Dear Shovana.

You ask for the difference the between ontology and epistemology. What follows is a short answer to your question. Ontolology deals with questions having to to with, say, the existence or the being domain. Epistemology has to do with, say, the knowledge domain, namely the domain of scientific knowledge. For example, to ask if there is a reality out there that is independent from our knowledge of it is to raise an ontolological question. To ask for how the scientific knowledge such as the physical knowledge, the mathematical knowledge, the biological knowldege, the psychological knowledge, and so forth, evolves in the course of ontogensis or have evolved during phylogenesis is to raise an epistemological question.

It is alleged that ontology and epistemology are probably the most complex terms that one might come across while studying philosophy. Ontology and epistemology are branches of philosophy. Note that the word ontology derives from the Greek words ‘ontos’, which means being, and ‘logos’, which means study. It tries to pin point things around us that actually exist. It is the study of the nature of being or becoming existence and their differences and similarities. It tries to answer questions that begin with ‘What’. The scope of ontology can be generalised from philosophy to other fields like medicine, information science or even advanced physics. Ontology helps us to understand questions like what is God, what is a disease, what happens after death, what is artificial intelligence etc. The field is dedicated towards understanding whether things exist or don’t exist. Ontology also studies how various existing entities can be grouped together on the basis of similar characteristics and it tries to find out those similarities. The field also tries to find a relation between the objects that exist. People who deal in ontology try to understand why a particular thing occurs how it is related to other things.

Epistemological is seen as one of the core branches of philosophy which deals with the aspect of procuring scientific knowledge. It is more concerned with the natural sources and scope and limits of scientific knowledge. Epistemology is also derived from the Greek words ‘episteme’ , which means knowledge, and ‘logos’. which means study. This branch of philosophy aims at discovering the true meaning of knowledge.

The branch is often divided into two parts.

1)Nature of knowledge: This tries to explain what is meant when a person says s/he knows about something or event or when he says s/he doesn’t know about a particular thing

2) Limits of knowledge: through this researchers try to define the scope of knowledge. They want to know if knowledge is limitless. Can we know everything or there are certain limitations to what we can know.

According to epistemology, there are different types of knowledge.

empirical knowledge is gained through prior experience. A person states a fact based on his previous experience or encounters related to a particular topic. For example when s/he says that fire is hot or ice is cold, it is because of his own experience. Whereas non empirical knowledge is based on reasoning. When a person says Siberia is cold s/he reasons that by saying regions near the north pole get less sunlight and hence they are cold. Propositional knowledge is when a person knows facts about different fields. Individual knowledge is based on what one person claims to know. Collective knowledge is based on what a particular community of people know. Epistemology encompasses all these types of knowledge.

Epistemology believes that knowledge is a mental state. It exists in one’s mind. If a person doesn’t believe that a particular thing exists then he cannot be knowledgeable about it. The belief has to be true and only then will it be considered as knowledge. It has to be factual and justified by sound reasoning before it is considered as knowledge. Evidence and reasoning are a must to acquire knowledge. Facts based on misinformation or just lucky guesses cannot be construed as knowledge.

To wrap up we can say that ontology tries to find out what is there in the universe and epistemology finds out ways to know what exists in the universe.

Kind regards,

Orlando

Dear Shovana.

You ask for the difference the between ontology and epistemology. What follows is a short answer to your question. Ontolology deals with questions having to to with, say, the existence or the being domain. Epistemology has to do with, say, the knowledge domain, namely the domain of scientific knowledge. For example, to ask if there is a reality out there that is independent from our knowledge of it is to raise an ontolological question. To ask for how the scientific knowledge such as the physical knowledge, the mathematical knowledge, the biological knowldege, the psychological knowledge, and so forth, evolves in the course of ontogensis or have evolved during phylogenesis is to raise an epistemological question.

It is alleged that ontology and epistemology are probably the most complex terms that one might come across while studying philosophy. Ontology and epistemology are branches of philosophy. Note that the word ontology derives from the Greek words ‘ontos’, which means being, and ‘logos’, which means study. It tries to pin point things around us that actually exist. It is the study of the nature of being or becoming existence and their differences and similarities. It tries to answer questions that begin with ‘What’. The scope of ontology can be generalised from philosophy to other fields like medicine, information science or even advanced physics. Ontology helps us to understand questions like what is God, what is a disease, what happens after death, what is artificial intelligence etc. The field is dedicated towards understanding whether things exist or don’t exist. Ontology also studies how various existing entities can be grouped together on the basis of similar characteristics and it tries to find out those similarities. The field also tries to find a relation between the objects that exist. People who deal in ontology try to understand why a particular thing occurs how it is related to other things.

Epistemological is seen as one of the core branches of philosophy which deals with the aspect of procuring scientific knowledge. It is more concerned with the natural sources and scope and limits of scientific knowledge. Epistemology is also derived from the Greek words ‘episteme’ , which means knowledge, and ‘logos’. which means study. This branch of philosophy aims at discovering the true meaning of knowledge.

The branch is often divided into two parts.

1)Nature of knowledge: This tries to explain what is meant when a person says s/he knows about something or event or when he says s/he doesn’t know about a particular thing

2) Limits of knowledge: through this researchers try to define the scope of knowledge. They want to know if knowledge is limitless. Can we know everything or there are certain limitations to what we can know.

According to epistemology, there are different types of knowledge.

empirical knowledge is gained through prior experience. A person states a fact based on his previous experience or encounters related to a particular topic. For example when s/he says that fire is hot or ice is cold, it is because of his own experience. Whereas non empirical knowledge is based on reasoning. When a person says Siberia is cold s/he reasons that by saying regions near the north pole get less sunlight and hence they are cold. Propositional knowledge is when a person knows facts about different fields. Individual knowledge is based on what one person claims to know. Collective knowledge is based on what a particular community of people know. Epistemology encompasses all these types of knowledge.

Epistemology believes that knowledge is a mental state. It exists in one’s mind. If a person doesn’t believe that a particular thing exists then he cannot be knowledgeable about it. The belief has to be true and only then will it be considered as knowledge. It has to be factual and justified by sound reasoning before it is considered as knowledge. Evidence and reasoning are a must to acquire knowledge. Facts based on misinformation or just lucky guesses cannot be construed as knowledge.

To wrap up we can say that ontology tries to find out what is there in the universe and epistemology finds out ways to know what exists in the universe.

Kind regards,

Orlando

Hi!

Both terms has besides their philosophical meaning also applied meanings in different disciplines, an ontology can there be as example a set of concepts as well.

Here are 2 good short videos explaining the two terms

https://youtu.be/XTsaZWzVJ4c

https://youtu.be/lI9-YgSzsEQ

Hope this helps!

“..Difference the between ontology and epistemology?…”

rational answer on this question can exist only in the Shevchenko and Tokarevsky’s “The information as Absolute” conception; and principally cannot exist in the mainstream philosophy. Just therefore, though the answer is simple, in the mainstream this [really] non-answered question exists.

More see the attached file, where two SS posts in other RG thread are shown; after a next RG soft upgrade finding of existent posts is rather cumbersome job…

Cheers

Dear All,

Thank you all for explaining it in detail.

It does make sense to me now.

Shovana

Ontology is the beeing of things. It means the beeing itself for example of matter and not how matter appears to human. So if you are talking about an ontological theory of xy you try to explain how xy is brought to be in the world independently from how it is perceived by us. Epistemology instead is something different. It means attempts made by human to gain knowledge about the world. As humans we have several senses to realise the world we live in and we have brain that is used to interprate stimuli in a specific way (the way is set by experiences we make as individuals during our lifetime). So the way we see the world as humans is not the state of beeing of this world. For example as humans we cannot see UV-waveleghts but they are in the world. That is why scientists - who are humans - try to find a way of gaining objective knowledge about the world that is independent of the human perception. Epistemology therefore is the theory of gaining objective knowledge. But the question is more if we - as humans - will be able at all to produce that kind of objectivity or if - as I assume - will be bound for ever on the evolutionary strings of human thinking about the world.

Ontology is the beeing of things. It means the beeing itself for example of matter and not how matter appears to human. So if you are talking about an ontological theory of xy you try to explain how xy is brought to be in the world independently from how it is perceived by us. Epistemology instead is something different. It means attempts made by human to gain knowledge about the world. As humans we have several senses to realise the world we live in and we have brain that is used to interprate stimuli in a specific way (the way is set by experiences we make as individuals during our lifetime). So the way we see the world as humans is not the state of beeing of this world. For example as humans we cannot see UV-waveleghts but they are in the world. That is why scientists - who are humans - try to find a way of gaining objective knowledge about the world that is independent of the human perception. Epistemology therefore is the theory of gaining objective knowledge. But the question is more if we - as humans - will be able at all to produce that kind of objectivity or if - as I assume - will be bound for ever on the evolutionary strings of human thinking about the world.

Goertz, G., & Mahoney, J. (2012). Concepts and measurement: Ontology and epistemology. Social Science Information, 51(2), 205-216.