Ontology and Epistemology

Ontology and Epistemology

The two terms can prove to be quite a hurdle to understand, comprehend, and distinguish. Ontology refers to the reality and things that are purported to be real. In its form, ontology is a branch of metaphysics concerned with the understanding of the nature of being. That is, promotes the determination of whether things exists or not in order to classify their existence (Raddon, 2010). The human understanding and interpretation of reality and what exists is fundamental inform the real world. Epistemology revolves around understanding the nature of knowledge and how it is acquired. The learning processes to acquire knowledge inform the question of how knowledge is attained about one paradigm to another (Raddon, 2010).

The key differences between ontological and epistemological perspectives are based on the positions that the respective studies take in creating the understanding of reality and knowledge. Primarily, ontology is concerned with the reality of the world, while epistemology is concerned with knowledge and how it is reached. Ontology maintains three key positions that include idealism, realism, and idealism. The idealism approach asserts that the understanding of reality can only prevail through the human mind and based on socially constructed meanings. In realism, there exists an external reality that is independent of what human thinks or understands to prevail. Finally, materialism relates to idealism in some sense in which only the material and physical world are believed to be real (Dai & He, 2017).

On the other hand, epistemology is based on two key perspectives – positivism and interpretivism. Positivism is based on the constructivist comprehension of knowledge within the conscious humanness capacity. Interpretivism is based on a relativist approach that holds the lack of external reality beyond what is understood by human consciousness. Thus, knowledge advancements are based on the capacity of the mind to comprehend and hold as much as possible (Dai & He, 2017).

References

Dai, J., & He, H. (2017). Ontology or Epistemology: A debate on the philosophical implication of information. In Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Proceedings (Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 97).

Raddon, A. (2010). Early-stage research training: Epistemology & ontology in social science research. Generic Skills Training for Research Students, 1-14.