Epistemology and Ontology Lecture notes - Methodological Dilemmas in the Study of Politics and - StuDocu

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• Deductive theories stem from prior assumptions about human behaviour or society, which are used to create theories, which can thenbe tested by empirical evidence-Rational choice theory is the most common eg – the assumption is thathuman behaviour is driven primarily by rational calculations-Inductive theories are derived from empirical evidence

• Ontology is the study of ‘being’ or ‘existence’-It asks the question ‘what exists’ in the world?-Another way of putting that, is to ask what is there in the world to ‘know’ about and be discovered?-Epistemology is the study of ‘knowledge’-It asks the question, ‘how can we know’ about what exists in the worldand how can we discover it?

• There are two broad ontological ‘positions’ (approaches!)-‘Foundationalism’ asserts that there is a ‘real’ world out there, waiting to be discovered, independent of our knowledge of it -It is based on the assumption that there is an objective ‘foundation’ forbuilding knowledge; a ‘reality’ which we can get to know about-‘Anti-foundationalism’ rejects the possibility of there being a ‘real’ world which we can discover-Rather, the world around us is ‘socially constructed’ (by us) and there is no objective ‘foundation’ – no reality – around which we can build knowledge

• There are three broad epistemological ‘positions’-Positivism (foundationalist) asserts that it is possible to gain knowledge of the world through ‘objective’, methodological and ‘empirical’ investigation-Relativism (anti-foundationalist) asserts that it is impossible to gain objective knowledge about the world around us; rather all knowledge is ‘partial’ and shaped by our own narrow views and experiences-As such, all we can attempt to do is ‘interpret’ the world around us-Realism (foundationalist) asserts that it is possible to gain knowledge of the world through a combination of empirical investigation and interpretation