boots in fairy land: ABC Julie Ford
Amazing serendipity buzzer: Transcendental flash
Bathwater fallacy: Fallacy of misplaced concreteness
Bridge: Operationalisation:
the magical link between ideas and
appearances
See
chapter eight
Cricket pitch: Test ground for scientific theories
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The testing is overseen by
umpires, including
Karl Popper, who
do not
agree about the rules. And the activities on the pitch are not always
cricket. They include dancing. An important use of the pitch is as a
large oblong area for laying out data in piles in order to perform
statistical tricks on
them.
Julie Ford's book was published in 1975. The first electronic
spreadsheets
appeared in 1978. The spreadsheet lays out data and analyses it much in
the same way as Julie's research assistants did laying out piles of data on
the cricket pitch.
Dervish dance: Formal choreography of testing rituals
Digging: Knowing, feeling, understanding
Do-it-yourself-multi-purpose-data-matrix: Classification of modes of
data stipulation which may be appropriate for social science purposes
See
chapter sixteen
Dwarves: Operationalisers by appointment to the
Fairy Courts
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Fairies: Ideas, potentially thoughts and/or images, manifestations
or
appearances. Fairy tale: Connection of idea in the form of an
explanatory story, or theory. Fairyland: Land of ideas. Any realm of
thought. Alternative universe.
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See
chapter two
Julie Ford argues that science has to begin with fairytales told about the
world. There are different levels of fairytale (page 80):
"Common sense provides us with a way of spinning fairy tales about what
might be going on 'out there', and while we continue to believe in them we
have a firm foothold in reality"
"At the same time, academics insist that the methods of reasoning on which
we rely as real people in the real world can be extended and organised into
paradigms
which, while still answerable to common sense, yet transcend it.
Thus grander fairy tales are spun..."
"And all the while even stranger sages tell stories that are stranger
still.."
Gold star: Honorific title awarded for faithfulness to deductive
methods in science. Gold star badge: Mark of gold star status.
Gold-star-
rabbit: One recognised as of gold-star
merit.
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Julie Ford only awards gold stars to those who support
falsification as the standard for testing:
"remember that the
test pitches used by Gold_Star Rabbits, and specified by such
distinguished
umpires as Sir
Karl Popper, are intentionally
aslant. The Gold-Star spirit
requires players to do their damnedest to falsify their research
hypotheses, not to
verify them." (Ford, J. 1975, p.403)
Library: Storehouse of written thoughts kept as knowledge.
See
chapter three
Lights: Guides
See
chapter ten
"It seems that you have already made one move down the dark
warren which leads from this
fairy-tale place to the lands of reality outside. You have moved
from your starting position under the sign puzzle to a part
illuminated by the implicit theory" [HUNCH?]." (p. 223)
The following lights are analytic theory - deductive nomological
explanation - hypotheses - research inventory - and,
finally, one's research strategy
Mock Turtle Soup: Positivistic inductivistic universe
See
chapter fourteen
Mountain: Solid conventions of academic scientific thought
"sociologists are no longer confined to an obscure corner in
the magical mountain of science. Over the last couple of decades they have
been taking an increasingly important place in the magical establishment"
(p.79)
"Karl Popper... lives in one of the towers at the top of the
mountain but, luckily, there is no need for us to go through all those
dreary laboratories to get there: we can get to his door by climbing up the
outside of the mountain and walking across a
sloping
cricket pitch" (p.97)
Rabbit: Scientist (but see
white rabbit)
Red: Positivistic
Red herring: Red herring
Sampling game: Process of selecting 'representative' samples
See chapters
fourteen and fifteen
Spider: Confusion or intimation thereof. Spider battle:
Philosophical brawl.
Statistricks: Statistical tricks. [Performed on
cricket pitch]
See
chapter nineteen
Thirty-nine stips: Contents of the
Do-it-yourself-multi-purpose-data-
matrix
Umpire: Philosopher of science [See
Cricket Pitch]
Underwear: Theory construction procedures [Have a look at
fairytales]
White: Idealistic
White Rabbit:
Science teacher
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Good research
Begins with
a fairy tale
You create a fairy tale
(called a theory)
which pretends to be a symbolic
replica of the real world
If it is a good (true) replica it will provide an explanation of
reality
that people feel they understand and it will enable you to make predictions
about what will happen in the real world
To find out if it is a good replica, you test it
(Ford, J. 1972.
Part 5)
Julie Ford's theory is reviewed by Stephanie Delgado in her essay
Science: the case for
imagination: Mary Wollstonecraft and
Julienne Ford
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