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Problem Finding

 

 

Asking the right question (Max Wertheimer)
Problem Formulation (Robert K. Merton)

 

 

Asking right questions

[1968, First Edition 1945] Max Wertheimer, Productive Thinking 
“... the function of thinking is not just solving an actual problem, but discovering, envisaging, going into deeper questions. Often, in great discoveries the most important thing is that a certain question is found.”
(Chapter 4, p. 141)

 

Problem formulation

[1965, First Edition 1959] Robert K. Merton, Sociology Today 
"... we can distinguish three principal components in the progressive formulation of a problem" :
1  Originating Questions :
        - what one wants to know.
2 Rationale for the Question :
        - why the question is worth asking.
3  Specifying Questions :
        - possible answers to the originating questions. 
“The originating question must ... be recast to indicate the observations [the empirical materials] that will provide a provisional answer to it. Only then has the problem been definitely posed.”
(from Introduction : Notes on Problem-Finding in Sociology, pp. xiii-xxvi)

 

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