Alexa Schaaf

What is Method?
What exactly is method? That is the question many come to ask. A method
happens to be a broad system of rules and principles from which a specific
procedure may be formulated to interpret different sets of problems within the
scope of a particular discipline. When I first started this class, I heard the word
method and I immediately thought of the term scientific method. That is the only
place I had heard the term method used so much. And if you think about it, the
scientific method is observing and collecting data to formulate a hypothesis and to
come up with a conclusion to determine and explain why you got the results you
did. This is essentially what methodology is. Figuring out different ways to solve
problems. In this essay I am going to discuss how changing the method changes the
truths and outcomes.
When deciding what a method is, we first must determine what makes
something true. What is the real truth? Truth is inherent in our knowledge. To
determine truth, we need to take in to consideration what our senses are telling us
about our environment. There must be some type of method that helps us to figure
out if our interpretations of our senses are correct, incorrect or if they need some
revision. The scientific method helps to rule out some of these configurations. This
method is not only good at being able to figure out what is true, but even more
importantly figuring out the error.
In my seventh grade science class, it was the very first time we went over the
scientific method. We learned all about determining a question, and then from the
question formulate a hypothesis, and then go on to collect data and form
conclusions on the outcomes. We were told that we had to come up with a question
the interested us and to form an experiment about it to present to the class. I
thought this sounded like the coolest thing ever! I was so excited to become a real
live scientist.
The experiment that interested me the most was to see if the size of the ball
effected the height at which it bounced. I chose to use a basketball, soccer ball,
baseball, tennis ball, and a football. The hypothesis that I came up with was that the
smaller the ball was, the higher that it would bounce. So therefore I assumed that
the tennis ball bounced the highest followed by the baseball, then the football, then
the soccer ball, leaving the basketball to bounce the shortest of distances. This all
ties into the theory that changing the method changes the truths or outcomes. The
method of one of the balls changes for each individual balls itself. Each ball is made
up of different material to distinguish it from the others and they all have different
purposes. There is no right answer for any of these questions. There are variables
for the experiment that need to be held constant. Some of these variables may be
the amount of air that is in each ball, or maybe even using the same brand of ball
for each time you drop it. Determining how you measure the distance that the ball
travels also needs to be held constant. The way in which I measured it was by
holding a measuring stick straight up and down. I would drop the ball from the top

of the measuring stick and then I would have my partner, very closely, watch to see
where it landed. As you can see, there is some human error involved in this. But
that is something that has to be taken into consideration when talking about
methods and truths. Changing the different methods of doing things, will definitely
change the outcome of the product.
As it turned out, my hypothesis deemed correct. The tennis ball bounced the
highest, followed by baseball, football, soccer ball, and the basketball traveling the
shortest distance from the ground. I formed a conclusion from the data I collected. I
was feeling so high and mighty thinking I was a real live scientist. In actuality, I was
a scientist. If you think about it we are all scientists in a way. In the method of life
we are all trying to figure out our way in this world with all of the problems that are
put in front of our face. We try new things and the outcomes that are in our favor,
we keep doing that over and over again because that is something that works for
us. We learn from our mistakes by not doing the things that are not in our favor.
Changing the method is changing the truths. All together a method is the
study of the foundation of a passage. It investigates how one gets from one point to
another. This is how ones forms and ideas develop. Every method starts somewhere
and ends somewhere. Just like how the scientific method starts with the question
that you want to figure out and ends with the conclusion of the outcomes you
collected. This is now where we could start talking about the difference in the arche
and anarche methods. In arche, truth is the objective. Anarche rejects the notion of
truth as objective, out there and independent of method. Truth is inter-subjective.
In the experiment I conducted in my seventh grade science class, it could
have been seen in an arche or anarche light. Arche is seen as masculine and
adversarial because it can readily produce the effect that someone is right and
someone is wrong. In this aspect, there is always someone who is right and
someone who is wrong, and that there is a disposition between members in the
community where both members simply cannot be correct. This can relate to my
experiment very easily. Lets say that I believed that the tennis ball would bounce
the highest, as it did. The partner I chose to do the experiment with said that the
soccer ball would bounce the highest. We could both not be correct. Either the
tennis ball would bounce higher on various occasions or the soccer ball would
bounce the highest. We would have to test and see which one of us was correct. It
just so happened that my prediction was in fact the correct one, so that is what we
went with in our experiment. This arche way of believing is centered on power and
relationship. I had the power over my partner because I was right. Now lets shift
gears. My experiment could have also been seen in the anarche perspective. In this
vision, no one possess the truth; the truth is not something someone has. Truth
appears to the community through its collaboration and engagement with its
members. As groups come together, they collaborate such that neither one possess
the truth. This is seen as collaborative and feminine. My experiment could have
been tied to this way of looking at things in the way that going into the process,
neither of us thought that we were particularly right. We collaborated and talked our
questions and answers through to come to a general conclusion. I gave her my
ideas and she gave me hers. By taking these ideas into consideration and

collaborating on it, we came to a general conclusion for our hypothesis. We had

decided that my idea with the tennis ball bouncing the highest made the best
sense. It turned out that this worked in our favor because in fact the tennis ball did
bounce the highest distance from the ground. In any situation you can look at it
from either perspective. Either there is a right and a wrong, or no one possess the
truth, the truth is something that no body has. You have to find it in yourself to find
what you believe to be the truth.
From forming different methods you can form different beliefs. When you
believe something to be true, you most likely will believe and know what the
outcome will be. This seventh grade science experiment lead me to reflect on what I
had learned in this philosophy class about what methodology is and by changing
the methods, you will in turn get different truths and outcomes. The scientific
method is again observing and collecting data to figure out and come up with a
conclusion of your results. The method in this science makes all the more sense to
me now. A method is essentially just that, figuring out different ways to solve
problems and the best outcomes will be what you use. I was able to show you how
my scientific method could relate to the anarche and arche ways of seeing things.
Arche is the more direct way, in that everything has a right or wrong answer. Just
like in my experiment I was right and my partner was wrong. Along with the anarche
way, where we were able to collaborate and come to a general conclusion. By
establishing methods it is investigating how one gets from one point to another. It is
how ones ideas and beliefs develop in to what they believe to be true.