PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY: ONTOLOGY

What is nature or being, becoming, existence and reality?

Ontology is concerned with philosophical questions such as:-

What is real? What is reality?
What exists?
What are the fundamental parts of the world?
How are they related to each other?

PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY: EPISTEMOLOGY
How do we know?

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It concerns the following questions:-

How is knowledge attained?
What should be believed?
Epistemology is concerned with the origin, structure, methods and validity of human knowledge.
It deals with mental phenomena such as thinking, perceiving, knowing and understanding.

PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY: AXIOLOGY
From the Greek word meaning ‘Worthy’
The philosophical study of value.
Concerned with:-
Nature, type and criteria of values.
Value judgements.
Ethics.

EMPIRICISM
Empiricism is the theory that the only source of human knowledge is experience.
Empiricism argues that experiments and observation are the main instruments for the acquisition of knowledge.

POSITIVISM
Positivism is an extension of empiricism, in that knowledge is derived from experience, but it also believes that nothing is innate and that only that which can be measured is worth worrying about.
Positivism argues that metaphysical speculation is nonsensical, and moral or value statements merely emotive.
Positivism asserts that verification is essential and that a proposition has meaning only if it can be proven.

CRITICAL REALISM
Critical realism argues it is possible to acquire knowledge about the external world as it really is.
This suggests there is a reality ‘out there’ that is independent of the mind.
Realism is opposed to idealism, which argues only the mind and its contents exist.
Knowledge of the external world can only be acquired by critical reflection on perception and its world.

INTERPRETIVISM
Interpretivism relates to idealism. Idealism holds the view that the world is the creation of the mind; the world is interpreted through the mind.
It challenges the scientific methods of investigation put forward by empiricism and positivism.
It argues that we cannot know the ‘true’ nature of the object world, separate from our perception of it.
It assumes that access to reality (given or socially constructed), is only through social constructions such as language, consciousness, shared meanings and instruments (Myers 2008).