Ranganathan’s Spiral:An Aerial View of Scientific Method

Abstract

t is a novel contribution to the literature on research methods.It provides a practical model to teach the theory of research process. At thesame time also depicts the difference between science and humanities orbetween the maturity of various sciences. Spiral emphasizes that science is a mode of study and investigation, rather any fixed area of knowledge. Not only this a discipline must get into the cycle of the spiral to get the status of a science. A non-science of yesterday may become science today only by moving into the spiral scientific method to develop new knowledge, test the earlier prevailing notions, and letting go the baseless presumptions. It is not necessary to complete the circle. Most of the researches windup in the second quadrant. It is not expected of them to move further. Spiral vividly demarcates the line between sciences and non-sciences. Ranganathan was a positivist in research. Tough in personal life he was orthodox, even superstitions informs his son T. Ranganathan Yogeswar (1932-2016) with many anecdotes.20 Positivism philosophy regards social sciences methodologically equivalent to natural sciences. Rather the line between social sciences and natural sciences is unwarranted. Difference is only of stages and objects of study. Further the spiral graphically delineates the structure of the research process and the way it progresses on its path; and the mode in which the different stages of the research enquiry are inter-linked. Ranganathan also applied the spiral in the creation and perpetuation of what he called ‘thought energy’21. Endlessness of the spiral shows the knowledge to be ever fragmentary, so ever growing. In brief, the spiral is an abstract model to concretely show the path a researcher has to wade through and the possible points of danger and bottle-necks on the way. It is Ranganathan’s uncanny imagination to put the complex process of research in so easy a format.