The study of sociology helps us as individuals to better understand how the “social system” functions and gives us multiple perspectives on a variety of social problems and conditions which can help expand our knowledge on how we (humans) interact with each other and society as a whole(ResearchGate 2017). Though in this specific paper, I will be discussing the importance of the concepts of Epistemology, Ontology, and Methodology and will be explaining their significance and how they contribute to society's perspective in respect of social sciences.
The concept of Epistemology is concerned with the nature of knowledge. A few questions directing to this concept would be “how do we get about knowing what is true or false?”
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The two main branches emerging from Epistemology are “positivism” and “interpretivism”(Grix 2002, pg.178). Once we “choose” a specific type of epistemology, we also need to correspond it with the appropriate research method (Dudovskiy 2019). For example Positivism focuses on only credible data, statistics which correlate to the “observable phenomena”(Dudovskiy 2019). Whereas Interpretivism focuses on subjective meanings which correlate to the “social phenomena”(Dudovskiy 2019).
To continue on, Ontology is the study of existence, concerned with the nature of reality. Popular questions arised from this concept are “is there a God?” and “what is the nature of existence?” Ontology is the starting foundation of all research which then escalates into branches of epistemological and methodological viewpoints (Grix 2002, pg.177). From an objective view from ontology you can view it a situation from only one perspective where from an subjective approach, there are multiple views. That being said, this proves the point that different “positions” of ontology underlines the principles of specific research. To add on, we now see how ontology and epistemology relate to each other as it takes a step from “what we may know” to “how we come to know” (Grix 2002,pg.177).
Since we talked about ontology and epistemology as “stepping stones” we can transition onto the concept of methodology as it concerns with the logic of scientific inquiry. From an objectivist approach the use of quantitative analysis and mathematical methods correspond with the methodology concept whereas from an subjective approach it is an analysis and interpretation of reality (ResearchMethodology 2019). Two branches stemming from methodology are qualitative and quantitative types of methods. Quantitative focuses more on numbers whereas qualitative are more opinionated (Subjective). Some methods used are interviews, surveys, and ethnographies. An example of a quantitative methodology is the “putnam school” approach where the method used was Surveys, and another alternative approach would be by adding interviews which would then change the methodology factor to include qualitative as well (Grix 2002, Table 1).
In summary, we can see how there are many factors that can change the way we think from a social perspective. Epistemology, ontology, and Methodology all correlate with each other as they are key “building blocks” towards more research. It starts out from what's out there to know(ontology), to how can we know about it(epistemology), then how we can acquire that knowledge using specific procedures(Methodology and methods). That being said, we also need go realize that certain approaches will not always lead to an exact outcome such as an ontological position correspond by positivism will not mean the epistemological position will be potivist(Grix 2002, pg.281).
References
- Philosophy. “Epistemology.” Philosophy Terms, 25 Oct. 2018, philosophyterms.com/epistemology/.
- “Methodology - Research -Methodology.” Research, research-methodology.net/research-methodology/.
- Grix, Jonathan. (2002). Introducing Students to the Generic Terminology of Social Research. Politics. 22. 175 - 186. 10.1111/1467-9256.00173.
- Dudovskiy. “Epistemology - Research-Methodology.” Research, 2019, research-methodology.net/research-philosophy/epistomology/.
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