Dai Bin: Bacon's Method and NOMA Principle of Theoretical Construction in Tourism Research

At the invitation of Professor Qin Yu, the editor in chief of Tourism Guide, Dean Dai Bin wrote a special article titled "Bacon's Method and NOMA Principles of Theoretical Construction in Tourism Research", originally published in the 5th issue of Tourism Guide in 2022 and reprinted in the 6th issue of Tourism Management in 2023. The hospital platform reposts this article in response to the theme of the 2023 China Tourism Science Annual Conference held in Beijing on April 23-24: Strengthening the Construction of the "Three Major Systems" and Promoting the Deep Integration of Culture and Tourism.

01 Liang Sicheng's Dule Temple and Bacon Method

In order to interpret Li Jie's "The Method of Construction" and promote the cultural traditions of the Chinese nation through the exploration of Chinese historical architecture, as well as to dispel the assertion of Japanese scholar Changpan Dading that "there is not a single one thousand year old wooden building in China and Korea", Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin traveled throughout northern China from 1932 to 1937 to conduct field investigations and surveys of ancient wooden buildings. Their first achievement was the "Study of Guanyin Pavilion Mountain Gate in Dule Temple, Jixian County". After 10 years of field investigation in more than 200 cities and counties and surveying thousands of ancient buildings, they formed the English manuscript "A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture" in 1946. The carefully drawn hand drawn illustrations and real-life architectural photos in the book, combined with extremely concise text, provide Western readers with a concise and clear overview of ancient Chinese architecture. In 1984, the book was officially published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press in the United States and was awarded the honor of "America's Best Publication" that year; In 2015, Readku reprinted and published the hand drawn drawing of Liang Sicheng's "Image History of Chinese Architecture", which has also become a classic work in architectural history. For enthusiasts of ancient architecture, reading texts and hand drawn drawings can also provide a general understanding of wooden buildings from different historical periods, regions, and cultures.

The classification, arrangement, and chronological comparison of research objects are the most commonly used research methods by natural science scholars, especially early naturalists. They are also the basic skills for social science and humanities researchers to enter the field, just like the "Eight Methods of Eternal Character" of calligraphy practitioners, the "Fu, Bi, Xing, Feng, Ya, and Song" of the Book of Songs, and the "Perfect Competition, Monopolistic Competition, and Oligopoly Monopoly" of economics, all of which are indispensable methods from the beginning to the end. This fundamental skill corresponds to the Western academic context, which is the 'Bacon method'. Darwin said in his autobiography, "My first notes began in July 1837. Guided by the true Bacon method, I collected facts on a large scale without any theory. The Bacon's method referred to here means that as researchers only record the observed facts, their logical inferences and theoretical constructions must and can only be objective processes based on these lists of facts. In the early stages of the transition from natural history to modern science, there was no established system for disciplinary classification and knowledge division, nor was there an overwhelming knowledge map. People observed, examined, and investigated out of curiosity or personal interest in science, rather than to confirm or falsify a priori viewpoint, and classified and stratified the results to study their internal connections and logical relationships. Looking at early scientific works now, many classify and stratify flowers, birds, fish, and animals, accompanied by photographic level photographs and textual descriptions of their characteristics. Until today, zoologists who study butterflies are still extremely happy to discover a new species. This "observation classification" method can also be seen in knowledge graphs such as the periodic table of elements in chemistry, the hierarchy of needs in psychology, and the processes and standardization in management. The formulation of the "Regulations on the Administration of Travel Agencies" and the "Classification and Evaluation Standards for Tourist Hotel Stars" that we are familiar with, as well as the construction of provincial-level, national level, and world-class resort areas, follow the same logic of hierarchical classification, but may lose the patience of early naturalists in the early observation stage. Like literature, history, and philosophy, early Western philosophy and science were equally inseparable. Among the group of scholars proficient in using Bacon's method, there are no shortage of supporters of empiricism. In my limited reading experience, empiricists left three profound impressions on me: first, John Locke's discussion on science and philosophy, where he regarded scientists like Newton and Boyle as the true architects of the knowledge building, while philosophers were hired workers, "cleaning the ground slightly and sweeping away some garbage on the road to knowledge. The garbage he wants to sweep away is mainly the rationalist view that "certain ideas can be acquired not by experience, but by nature". The second is George Berkeley's view that "some principles that initially seemed to lead to skepticism, when applied to a certain extent, will bring people back to common sense" (Jeremy Steingrum, James Garvey, 2014). Because of this statement, we no longer see empiricism - often associated with skepticism - as a depressing doctrine, but as a force that can resist nothingness, melancholy, and delirium. The third is David Hume, who was referred to by philosopher historian David Pierce as the "most outstanding philosophical companion". "When you read Hume's works, it's almost like he's in your room. Hume, who believed that he had an uncontrollable aversion to everything except philosophy and general knowledge, was also the author of "A Treatise on Human Nature". Hume's hometown was Edinburgh, Scotland, which was a "hotbed of knowledge" for cultivating scientists, thinkers, artists, and poets. Economist Adam Smith and poet Robert Burns were both from there. Compared to Bacon's method, there is also the "Cartesian method" or mathematical method: starting from a reliable foundation, carefully and slowly moving forward, exploring bit by bit, and gradually obtaining truth, like doing mathematical proof problems, deriving theorems based on definitions and axioms. In the heyday of science, people believed that rationality alone could free them from the troubles brought by uncertainty and recognize all the truths that must be understood. However, even within the narrowest scientific community, there is no consensus on the Cartesian method. Immanuel Kant wrote in "Critique of Pure Reason" that "concepts that are not connected to intuition in some way cannot produce knowledge; intuition that is not connected to concepts in some way cannot produce knowledge", and "ideas without content are hollow, and intuition without concepts is blind" (Stephen Jay Gould, 2020). Whether it is engineering experiments in natural sciences or thought experiments in social sciences, we will use deductive methods. In the eyes of some novice researchers, deductive methods seem to be easier or more scientific than inductive methods.

Returning to the theme of tourism research. Do we also need to confirm whether we are using the Bacon method or the Cartesian method before deciding on our next move? Do I also need to stay at the "Dule Temple" for a period of time before making a formal statement? The answer is affirmative. For contemporary tourism scholars, observation, classification, and description are fundamental skills that require lifelong practice. To achieve this, we need to experience the natural environment of mountains and rivers, immerse ourselves in the narrative system of cultural heritage, and gain a deep understanding of the diverse market explorations and business practices of various market entities such as travel agencies, online travel agents, hotels, homestays, scenic spots, resorts, duty-free shops, etc. We also need to go to the consumption scenes and activity sites of mass tourists, and be familiar with the thoughts and actions of tourists and operators like familiar with the patterns on our palms. Among them are celebrities and politicians, as well as our elders and brothers; There are senior managers of international branded hotels, as well as homestay owners and restaurant servers; There are wealthy and leisure travelers who buy a first-class flight ticket to Hyde Park in London to feed pigeons for an afternoon before returning to Hong Kong. There are also elderly tourists who knowingly sign up for a low-priced tour, even if they are frequently looked down upon, and never go to the store to buy anything. They take out dry rations at mealtime and enjoy a cold meal. When the object of field research shifts from objects to people, from nature to society, theories, methods, and means all undergo changes, and self ethnography, participatory surveys, and action research become important.

More than 20 years ago, during the process of writing my master's thesis "Research on Modern Hotel Groups" and doctoral thesis "Research on the Transformation and Change of Chinese State owned Hotels", my biggest confusion was how to solve the problems of theory and practice, abstraction and concreteness, and the "mountain and water barrier" between academia and industry. I am familiar with the definitions of enterprises by Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, Ronald Coase, and Ryutaro Komiya. I have read biographies of entrepreneurs such as Konosuke Matsushita, Lee Iacocca, and Bill Gates, but I have never stayed in any state-owned hotels, nor do I know any general managers or department managers. I have no sense of the environment, nor do I understand what leaders and employees of state-owned hotels are doing and thinking. What should I do? We need to explore from the county, city, and provincial levels, from small to large, from few to many, gradually accumulating connections, cases, and experience. Every process and every node requires hard work in order to gain a sense of reality. Gradually, the concepts, knowledge, and theories from books are restored to reality, and then the information, data, cases, and human relationships obtained from practice are categorized and included in Bacon's "little box". With the soil of reason and the words of spirituality, it is cultivated into its own "tree of knowledge".

02 Frost's' The Untreated Road 'and the Social Sciences Towards Practice

When it comes to rationality and sensibility, many people should have read Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," which goes, "There are two paths in the yellow forest/Unfortunately, I cannot venture into them at the same time. After standing, the poet "chose the path with fewer footprints/and thus determined the path of his life. Poets are sensitive, scholars are rational, but even if Alan Turing were to reincarnate, he would not be able to exhaust all the information and find the optimal solution in the cost-benefit framework, and would have to walk between rationality and sensibility. Nevertheless, we cannot always wander at the crossroads, let alone wait for our mentors to provide clear answers. Like entrepreneurs, most of the time we don't believe because we see, but because we believe and see, just letting the light of our ideals guide us in the direction we move forward. Any practice may have the risk of failure, or it may be 'wrong is right', but is it safe to just hide in the ivory tower and talk? A patrilineal mindset that wants to arrange everything properly can only lead to the behavior of a giant baby waiting for everything to be arranged.

It is better to read classic literature on literature, history, and philosophy when conducting tourism research in China. We are not asking everyone to attend any traditional Chinese studies classes, but to read more books such as "Strategies of the Warring States," "Observations on Ancient Chinese Literature," "Selected Works of the Ming Dynasty," "Records of the Grand Historian," etc., which cover national conditions, human emotions, political wisdom, and writing skills. We are not specialized in classical literature, so there is no need to carefully read every word. If something is too difficult or temporarily uninteresting, we should not read it. If we are interested, we should read it repeatedly. In short, opening a book is beneficial and can also make us forget our pride. My own reading is very general. Recently, I read the biography and articles of Mr. Pu Jiangqing, who summarized that the highest human emotion comes from songs and develops into poetry after a certain stage. From the perspective of the essence of poetry, Chu Ci, Han Fu, Tang Shi, Song Ci, and Yuan Qu all have a process from primitive folk songs to literary processed Yuefu, and then to readable but inaudible poetry. The view that poetry is superior to Yuefu and folk songs may be a misinterpretation of the history of poetry and literature (Pu Jiangqing, 2016). Does this logic also apply to the recognition of tourism research and academic achievements? I think it can also be applied. The systems, standards, and processes derived from market practice, administrative practice, and teaching practice are equivalent to folk songs; Scholars' courseware, speeches, consulting reports, development plans, and newspaper articles are equivalent to Yuefu; The papers published in academic journals and specialized works published by professional publishers are equivalent to poetry. We cannot directly enter the stage of poetry beyond Yuefu, nor can we simply assume that academic achievements are more advanced than speeches, courseware, and reports, as it is easy for us to become self elite and "internalized".

Research in social sciences, including tourism, typically starts from a specific theoretical standpoint and proposes a research question that arises from that theory, with the goal of proving (and sometimes negating) the established "hypothesis". This research method can be explicit or implicit, but always carries a series of self-evident positions or even unconscious assumptions. In a paper oriented research system, we are accustomed to searching for topics from literature rather than discovering problems from practice. The literature referred to here mainly refers to academic papers written by scholars from universities and research institutions, publicly published monographs, textbooks, and lecture notes in academic journals, especially core journals in Chinese and foreign languages, as well as articles published in newspapers such as People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Study Times, Qiushi, Flag, and Frontline. Theoretical articles that are closer to policy practice and industrial practice rarely enter the literature review vision of researchers, let alone the words on industry media and WeChat official account. It's not that academic journal articles are unimportant, nor is it a denial of the writing paradigm of scientific papers. Instead, we hope that everyone's reading perspective can be broader, sinking into the grassroots and delving into the front line, thinking what industry practitioners say and urgently responding to their needs, and choosing research topics and survey themes with a problem oriented approach. If one only listens and speaks among peers, and even becomes embroiled in the saying 'all things are inferior, only papers are superior', then it's not good.

In fact, problems discovered through practice rather than theory are more likely to be endogenous requirements of the studied country itself, rather than issues of concern to Western theory/cognition (Huang Zongzhi, 2021). Since 2008, my colleagues from the China Tourism Research Institute and I have been dedicated to answering practical questions while constructing contemporary tourism development theories. Whether it is the over 400 issues of "Tourism Reference" (including special reports), the over 150 "Blue Book of China's Tourism Economy" and research reports on different markets and industries, the first major scientific and social science project in the tourism field, or projects assigned by superiors and independently funded projects, whether it is the published "Tourist Satisfaction Theory" and "Tourism Consumption Theory", or the "Tourism Policy Theory" and the planned "Tourism Market Subject Theory", there is always an unchanging guiding ideology: to construct theory from the perspective of national conditions and practice, rather than tailoring practice from theory and experience, to adhere to the principle that the times are the problem setters, scholars are the respondents, and the industry is the examiner. People; Adhere to the service industry, serve the country, and strive to become the "theoretical guard" and "data special team" in the tourism field. This is a path that no one has walked before, and many times, my team and I have to "feel the stones and cross the river". The theories we learn and use often originate from European and American paradigms, with a focus on logical consistency and phenomenological explanation. Theory is gray, but the tree of practice remains evergreen. Practice always accommodates seemingly contradictory phenomena or paradoxes. This requires contemporary tourism scholars to construct theories based on their own inductive logic rather than theoretical deductive logic, and to conceptualize them through professional training in the process of answering questions.

Compared to physics in the natural sciences and economics in the social sciences, tourism is still in the early stages of disciplinary development, and it may be too early to discuss a unified formal theory and knowledge spillover. Only by persisting in walking with practice can we discover real problems worth studying. Only by persisting in dialogue with industry practitioners and accumulating experience in the process of service practice can we lay the foundation for university research and theory. We must not, like medieval philosophers, "write only for each other, not for the common people of the time. The issues discussed among monks may only be of genuine interest to them. Even if you can read Latin, medieval philosophy may not be for you as a reader" (Jeremy Steingrum, James Garvey, 2014). Perhaps we can take a closer look at the writings and biographies of early Greek philosophers, where the contrast between their broad interests and the narrow interests of scholastic philosophers is shocking. Bertrand Russell pointed out that "after the death of Democritus, philosophy lost many vibrant, independent, and childlike passions." (scholastic philosophy) This attention to theological details, such as Thomas Aquinas' 358 questions and their answers about angels in his Summa Theologica, came at the expense of broader philosophical examination "(Jeremy Steingrum, James Garvey, 2014). Contemporary tourism research and development theories must be based on national conditions and practices, rather than on moonlight in the sky and reflections in the water. As we learned from Mao Zedong's article 'Transforming Our Learning', there is only one true theory in the world, which is a theory extracted from objective reality and proven in objective reality. Hollow theories are useless, incorrect, and should be discarded.

03 Liu Huan's' Sun in the Heart 'and Gould's' NOMA Principle'

Many years ago, Liu Huan sang a song called "The Sun in My Heart": "There is a sun in the sky/a moon in the water/I don't know, I don't know, which one is rounder and brighter... There is a small tree on the mountain/a big tree at the foot of the mountain/I don't know, I don't know, which one is bigger and which one is higher." No one can exhaust all truths, and no discipline can explain all phenomena. What should I do? Following a direction of passion, exhausting all possible knowledge, theories, methods, and tools, and thinking from shallow to deep in multiple dimensions, will ultimately lead to achievements. During this process, be careful not to look around and be restless. When you have thought and realized something, what you need to overcome is obsession. You must not think that your theories are right and others are wrong, nor should you think that science is the only way to understand and recognize tourism phenomena. Or in other words, we need science, but we cannot go towards the arrogance of science.

Just as scientist and science historian Stephen Jay Gould proposed the "NOMA principle," science and religion enjoy "non overlapping magisteria," or teaching authorities. Science attempts to record and explain the factual characteristics of nature, while religion deals with spiritual and ethical issues related to the meaning of our lives and appropriate conduct. Natural facts do not necessarily indicate correct moral behavior or spiritual significance (Stephen Jay Gould, 2020). Even great scientists like Einstein acknowledge that science is not a collection of laws or a catalog of unrelated facts, but rather a creation of the human mind with freely invented ideas and concepts. Physical theory attempts to form a realistic picture and establish its connection with the sensory impression world (Jeremy Steingrum, James Garvey, 2014). In the absence of religion, humanities such as philosophy, history, ethics, politics, economics, management, and law, as well as art disciplines such as music, dance, and fine arts, are also exercising non overlapping teaching powers with science and sharing non overlapping areas of power with science, including tourism.

If scientists acknowledge the inevitable human nature of their careers, and if researchers in the humanities acknowledge that despite all human flaws in scientific work, it still has the power to contribute to the treasure trove of human knowledge, then perhaps we can break free from the shackles of binary division and shake hands (Jeremy Steingrum, James Garvey, 2014). If we acknowledge that tourism is a phenomenon and relationship arising from the travel and temporary residence of non settlers, and that tourism is an activity in which people travel to places outside their usual environment for leisure, business, and other purposes, with a continuous stay of no more than one year, then we must acknowledge that tourism has dual attributes of natural and social sciences, and often requires the support of humanities in scientific research and practice. We must also acknowledge that 'science is not a shopping list of correct beliefs, but a method of discovering the world that values empirical observation, measurement, prediction, testability, and absolute correctiveness of all true viewpoints' (Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld, 2019). Without the efforts of seemingly uncomfortable thinkers such as Niccol ò Machiavelli, many humanities and social sciences would not have been established. Before him, people generally believed that moral political leaders must always abide by moral norms, and their behavior must always reflect the virtues of justice and kindness. Machiavelli explicitly opposed this view in his 1532 book "The Prince", stating that political leaders, or monarchs, need not mind stirring up slander against evil virtues, without which it is difficult to save the city-state. In this way, he separated moral issues from leadership and took the first step towards establishing political science as an independent discipline. If we examine tourism activities from the perspectives of politics, economy, society, and culture, we have to face the limitations of science. Those seemingly self consistent logics, exquisite models, and rigorous deductions are often no closer to reality than empirical descriptions and thought experiments, let alone the effectiveness of problem-solving.

In history, tourism education was career oriented, and tourism research went hand in hand with tourism practice. The reason why Lausanne Hotel Management Institute in Switzerland is a leader in the industry is not because of how many famous masters have published numerous papers or received numerous funding projects, but because it has consistently adhered to the practice of working hand in hand, cultivating talents that are useful and can be retained in the hotel industry. Early tourism research topics were mostly related to service standards and processes, ingredient selection and production, revenue management techniques, cross-cultural communication, consumer behavior, and tourist satisfaction. In the past 20 years, the reform of economy hotels, online travel agencies, state-owned tourism enterprises, as well as themes such as mass tourism, smart tourism, green tourism, summer tourism, ice and snow tourism, study tours, tourism economy warning, epidemic impact, market recovery, and relief policies have also been of concern to the government and industry at different stages. These practice oriented problems are difficult to obtain funding from scientific foundations, and the resulting research results are difficult to publish in core journals. The answers given may not be as logically rigorous or even as literary as journal articles, but they can solve the practical problems faced in tourism practice. They also have practical significance and theoretical value, and require tourism scholars to devote all their talents and efforts to strive for them for a lifetime.

The past 20 years have been a period of rapid development in mass tourism, characterized by continuous changes in tourism consumption, market demand, and industry momentum, which have raised questions about tourism education, academic research, and theoretical construction. It has also been a period of continuous scientific and refined development in tourism research in terms of concepts, models, samples, and expressions. While taking pride in the emergence of tens of thousands of papers, thousands of academic works, and research reports every year, we must also constantly remind ourselves not to fall into the quagmire of scientism. In the distance, there are social sciences and humanities, while nearby, there are endless intermediate disciplines and the experiences and even intuition that ordinary people rely on for survival. No matter how many scientific questions there are in the natural state, the establishment of tourism rights, the longing for poetry and distant places, and the questioning of morality and meaning all belong to different fields of humanities, including art, philosophy, and theology, and are not necessarily or possibly determined by the development of science and the invention of technology. In fact, science has never been the only way to understand the world, and papers and treatises are not the only way to disseminate knowledge, let alone express emotions. Wordsworth's "Deep Thoughts Expressed by Tears" and Aiqing's "Why Tears Always Cry in My Eyes Because I Love This Land Deeply..." may convey more touching truths than academic journals in fields such as geology, land, ecology, etc. If it is understandable that modern science displayed a confrontation with Renaissance humanists throughout its infancy in the 17th century, then today's scientists should not attribute their success to some eternal and unchanging "scientific method", and thus maintain their superiority and dominance in the field of humanities and social sciences. As a tourism discipline in the research field and a tourism industry in the employment field, it is unnecessary and impossible for both teachers and students to align with the classical science represented by physics. In fact, not to mention students, even teachers from over a thousand tourism colleges and researchers from professional institutions cannot become scientists in the strict sense. Many times, we have to let go of the elitist "persona" and tell ourselves that we are just ordinary teachers or researchers, like workers working or farmers farming, wholeheartedly fulfilling our duties as speakers, commentators, and scholars. During this process, it is sufficient to devote personal talents and efforts to cultivating public tourism awareness and safeguarding the national tourism rights. If further requirements can be made, I hope that the writing of young scholars can be scientific as the bone and humanistic as the beauty, with unparalleled charm and enduring strength, just like Li Bai's saying 'once embroidered, half a prosperous Tang Dynasty'. Yang Yuhuan in Chen Kaige's film "The Legend of the Demon Cat" went to see Li Bai in person after reading the "Qingping Tune" of "Clouds Want Clothes, Flowers Want Beauty", but Li Bai didn't appreciate it and said it wasn't written for her. Yuhuan was not annoyed, just turned his head and said, 'Put on your boots,' then turned around and said, 'Li Bai, having you in the Tang Dynasty is truly remarkable.'.

Philosophy and science stem from the curiosity and wonder of scholars, and academic research in tourism should follow suit. During the pandemic, I repeatedly emphasized this viewpoint: 'It is the tourists who define the tourism industry, not the tourism industry that defines the tourists.' 6 The relationship between tourism activities, tourism industry, and tourism studies should also be viewed in this way. Tourism studies have not yet reached the stage of classical physics, and the discussion of self-contained theories and even knowledge spillovers is not yet mature and the conditions are not yet available. What is needed now is inclusiveness, a hundred schools of thought contend, problem orientation, service to practice, theoretical foundation building, and gradual breakthroughs. In the process of tourism research, we need to remember the inscription on Karl Marx's tombstone: philosophers only explain the world in different ways, but the problem is to change the world. Young scholars, step out of the ivory tower, out of the laboratory filled with various devices, into the rich and colorful tourism scenes, and into the lively industrial practices! Young scholars, go to the places where tourists and businesses need it the most, write papers on the land of our motherland, and apply the results to the great practice of modernization and high-quality development of the tourism industry!