Ontology and Epistemology

Thinking about what you know and how you know what you know involves questions of ontology and epistemology. Perhaps you’ve heard these terms before in a philosophy class; however, they are relevant to the work of social scientists, as well. As we begin to think about finding something out about our social world, we are probably starting from some understanding of what “is,” what can be known about what is, and what the best mechanism happens to be for learning about what is.

Ontology deals with the first part of these sorts of questions. It refers to one’s analytic philosophy of the nature of reality. In the social sciences, a researcher’s ontological position might shape the sorts of research questions he or she asks and how those questions are posed. Some take the position that reality is in the eye of the beholder and that our job is to understand others’ view of reality. Others feel that, while people may differ in their perception of reality, there is only one true reality. These scientists are likely to aim to discover that true reality in their research rather than discovering a variety of realities.

Like ontology, epistemology has to do with knowledge. But rather than dealing with questions about what is, epistemology deals with questions of how we know what is. In the social sciences, there are a number of ways to uncover knowledge. We might interview people to understand public opinion about some topic, or perhaps we’ll observe them in their natural environment. We could avoid face-to-face interaction altogether by mailing people surveys for them to complete on their own or by reading what people have to say about their opinions in newspaper editorials. All these are ways that social scientists gain knowledge. Each method of data collection comes with its own set of epistemological assumptions about how to find things out. We’ll talk in more depth about these ways of knowing, specifically ways that yield quantitative data for analysis, in later chapters.