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EPISTEMOLOGY AND ONTOLOGY

Nick Marshall

CENTRIMCentre for Research inInnovation Management

University of Brighton

16thOctober 2013

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ONTOLOGY

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ONTOLOGYWhat is real?

[Greek: ontos = being; logia = study]

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EPISTEMOLOGY

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EPISTEMOLOGYWhat is knowledge?

[Greek: episteme = knowledge; logia = study]

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ONTOLOGY

EPISTEMOLOGY

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Why does it matter?

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What is real?

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= apple

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= apple

essentialism nominalism

materialism idealism

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Source: Striem-Amit et al. (2012)

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Experience

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The objects of sense exist only when theyare perceived

Berkeley (1710)

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Large Hadron Collider

Cost to build: 2.6 billion

Employs: 10,000 scientists

and engineers from 60

countries

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Processes and things

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for rationalism reality is ready-made and

complete from all eternity, while for pragmatism

it is still in the making, and awaits part of its

complexion from the future. On the one side the

universe is absolutely secure, on the other it is

still pursuing its adventures

James [1907]

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"It is important to keep in mind that the objectivity of theinstitutional world, however massive it may appear to the

individual, is a humanly produced, constructed objectivity The institutional world is objectivated human activity,and so is every single institution ... it is important toemphasize that the relationship between man, theproducer, and the social world, his product, is and

remains a dialectical one ... The product acts back on theproducer ... It is already possible ... to see thefundamental relationship of these three dialecticalmoments in social reality. Each of them corresponds toan essential characterization of the social world. Society

is a human product. Society is an objective reality. Manis a social product

Berger and Luckmann (1966)

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What is knowledge?

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Is it all about truth?

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... however fixed these elements of reality may be, we

still have a certain freedom in our dealings with them.

Take our sensations. That they are is undoubtedly

beyond our control; but which we attend to, note, and

make emphatic in our conclusions depends on our own

interests; and according as we lay the emphasis here or

there, quite different formulations of truth result. We

read the same facts differently ... What we say about

reality thus depends on the perspective into which we

throw it. The that of it is its own; but the whatdepends on the which; and the which depends on us.

James (1907)

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Is it all aboutgeneralisability?

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A theory of everything?

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Positivism ConstructivismGeneralization

(universal knowledge)

Contextual richness

(situated knowledge)

Validity

(truth)

Plausibility

(meaning)Reliability

(replication logic)

Transparency

(making the process

explicit)

Hypothetico-deductive(static)

Inductive/abductive(reflexive)

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What is knowledge for?

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A simple analysis

shows that for agiven angle ofunbalance thecurvature of each

winding is inverselyproportional to thesquare of the speedat which the cyclist is

proceedingPolanyi, 1958: 50

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Knowing that Knowing how

Declarative knowledge Procedural knowledge

Codified Uncodified

Explicit Tacit

Articulated Unarticulated

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Knowledge Type Description

Embodied Knowledgethat is action oriented and

likely to be only partly explicit, practicalthinking

Embedded Knowledge which resides in systemic

routines, emerges through relationships

and material resources

Embrained Knowledgethat is dependent onconceptual skills and cognitive abilities,

abstract thinking

Encultured The processof achieving shared

understanding, emerges from

interpersonal interaction

Encoded Information conveyed by signs and

symbols, explicitknowledge

Source: Blackler (1995); Sheffield (2008)

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Is the truth alwaysuseful?

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Facts and values

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$137millionEstimated cost of

redesigning fuel tank

$49million

Estimated cost of

legal claims

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Subject/Object

Subject/Subject

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If we see that knowing is not the act of anoutside spectator but of a participator inside the

natural and social scene, then the true object of

knowledge resides in the consequences of

directed action on this basis there will be as

many kinds of known objects as there are kinds

of effectively conducted operations of inquiry

which result in the consequences intended.Dewey (1929)

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the concepts of the social sciences are not

produced about an independently constituted

subject-matter, which continues regardless of

what these concepts are. The findings of the

social sciences very often enter constitutively

into the world they describe

Giddens (1984)

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Problems ofrepresentation

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Problems of observability

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Knowledge and knowing

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a theory of social practice emphasizes therelational interdependency of agent and world,

activity, meaning, cognition, learning, and

knowing. It emphasizes the inherently socially

negotiated character of meaning, and theinterested, concerned character of the thought

and action of persons-in-activity

Lave and Wenger (1991, pp. 50-51)

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when the locus of knowledge and learning issituated in practice, the focus moves to a socialtheory of action that addresses activity andpassivity, the cognitive and the emotional,

mental and sensory perception as bits andpieces of the social construction of knowledgeand of the social worlds in which practicesassume meanings and facticity.

Gherardi (2001, p.134)

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Knowing as

A social accomplishment, not just in the mind

Historically, socially and materially situated

Dynamic and temporally located

A process of inquiry driven by the urge to

overcome obstacles and breakdowns

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Communities of knowing

Paradigms (Kuhn)

Discursive practices and discursive formations

(Foucault)

Language games and forms of life (Wittgenstein)

Epistemic communities (Knorr-Cetina)

Communities of practice (Lave and Wenger)

Mangle of practice (Pickering)

Translation and obligatory passage points (Callon)

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Study ofemotions

Biological

Socialconstruction

Psychodynamics

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SUMMARY

Ontology: what we believe to be real

Epistemology: how we go about finding out what isreal; what we consider counts as knowledge

Our choices about these shape:

How we do our research

Which conversations we can (and wish to) participate in

The plausibility of our knowledge claims

How we relate to the world around us through ourresearch

Our intellectual, practical, emotional, and moralengagement with the practice of research