Ontology

Ontology is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of existence and the construction of reality. In another sense, it deals with the nature and structure of “reality”. It is also considered the fundamental branch of philosophy that deals with the existence or non-existence of things. Some of the basic questions in the ontology are:

 ü  What is being?

ü  How do we determine if things exist or not?

ü  Is everything that exists real?

ü  What is the meaning and nature of reality?

ü  What is true?

ü  What do we think the truth is?

The term Ontology combines two Greek words ‘Onto’, which means existence or being real, and ‘Logia’, which means science or study. Thus, etymologically, ontology means the study of being or existence. Ontology is the study of things that exist, especially things whose existence is logically brought about by a theory (for example the existence of God). Ontology studies the first principle of the essence of all things. Aristotle called it the “first philosophy”.

In more recent analytical philosophy, ontology refers to the study of ‘what is’. Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze made poplar contributions to the understanding of ontology. Edmund Husserl, a German philosopher and mathematician see ontology as a ‘science of essences’.

The two essential branches of philosophical ontology are Ontological Materialism and Ontological Idealism.

§  Ontological Materialism is the belief that material things are more real than the human mind.

§  Ontological Idealism is the belief that the human mind and consciousness are more real than material things.

Further, there are branches of ontological realism and ontological relativism.

 ü  Realist believes that one truth exists. Truth does not change. Truth can be discovered through objective measurement. It is generalizable. Thus, it believes in objectivism. 

ü  Relativists believe in multiple versions of reality shaped by the context. What is real depends on the meaning you attach to the truth. Truth does not exist without meaning. Truth evolves and changes depending on your experiences. Truth is created by meanings and experiences. Thus, it believes in constructionism.

Historical Ontology

Historical ontology concerns the historian’s construction of historical facts or reality. The question is about the conditions of being under which we create the past- as - history. Historian is necessarily an ontological creature who has prejudices, preconceptions, and beliefs about the nature of existence. Historians use several ways to create ‘ontology-free’ historical knowledge. The important approaches are:

            (1) The positivist approach – the way of covering laws

(2) The empiricist-objectivist approach – past is represented through evidence

(3) Relativist approach – links historical events together to establish realism

(4) The inductive approach – establishes truth conditions

The outcome is that the reality of the past is accessible, but it is not free from the ontological positions of historians.  Frank R. Ankersmit argued that historians write ‘not in epistemological but ontological terms’. Ontology will always get in the way of ‘knowing the past’.