions that should guide the empirical study design are those as follows: (1) How have quantitative and qualitative elements been related? What type of combined designs have been sued? What is the level of integration between qualitative and quantitative aspects of studies? (2) Why have the authors chosen to prefer multimethod or mixed design to monomethod approach? Do they offer a rationale for their choice? What
Indeed, as Muntaner (2003) posited in her research, qualitative methods can be included in a dominantly quantitative research design "in situations where qualitative research adds knowledge that would not be available via quantitative methods" (p. 55). Through a mixed-methods design, the researcher can provide better analyses and stronger interpretations and recommendations through balanced strengths of data reliability and validity -- that is, the achievement of "triangulation" in the research
gender discrepancies in regards to African-American education. There has been a noticeable, growing increase of the presence of African-American women in undergraduate and graduate education while the gap between African-American males and females has widened. The dissertation will use a mixed methods, grounded theory perspective to determine why this is the case. The overall theoretical perspective of the work will be rooted in critical race theory and poststructuralist concepts. Quantitatively
In 1960, this separation began to change. "Economists began to study voters as rational maximizers, politicians as entrepreneurs, and bureaucrats as suppliers in a market-like process of consumption, production and exchange. Political science has been profoundly affected by the outward thrust from economics, addressing as it has central issues in the discipline of political science" (p. 1173). Miller (1997) concludes that the most unambiguous benefit of economics on contemporary political