Day Two: Epistemologies of Big Data
SDS 237: Data Ethnography
Lindsay Poirier
Statistical & Data Sciences, Smith College
Fall 2023
Pull out a piece of paper, and write three things you know to be true.
Turn to your neighbor and discuss:
- What does it mean that you know this to be true? What counts as knowing?
- How/through what means do you know this to be true?
- What are the limits of your knowledge on this?
Epistemology
- Greek words
- Episteme”: knowledge; understanding
- “Logos”: reason; argument
- Philosophical study of the nature and limits of knowledge
- What conditions must be met for us to say that we “know” something to be true?
- How do a group of people come to acquire knowledge?
What counts as knowledge?
Historically knowledge defined as “justified true belief”
Does knowledge exist independently of a knowing mind?
- Positivists claim yes, there is objective truth independent of a knower
- Interpretivists and constructivists claim no, truths are subjective or tied to a knowing mind
How do we acquire knowledge?
Empiricists claim that knowledge emerges from direct observation
Rationalists claim that knowledge emerges from logic and reason
…and then there’s testimony, memory, intuition, feeling
“New” Epistemologies of Big Data
- “End of theory” and the need for experimentation
- Knowledge creation is purely inductive
- Data can “speak for itself”; it is self-evident
- Patterns in data are inherently meaningful
- Meaning presented by data transcends context
…according to (Kitchin 2013)
How did this week’s reading critique some of these epistemologies?
Reading Discussion
What are the consequences of perceiving the work and technologies in big data and AI as “magic”?
- Assign someone to take notes and someone else to facilitate.
- To start, everyone will take a turn to offer their brief initial perspective.
- Open for broader discussion. The facilitator should keep time and ensure the conversation stays on topic.
- Prepare two bullet points that summarize the key takeaways from your discussion to report out.
Feminist Epistemologies
- All knowledge is embodied
- Contrast with disembodied knowledge - i.e. not tied to a specific body
- Bodies are situated in certain social positions and have a finite point of view (Haraway 1991)
- Critique of the “unmarked body,” the “God trick,” or the “view from nowhere”
- Knowledge is tied to particular standpoints
- Our experiences, what we’ve read, our education, our social positions, and what our bodies enable us to do, see, hear, taste, touch, and smell
- Factors are innumerable and unique to every person
marsroverdriver, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Day Two: Epistemologies of Big Data SDS 237: Data Ethnography Lindsay Poirier Statistical & Data Sciences , Smith College Fall 2023