The paper was shaped around the pivotal question:
Is SE a sound and scientific field of research? The question has given a
critical tone to the paper and has also helped to bring out some of the
controversial debates in the realm of SE. The paper was organized under five main
discussions to be able to provide a scientific answer to the research question:
(1)<b> </b>is “social entrepreneurship” an oxymoron?, (2) the characteristics
of SE knowledge, (3) sources of social entrepreneurship knowledge, (4) SE
knowledge: structure and limitations and (5) contributing epistemology-making
concepts for SE.<b> </b>Based on the sections,<b> </b>the study relied on the relevant
philosophical schools of thought in <i>Epistemology </i>(e.g. <i>Empiricism</i>,
<i>Rationalism</i>, <i>Skepticism</i>, <i>Internalism</i> vs. <i>Externalism</i>,<i> Essentialism, Social
Constructivism</i>, <i>Social Epistemology,
etc.</i>) to
discuss these controversies around SE and proposes some solutions by reviewing
SE literature. Also, to determine the governing linguistic discourse in the
realm of SE, which was necessary for our discussion,<i> Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA)</i> for the first time in SE studies was used. Further,
through the study, SE buzzwords which constitute SE terminology were derived
and introduced to help us narrowing down and converging the thoughts in this
field and demarking the epistemological boundaries of SE. The originality of
the paper on one hand lies in its pioneering discussions on SE epistemology and
on the other hand in paving the way for a construction of sound epistemology
for SE; therefore in many cases after preparing the philosophical ground for
the discussions, it went beyond the prevalent SE literature through
meta-analysis to discuss the cases which were raised. The results of the study verified previously claimed
embryonic pre-paradigmatic phase in SE which was far from a sound and
scientific knowledge, although the scholarly endeavors are the harbingers of such
a possibility in the future which calls for further mature academic discussion
and development of SE knowledge by the SE academia.
The Independence Thesis: When Individual and Social Epistemology Diverge*
