The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods, implications of science, and with the use and merit of science. This discipline sometimes overlaps metaphysics, ontology and epistemology. Philosophy of science has historically been met with mixed response from the scientific community. Though scientists often contribute to the field, many prominent scientists have felt that the practical effect on their work is limited (Babich, 1994).
A paradigm is a world view, a way of ordering and simplifying the perceptual world's stunning complexity by making certain fundamental assumptions about the nature of the universe, of the individual, and of society. Paradigms are normative; they determine what the practitioner views as important and unimportant, reasonable and unreasonable, legitimate and illegitimate, possible and impossible, and what to attend to and what to ignore (Ratcliffe,
...1983). Epistemology is “the study of the nature of knowledge and justification” (Schwandt, 2001, p. 1), and epistemological issues are “issues about an adequate theory of knowledge or justificatory strategy” (Harding, 1987).
Epistemology is theory of knowledge. Some philosophers are specialist epistemologists who study the components, sources, and limits of knowledge and of the justification of knowledge (Moser, 2002). Blaikie (1993) describes the root definition of ontology as “the science or study of being’ and develops this description for the social sciences to encompass ‘claims about what exists, what it looks like, what units make it up and how these units interact with each other”.
In short, ontology describes our view (whether claims or assumptions) on the nature of reality, and specifically, is this an objective reality that really exists, or only a subjective reality, created i
our minds. The philosophy of science is that larger umbrella of learning that encompasses all the elements of science investigating their relevance, assumptions, dynamics and foundations. Epistemology and Ontology are 'ways of looking' at reality and knowledge.
Epistemology we all about the study of the scopes and limitations of science and ontology are all about 'what exists' while paradigm is all about a way of 'thinking' about something. As such, if the philosophy of science is interested in studying the foundation of say, biology, then an epistemology of it will map biology as a science as well as its limitation, an ontology would question the existence of biology (i. e. what makes it up) and a paradigm is a way of using any of these established 'knowledge' and using that to explain the world.
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