The Concept of Existence and Knowledge

A Study of Existence

There is a common terminology to define the classification of existence, to know whether something exist or not, and it is called Ontology. It is a concept of creating something that seems abstract and characterize it as something real. Ontology discovers more about the fundamental concept of the nature of something. It is basically, a “what” question to the existence of reality and a quest to widen our knowledge of things in the universe.

It is true that Ontology is still a debatable topic such as arguments to determine if something exists or not and does it have a special meaning for it. However, a scientific approach takes this philosophy to a more measurable concept. While, experiments on the existence of supernatural entity might still be out there, science has ruled out those classifications and stick to finding out the measurable concepts and discover the laws behind it.

There is one interesting approach to Ontology and it is from the computer science field. Gruber (1992) used the concept of Ontology for the means of specification of a conceptualization. He defines this philosophy as the vocabulary of abstract concept which can be provided in a declarative form. Fundamentally, the low level form of logical concepts could be interpreted to a form of definitions and languages which provide vocabulary and formal constraints for shared use.

In the IT world, we are facing a lot of abstract concepts where everything might seem real and sometimes they don’t. Here is where Ontology comes in, it helps define these abstract concepts to vocabularies which will be a some sort of agreement through all agents which might include developers and researchers. These commited languages is a measure to aid the distribution of knowledge which will be used by other agents as well.

According to Scotland(2012), derived from the idea of Ontology, there are two of the Ontological paradigm for a research approach which are Realism and Relativism. A view of an object where it has an independent existence out of our perspective is the definition of Realism paradigm. It is a scheme where a concept is recognized objectively and claims that the universe exist in its own nature of reality, different from ours. Realism is derived from Positivism which defines knowledge as factual and descriptive form.

On the other hand, a reality where it is uniquely observed through every individual’s perspective is the Relativism paradigm. It relies on our senses which every one of us has different perception and interpretation of the information obtained. Anais Nin quoted “We do not see things as they are but as we are” which is the very essence of how the reality is seen through our reflection and experiences. Therefore, this paradigm demonstrate that knowledge is constructed through the eye of the researcher. Relativism comes from the concept of Interpretivism which perceives the idea of reality in a subjective way.

A Study of Knowledge

Epistemology is one of the branch that is always has connection with research and it explores the nature of knowledge itself. It searches an understanding and rules on how the universe works. Different with Ontology, Epistemology covers the “how” questions on the foundation of knowledge to measure the information underlying it.

There is several approach to Epistemology, we will cover from whether a knowledge is explored subjectively or objectively. An objective view means that the “truth” is presented as they are and we justify it through its nature of reality. As Crotty (1998) said that the knowledge is already presented itself in the universe and without any individual’s interference of information. It is a hard and objective truth which can be viewed as a Objectivism paradigm. This position has a close relationship with natural science as it discovers human knowledge through a data collection and interpretation method. Objectivism defines that the truth cannot be changed and analyzed through a carefully observed method.

On the other hand, acquired from the idea of Interpretivism is the Subjectivism paradigm. It is a knowledge based on an individual interpretations to establish meaning and ground on a particular context. In a contrast with Positivism, this method requires the researcher to interpret their own understanding of the topic and create a new theory from collected data. That means the “truth” is an collection of interpreted data which is heavily influenced by the perspective of an individual. This method is a suitable preference in fields such as social studies as it requires a personal approach to explore human behaviour.

In addition to both of this concept, Pragmatism is also a common paradigm adopted in researches. This view believes the nature of reality cannot be interpreted in a single perspective as there are various ways to understand the world. This scheme sits between the Positivism and Interpretivism which may be seen as the extremes. Pragmatism discover meanings in ways that is both subjectively and objectively.

All Connected To Research Methodology

So what does Ontology and Epistomology has to do with research? Through the understanding of both of this principles, it can provide a philosophical perspective which can create a guideline in the research process. Both principles will be a foundation in the course of research and implement it in different aspects such as the purpose of research, methods used and analysis of data.

Every paradigm holds different ontological and epistemological perspective which then represented in a form of methodology and method. This paradigm also helps define the approach upon the research to provide the best paradigm to explore with. The paradigms previously discussed before will be a base concept on how we will accomplish the research.

If seen from a broader angle, Interpretivism leads to the use of a qualitative research method where it presents open-ended questions and it includes personal values to the research. Positivism exhibit an opposite perspective where it demonstrates a quantitative method with mathematical data and close-ended question. The other one is Pragmatism, it is a mixed method that can analyze in a mix of qualitative and quantitative way. This ensures that the underlying definition will be explored through a scheme which fits better.

In addition to research methodology, Epistemological source of knowledge can be divided into 4 categories :

• Intuitive Knowledge or Introspection. It is a knowledge that can be found through a perception of individual. It is based on human emotions rather than facts.
• Authoritarian Knowledge or Memory. A source of knowledge which is stored throughout history in form of books, papers, experts etc.
• Logical Knowledge or Reason. An established knowledge constructed by exploring truths out of pure logical reasons or analyzing new information discovered through previous data.
• Empirical Knowledge or Perception. An objective knowledge which is established through the perception of the senses.

Through this categorized source of data, a research could be scoped to a smaller scale and can provide a clear and transparent thinking process of the research methods.

Although research covers a lot of perspective and various philosophical concepts, it does not mean that they do not have any relationship to support one another. Due to these variety of interpretations, it can create a critical point between one another which can be debated to achieve a newborn knowledge.