Thursday, March 10, 2011

MBA and philosophy -1

I have sometimes wondered the courses taught in my MBA are science or plain nonsense. There are two kind of knowledge: a priori and a posteriori. Mathematics is a priori: you don’t need to refer to experience to test the validity of mathematics. It is innate. A posteriori knowledge on the other hand has roots in experience. Physics, chemistry and other sciences belong to this category. Science is a generalization about the nature of the world. You observe facts and come up with a theory to explain it. Of course you can never be absolutely be sure about the truth of science. I think Popper uses falsification criterion. You can only falsify a scientific theory with reference to experience but you can never be sure that the theory is absolutely certain. For, we can observe only limited things and you cannot even be sure of observed things as your senses might deceive you or you have a defective memory.
Do MBA courses at least fall in the category of science? Let’s look at course by course. The fist and most interesting subject is Managing across Cultures. What is the certainty of Hofstede’s dimensions? 
To be continued....