Why is it Called Doctor of Philosophy and Why Choosing Appropriate Research Philosophical Paradigm is Indispensable During Ph.D. Program in India?

Abstract

Purpose: A scholarly description, explanation, and claim about reality and a piece of complete knowledge about reality are only possible if such a reality is explained using many possible philosophical paradigms and perspectives. Owing to such importance of ‘philosophy’ the purpose of this article is to explain the essence of ‘philosophy’, briefly describe various available research philosophical paradigms in doctoral-level research, and recommend an ideal model that would encourage Ph.D. scholars in India to carry out doctoral-level research that is aimed at improving knowledge about a reality using different research philosophical paradigms and perspectives.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Postmodernism philosophical paradigm; Inductive research approach; Observation data collection method; Longitudinal data collection time frame; Qualitative data analysis.

Findings/Result: The word ‘philosophy’ exists in the Ph.D. degree ‘by choice’ and it is indispensable in doctoral-level of scientific and scholarly research. As long as the Ph.D. scholars can understand all the available research philosophical paradigms and make mindful choices of paradigms to answer their research question they will be able to determine (on their own) all the other choices in succeeding steps of doctoral-level research such as i) research approach; ii) data collection method; iii) data collection time frame; iv) sample size; v) sampling technique; vi) data collection instrument; vii) data analysis techniques; so on.

Originality/Value: There is a vast literature about research philosophy. However, there are only a few explanations about the essence and existence of the word ‘philosophy’ in the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree program. In addition, there are only a few stakeholders in the research education system who encourage Ph.D. scholars to choose a research philosophical paradigm that is uncommon in a discipline. Through this article, we have attempted to explain the purpose of the existence of the word ‘philosophy’ in addition to recommending the CRPhP model that encourages scholars to involve all perspectives and paradigms of a reality/phenomenon leading to complete and final knowledge about that reality/phenomenon.

Paper Type: Conceptual model.