Ontology and Epistemology

Introduction

Ontology and epistemology are philosophical assumptions or positions.

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These are basic terms for research which we must understand in the theory chapter.

Foundations

Ontology

• Ontology issues are concerned with questions pertaining the kinds of things that exist within society (The SAGE Online Dictionary of Social Research Method, 2006).

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• Social ontology, introduced by Bryman in 2008, is defined ​as a philosophical consideration in research which concerns the nature of social entities.

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• ​Ontology concerns our beliefs about the kind and nature of reality and the social world.

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Epistemology

​Epistemology is the assumptions we make about the kind or the nature of knowledge (Richards, 2003).

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Is a way of looking at the world and making a sense of it. ​

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​This also deals with the nature of knowledge and its possibility (what knowledge is possible and can be attempted and what is not).

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Types of Ontology and epistemology

There are quite a range of epistemological and ontological positions, i.e., views of the world and knowledge.​

Positivism and objectivism

• Objectivism is an ontological assumption and positivism an epistemological one.

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• Positivism focuses on the importance of objectivity and evidence in searching for truth.

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• The world is unaffected by the researcher.​

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• Objectivism is the state of being objective.​

Critiques to positivist thinking

• If rules and laws are derived from observation, then it is also quite possible that a future observation proves an exception to a current rule or law (Ormston et al, 2014).

• The post-positivism arised as a second version of positivism.

• Reality can be known approximately but not accurately.

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Interpretivism and constructionism

• ​Constructivism stablishes that external reality exists but is only known through human mind and socially constructed meanings.

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• Interpretivism stablishes that the researcher and th​e world impact on each other.