A guide to ontology, epistemology, and
philosophical perspectives for
interdisciplinary researchers
How can understanding philosophy improve our research? How can an understanding of what
frames our research influence our choices? Do researchers’ personal thoughts and beliefs shape
research design, outcomes and interpretation?
These questions are all important for social science research. Here we present a philosophical guide
for scientists to assist in the production of effective social science (adapted from Moon and
Blackman, 2014).
Understanding philosophy is important because social science research can only be meaningfully
interpreted when there is clarity about the decisions that were taken that affect the research
outcomes. Some of these decisions are based, not always knowingly, on some key philosophical
principles, as outlined in the figure below.
Philosophy provides the general principles of theoretical thinking, a method of cognition,
perspective and self-awareness, all of which are used to obtain knowledge of reality and to design,
conduct, analyse and interpret research and its outcomes. The figure below shows three main
branches of philosophy that are important in the sciences and serves to illustrate the differences
between them.
Source: Moon and Blackman 2014)
Ontology
The first branch is ontology, or the ‘study of being’, which is
concerned with what actually exists in the world about which
humans can acquire knowledge. Ontology helps researchers
recognize how certain they can be about the nature and existence of
objects they are researching. For instance, what ‘truth claims’ can a
researcher make about reality? Who decides the legitimacy of what
is ‘real’? How do researchers deal with different and conflicting
ideas of reality?
To illustrate, realist ontology relates to the existence of one single
reality which can be studied, understood and experienced as a
‘truth’; a real world exists independent of human experience.
Meanwhile, relativist ontology is based on the philosophy that
reality is constructed within the human mind, such that no one
‘true’ reality exists. Instead, reality is ‘relative’ according to how
individuals experience it at any given time and place.
Epistemology
The second branch is epistemology, the ‘study of knowledge’.
Epistemology is concerned with all aspects of the validity, scope and
methods of acquiring knowledge, such as a) what constitutes a
knowledge claim; b) how can knowledge be acquired or produced;
and c) how the extent of its transferability can be assessed.
Epistemology is important because it influences how researchers
frame their research in their attempts to discover knowledge.
By looking at the relationship between a subject and an object we
can explore the idea of epistemology and how it influences research
design. Objectivist epistemology assumes that reality exists outside,
or independently, of the individual mind. Objectivist research is
useful in providing reliability (consistency of results obtained) and
external validity (applicability of the results to other contexts).
Constructionist epistemology rejects the idea that objective ‘truth’
exists and is waiting to be discovered. Instead, ‘truth’, or meaning,
arises in and out of our engagement with the realities in our world.
That is, a ‘real world’ does not preexist independently of human
activity or symbolic language. The value of constructionist research
is in generating contextual understandings of a defined topic or
problem.
Subjectivist epistemology relates to the idea that reality can be
expressed in a range of symbol and language systems, and is
stretched and shaped to fit the purposes of individuals such that
people impose meaning on the world and interpret it in a way that
makes sense to them. For example, a scuba diver might interpret a
shadow in the water according to whether they were alerted to a
shark in the area (the shark), waiting for a boat (the boat), or
expecting a change in the weather (clouds). The value of subjectivist
research is in revealing how an individual’s experience shapes their
perception of the world.
Philosophical perspectives
Stemming from ontology (what exists for people to know about) and
epistemology (how knowledge is created and what is possible to
know) are philosophical perspectives, a system of generalized views
of the world, which form beliefs that guide action.
Philosophical perspectives are important because, when made
explicit, they reveal the assumptions that researchers are making
about their research, leading to choices that are applied to the
purpose, design, methodology and methods of the research, as well
as to data analysis and interpretation. At the most basic level, the
mere choice of what to study in the sciences imposes values on one’s
subject.
Conclusion
Understanding the philosophical basis of science is critical in
ensuring that research outcomes are appropriately and
meaningfully interpreted. With an increase in interdisciplinary
research, an examination of the points of difference and intersection
between the philosophical approaches can generate critical
reflection and debate about what we can know, what we can learn
and how this knowledge can affect the conduct of science and the
consequent decisions and actions.
How does your philosophical standpoint affect your research? What
are your experiences of clashing philosophical perspectives in
interdisciplinary research? How did you become aware of them and
resolve them? Do you think that researchers need to recognize
different philosophies in interdisciplinary research teams?
