Plato being the first one to utter the question, "what is knowledge?" Frustratingly leaving it unanswered but at least revealing a technique of finding it (dialectic). Propose an answer to the question, test it with the counter statement and see if the answer is valid. He also provided a broad idea where and how to look for it (empiricism). Kant then was the first one to somewhat answer this question but also disagreeing with the concept of empiricism. Because if only things we see is true, Copernicus would not have been able to discover the planetary rotation. Kant argues that knowledge is what our mind makes of the perception we have. But this means, knowledge has to be existing within the mind before hand, otherwise we would be unable to categorize our perception. Whether it helps to read Kants original / translated work to understand him is still highly arguable as he makes up words on the go as well as not finishing his sentences within a page.
Adorno & Horkheimer as well as Benjamin where then examples of this knowledge development being used in practice, but also revealing how knowledge development is heavily dependent on the historical time it is being conducted in. They where heavily influenced by the political views at the time. And while arguably agreeing with one of the major political concept (communism), it let to them being driven away by the other (fascism). Especially the different points in time their two texts where written in show how much personal experience as well as history and society can shape ones view on a topic. Benjamins text was written in the mid 1930s before the war. He argued that technology has a revolutionary potential and can change culture and society by for example making art available to the masses. Adorno and Horkheimers text, written in 1944 at the peak of the second world war, argues in a very different direction. They see conceptualization and generalization as a very dangerous tool to oppress people. Their experience of the war made them realize that technology did in fact not spark a revolution as Benjamin might have hoped, but instead made people oblivious towards the discrimination and insanity of fascism.
After that came the themes about theory and the different research methods. At this point it does not really make sense to differentiate between the different weeks as all of these later themes serve one purpose: teaching the methods of knowledge production. It starts of with trying to define what a theory is. That being said, the definition is hard to pinpoint and depends on the field of research. And as seen in case study research, sometimes there isn't even a theory involved. Hence I am unsure if it maybe would have been more beneficial to the learning outcome to start with the case study research, whose goal it is to find a research question using both quantitive as well as qualitative methods, and then dive into qualitative and quantitative methods to try and answer said question in depth which in the end will lead to a theory. With the order provided I only had an "Aha!" moment at the very end when all the topics somewhat got combined and connected.
As a summary I would say case study research examines a phenomena within a confined space. Researchers mostly do so to find new possible research questions that might lead to new theories. After coming up with a research questions, qualitative as well as quantitative research can be used to better understand, if not answer the question definite. Usually qualitative methods such as interviews can reveal further problems that could be worth researching. They provide a deeper insight in the topic, not only revealing pure answers or numbers, but peoples reactions. Quantitive methods are usually used for proving certain theories or the existing of certain concepts or phenomena. Research through design, in my opinion, follows a similar approach as case study research. It tries, like case study research, to understand a phenomena better, only in research through design it has a more practical approach and more of a "learning by doing" attitude towards it. Furthermore research through design will have a prior hypothesis which case study research often does not have.
So in conclusion I see this course as a brief look upon "research" history with the first one to ask what knowledge is, with the first one to give some explanation, with it then being applied and put into perspective regarding difficult political times. And after the history explaining the nowadays usual approaches and methods for research and knowledge development.
All of this provided in a way that helps memorize it very well. In the beginning of this period I saw a lecture on how to improve your study skills. One of the main concepts they were mentioning is the repetition of learning and the use of before, during and after. First one reads about something, or learns in any other way. That is the initial seed planted in the memory. This is before. By reviewing the topic one gets the second input, maybe sees a connection where one did not see a connection in the beginning. Watering the seed and the growing sprout. This is during. And thirdly by expressing the learned material and talking about it, the knowledge is fully implanted in the memory. One has now harvested the fruit of the learning, so to speak. This is after. In this course the initial blog post was the before, the lecture, seminar and review are the during and the comments are the after.
I have to say, even though some of the learned material was anything but fun (Kant) I still remembered the basic ideas behind all of it and only had to look back at the themes for some of the details of it. I think this is due to the way this course is structured.
Theme 1 comments
https://u1h4muxc.blogspot.se/2016/09/theme-12.html?showComment=1473764464618#c2918667858034523921
https://u1eqtjc8.blogspot.se/2016/09/reflection-of-theme-1.html?showComment=1473779185326#c5259973141199493285
https://u17fpbu5.blogspot.se/2016/09/post-theme-1-theory-of-knowledge-and.html?showComment=1473798729501#c3213290756409258332
https://u1gixy4z.blogspot.se/2016/09/after-theme-1-theory-of-knowledge-and.html?showComment=1473799402448#c8605595013082827968
https://u12vkokq.blogspot.se/2016/09/reflections-on-theme-1-theory-of.html?showComment=1473860823492#c6981471743826030304
https://scarsickbg.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-1-blog-post-2-reading-plato-and.html?showComment=1473931654381#c7179862279740163400
https://u11zdo9t.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-1-post-2.html?showComment=1473934358141#c1703227013943573258
https://u1wdx0i7.blogspot.com/2016/09/post-theme-1.html?showComment=1473938161133#c5473981994734540319
Theme 2 comments
https://u1eqtjc8.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-2-reflection.html?showComment=1474887290740#c3851414234500845336
https://u1h02pv3.blogspot.com/2016/09/reflection-on-theme-2-critical-media.html?showComment=1474898863881#c5042938395913544904
https://u10o7oqf.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-2-critical-media-studies-part-2.html?showComment=1474900847679#c7733749200868865975
https://u1j8du7c.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-22.html?showComment=1474902770382#c6357769574455351708
Theme 3 comments
https://dm2572-16.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-32.html?showComment=1475488754803#c2190302578942542738
https://u1wdx0i7.blogspot.com/2016/09/post-theme-3.html?showComment=1475498997723#c1502758892994691952
https://u1c051gg.blogspot.com/2016/09/reflection-research-and-theory.html?showComment=1475504558100#c676034275323579696
https://u17fpbu5.blogspot.com/2016/09/post-theme-3-research-and-theory.html?showComment=1475505602578#c6894206975222962145
https://u1dn0y6t.blogspot.com/2016/09/post-reflection-theme-3.html?showComment=1475521014057#c1853903353882532532
Theme 4 comments
https://u1mv5a16.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-4-second-blog-post.html?showComment=1476025393748#c8448619808523569336
https://u1j8du7c.blogspot.com/2016/09/42.html?showComment=1476026495758#c6165095856999894167
https://u1gixy4z.blogspot.com/2016/10/post-theme-4-quantitative-research.html?showComment=1476041176626#c9013571040325655453
https://u1eqtjc8.blogspot.com/2016/10/theme-4-reflection.html?showComment=1476042133395#c4730364890765352590
https://u1h4muxc.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-42-reflection.html?showComment=1476043703755#c9089366501836978249
Theme 5 comments
https://u12vkokq.blogspot.com/2016/10/reflections-on-theme-5-design-research.html?showComment=1476705186988#c28657435551133683
https://u1818rgq.blogspot.com/2016/10/theme-5-design-research-post-2.html?showComment=1476706267484#c1878077589175800836
https://u1j8du7c.blogspot.com/2016/10/theme-52.html?showComment=1476707125308#c5311465017390035838
https://u1dn0y6t.blogspot.com/2016/10/post-reflection-theme-5.html?showComment=1476708134561#c565523632806498640
https://pgd7117.blogspot.com/2016/10/theme-5-reflection.html?showComment=1476709561170#c2296859210113897094
Theme 6 comments
https://u1dn0y6t.blogspot.com/2016/10/post-reflection-theme-6.html?showComment=1477249094750#c4363235026993493055
https://u11zdo9t.blogspot.com/2016/10/theme-6-post-2.html?showComment=1477300999619#c5658454538012560098
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