time Line 1975 research generating ideas

Amazing serendipity buzzer: Transcendental flash

Bathwater fallacy: Fallacy of misplaced concreteness

Bridge: Operationalisation: the magical link between ideas and appearances

Cricket pitch: Test ground for scientific theories

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.

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

Dwarves: Operationalisers by appointment to the Fairy Courts

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.

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.

Gryphon: Chance

Library: Storehouse of written thoughts kept as knowledge.

Lights: Guides

Mock Turtle Soup: Positivistic inductivistic universe

Mountain: Solid conventions of academic scientific thought

Rabbit: Scientist (but see white rabbit)

Red: Positivistic

Red herring: Red herring

Sampling game: Process of selecting 'representative' samples

Spider: Confusion or intimation thereof. Spider battle: Philosophical brawl.

Statistricks: Statistical tricks

Thirty-nine stips: Contents of the Do-it-yourself-multi-purpose-data- matrix

Umpire: Philosopher of science

Underwear: Theory construction procedures

White: Idealistic

White Rabbit: Science teacher

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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)