Concept: Level-2 in Inquiry

Formulation

Concepts, which are categorizations or classifications of data-L1, are the basic unit of organized knowledge. The unavoidable multiplicity and inherent diversity of data associated with any phenomenon can and must be reduced by grouping those that have a similarity. 

Science is about developing generalizations, principles and laws, which are abstractions from concrete specific data. These principles should enable prediction of future states or phenomena. So all knowledge depends on the quality of the intrinsic concepts.

Function: To provide a defined term that can be used to categorize data.
Concepts are also experienced as explaining phenomena in the sense that relevant data becomes an example or illustration of the concept.

Cumulation: Any phenomenon is now also categorized. To conceive at L2, it is necessary to have data-L1 that requires abstraction. Any actual object or event will have numerous, probably infinite, properties. So the abstraction isolates just one of these in accord with a particular interest or goal.

Features

Uncertainty Puzzle: Does it exist?
Concepts cannot be directly observed, only postulated via data. While concepts can be cleanly and tightly defined, reality itself is messy and ultimately ungraspable. As a result, concepts that do not exist are regularly created and may then persist tenaciously.
Example: Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, believed in phlogiston to his death.

Being a necessity for knowledge, concepts-L2 are used even where a tight fit with data-L1 is lacking or impossible. In these cases, concepts get operationalized by fiat and data is then taken to indicate the concept.

Inherent Error: Misconception. Misclassification.
This occurs when categorizations and distinctions are wrong, irrelevant or imaginary. Concepts may be corrected through more data collection (i.e. new observations) and clearer thinking. However, because concepts reify experience and are socially validated, that is not always easy.
More

Disciplines get developed around foundational concepts and inquirers are educated and socialized into them. Error has such profound consequences that it is handled by taking concepts for granted or regarding conceptual analyses as metaphysical and intrinsically doubtful.

Use of Numbers: Labeling.
If there are three relevant concepts (e.g. properties or variables) in a study, then they may be labeled 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

Locus of Control: External-social-objective.
Knowledge is a social concern because the efforts of individuals inquiring in diverse places and times must be compared, accumulated and integrated. While they may differ in their observations, they need to agree on the meaning of their concepts. So concepts are objective and shareable, and their definition can and should be under social control. Often international committees are set up to establish the definition of common terms (i.e. their conversion into univocal concepts) or to introduce new necessary concepts.
Example: WWWC

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international body that sets standards for the web. The main concern is to reduce incompatibility amongst web vendors in their use of HTML. A core aspect of this work is establishing definitions for key terms.

Relation to Other Domains

Concepts are part of Inquiry-PH2, but Inquiry-RL2 is necessary to develop and properly define usable concepts-L2. That is why armchair invention of concepts for a particular study is so unsatisfactory.

Concepts need to be developed and defined over time with observed phenomena in mind. The research community needs specific checks and tests for validity and usefulness via data from rigorous observations e.g. the ether was a concept used as the medium for transmission of electromagnetic waves, but the famous Michelson-Morley experiments found no evidence for it. «Mind» is a concept that many use in studying psychological phenomena, and yet the present taxonomy study regards it as a generator of confusion with no useful unambiguous empirical reference.

Conceptualizing typically involves the creation of a special term : L5 in communication-PH5. So any name whose use is sharply restricted to one meaning is equivalent to a concept.

Taxonomic names fall into this category:
so they can be concepts defined by the function that is named.

Concepts also resemble ideas : L4 in experience-PH4. However, ideas only come alive through emotional engagement—they need to be embraced. Concepts merely need to be accepted and used. A concept with an ad hoc personal definition is little more than a preferred idea, and as such cannot make an effective scientific contribution.
Blurring in Social Sciences

In many social science inquiries, concepts appear to flow from ideas of the investigator, and then get defined for a particular study or a short series of studies. There appears to be little social control. If the investigator is clever and powerful, then the sheer number of studies may force the concept into popular use at least within a particular institution because prestige and careers get entangled with validity. This intrusion of subjectivity represents a failure of the investigator and/or the discipline.

Conceptions-RsHG2⁴ is a formal name used to focus relevant thinking and communication about a situation requiring creative handling. See more. The verb in the Root framework is conceive, which is distinct from conceptualize in Inquiry.

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• Concepts-L2 alone are insufficient: they must be given value, which forces a move up to the next level: comparison-L3.

Originally posted: 23-Aug-2015.