Aim of this article is to get an idea about all these term in Philosophy so that from next article we can move forward with Information Science and start doing some practical implementation over there itself.
Epistemology, Ontology and Axiology are often unspoken assumptions about knowledge. People in society, and our values that rest beneath our favorite research. Each of them corresponds to a branch of philosophy, which can be very abstract. Let’s not let that confuse us, because most people, doing research don’t spend a vast amount of time writing directly about Epistemology, Ontology or Axiology. The way it normally plays out is that researchers are just going about their research and these areas or assumptions remain implied beneath the surface. The research will leave clues, and so if they’re so assumed, or beneath the surface, then why do we even talk about them? Well, understanding these three areas will help us gather a better appreciation, and be able to compare and contrast different areas of research at a much more sophisticated level. So there is some payoff here. So let’s start with epistemology. We’ll go from general to specific.
Epistemology
When solving some Attitude problem or reading something then there we require knowledge to understand the world, which is known as Epistemology.
Also Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that studies knowledge or knowing.
They ask questions like: How do we know what we claim to know? That’s the classic epistemological question. That we can see in a lot of theory and research textbooks. A researcher might assume for example, that knowledge is already out there, just waiting to be discovered. And so, it’s our job as researchers to uncover this universal, unchanging and absolute truth.
In contrast, other researchers believe that people develop knowledge based upon how they perceive the world and through their experiences. That’s how we create knowledge. Still further along this spectrum is the relativistic view, that believes that knowledge is a social construction. In essence, whatever we treat as knowledge, is knowledge. There is no universal or absolute truth. These are epistemological positions that are getting at this notion of knowledge. Like I said, most researchers don’t spend many paragraphs in each given journal article spelling all of this out. They normally just get on with their work. But their research will leave clues, and I see that epistemology is most evident in the methods that they use to conduct their research. In other words, if they assume an objective reality, objective knowledge, exists out there, then they will approach it that way. For instance, some organizational researchers do climate surveys. These are quantitative surveys driven by statistical analysis, and the idea here is if you ask the right questions, you’ll get reliable and valid answers, and the results are meant to give you a snapshot of how things really are. In other words, there’s an objective reality out there, and our survey is trying to show it. In contrast, there are other ways to get at knowledge, other beliefs about the best way to know something. For example, the ethnographic method believes that to really understand, to really know, you have to experience something for yourself. You can’t study culture, from the ethnographic standpoint, for example, from a distance. Firsthand knowledge gained through experience is the best way to know. These are epistemological kinds of issues. Also as we know that we still not know the whole things about world and that’s where Epistemology comes into play.
For example: In case of Covid-19, when its wave came, we were not aware of its medication and later we started researching and vaccine came after gaining a lot of knowledge.
Next, let’s explore ontology.
Ontology
Again, we’ll go from general to specific.
It is the study of being fundamentally what exists and what the meaning of existence is. Ontology is also the branch of philosophy that studies existence and the nature of human beings and our existence. They ask questions like:
What is the nature of existence and our existence as individuals in society, in the universe?
Who are we, what are we here for?
These are ontological questions. For example, do we make real free will choices? Do we make choices that influence the outcomes? Or, are there forces that are determining. our outcomes, that are beyond our control?
Another ontological question would be this:
Are we best understood as individuals? Or, is our nature best viewed as being part of a group, part of a social system?
There’s a movie called I, Robot for example,
An old movie with Will Smith, and in this story, There’s a robot named Sonny, and he’s very sophisticated, and he’s trying to figure out why the guy who made him made him, what is his purpose? And that’s an ontological question. There’s a bit of dialogue where somebody asks him: Sonny, do you know why Dr. Lanning built you? And he answers: no, but I believe my father made me for a purpose. This is an ontological discussion.
What is our nature, what are we here for? For me, the ontological assumptions beneath research and theory are pretty easy to spot. So for example, if they’re studying individuals, like through personality tests, or trying to figure out people’s traits, then they likely are approaching us as individuals in society. If they are studying groups, and relationships, then they are likely assuming that people are best understood in groups and relationships, like through the communication field or sociology. Another look at this is how we are situated in society in terms of the larger forces that we face.
For example, does a theorist treat people as if they are at the mercy of a system that is out of their control, out of their hands? Or, do they focus on the agency that people have to influence change? Depending upon their position, they are taking different ontological positions, or assumptions, about their research. And you can usually see that in the way they write it up. And third, now let’s talk about axiology.
Axiology
Again, we’ll go from general to specific.
Axiology is about values such as good and bad. moral and immoral . questions about what the meaning of life is and how we should live. Axiology is also a branch of philosophy that studies values. They ask questions about the values that guide our research to begin with.
For example, what do we consider to be good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or not, what do we value? Another axiological issue is what values might
result from, or be the outcome of, our research? Axiology often asks questions about the extent to which our research can be totally neutral, or does our researcher opinion come into play, and our personal values shape how we conduct and write up our research? Also, should our research be seeking merely to understand what we are studying, or should we be studying something with a goal of changing society for the better? That’s an axiological question. And if we wanna change society, what do we consider better? In other words, what do we value? Would it be more economic equality, better health, deeper relationships? These are all axiological issues. Sometimes, researchers and writers are pretty obvious about this, but not always. Martin Buber is a guy who’s a communication philosopher, and he’s been very obvious about this. He talked about an ethical approach to communication that contrasted with a more mechanistic approach. So he talks about I-It, meaning I am a person, but you, it, are an object, but we really should strive for, as often as we can, I-Thou communication, where I am important in the communication, but you, you’re a though, you’re also important, you have inherent dignity, you’re special as a human being, and I should treat you that way, we should connect through dialogue. See, he has an explicit value for other people, and it’s going to shape the way he does his research. So when I first got exposed to epistemology, ontology, and axiology, and began to take it seriously, I developed a much more sophisticated reading of the research that I was exposed to. I didn’t see them all as separate and independent pieces, I saw them all as having similar or different kinds of assumptions that informed their approach.
and finally we can say that:
“Epistemology provides us knowledge and then Ontology checks if it exists or not then Axiology checks its moral values if that is wrong or right.”