If you've ever watched Fullmetal Alchemist, you'll notice that Roy Mustang has a tool on his hand. A glove that has a symbol on the backhand part.
Here's an image of them gloves
What's freaky is how the details of that symbol actually does reflect actual alchemical symbols, and reading the components of Mustang's gloves tell us that it IS about genereting and directing fire.
It's not about the drawing of a flame though. It's about the circle, the elemental triangle symbols (one of which is the code for fire) and the salamander (the elemental of fire).
On a different part of my life is me who plays a different version of Dungeons & Dragons called Mage: the Ascension where the setting is the real world and mages exist. In this world, nages are grouped into traditions, each specializing on a particular kind of magic. This specialization is cause through their PARADIGM, their frame or perspective at looking at the world.
For example, the mages which specialize in forces such as fire, water, lightning, etc., have a paradigm similar to the alchemists which use diagrams to shape the world. In comparison, the mages which specialize in mind magic use the perspective of "do" a meditative idea linking body and mind much like Buddhist monks and martial artists.
Among the nine are mages who specialize in the magic behind the magic. Those who understand the basic element of what constitutes doing what they do.
The last one sounded so abstract, right?
That brings us to our talk today.
We are usually studying a particular field and a specialization in that field.
For example
- Political Science > Comparative Politics
- Political Science > Gender Politics
- Asian Studies > Southeast Asia
- Asian Studies > International Relations
- Economics > Macroeconomics
- Economics > Business and Entrepreneurship
Note: Just to address technicalities, sometimes we have a field, then a track, then a specilization (Political Science > Comparative Politics > Social Movements)
Understanding this helps us give a pathway in our study track, and our eventual career paths.
This is quite concrete, in some way since it tells us what topics we focus on, where we are headed, what we do with knowledge. Just like the first two examples of mages that I mentioned above.
The third mage is puzzling though, and that is where we encounter the words which end with '-ogy.'
Methodology
Ontology
Epistemology
I listed them in degrees of abstractness.
Methodology is the study of methods. We are familiar with it because we encounter it a lot in research and thesis writing. There are academics and researchers whose specialization is method instead of a specific topic.
In a way, ontology, has one leg in being concrete and the other in being abstract. It's the study of being. Beings can be quite abstract, you're a being, and God is a being, and humans are beings. Sometimes we are attempting to study stuff ontologically and yet we did not know that what we we're trying to do was an ontology. For example, when we argue on what being gay is, that's an ontological discussion.
We can insert phenomenology here as a another abstract thing which can relate to ontology. When we study migrants, we can focus on what makes a migrant a migrant (the being), but more often, part of being a migrant is the experience that they undergo or have undergone. Phenomenology is the study of experience.
Finally, we have epistemology, and this is the study of knowledge itself. The study of how we know what we know, much like the third example of mages a while back who understand the magic behind the magic.
In the most basic sense, we know that we search for knowledge when we study. Epistemology gives us understanding of the process on how we gain knowledge, and even on the higher levels of understanding information.
This is best understood in sociological political science research, which is where I'm specializing now in my PhD studies here in Taiwan.
I enrolled in Research Theory of Ethnology, the class has lots of classic readings. We're required to read them all, we submit a summary every week, and we are required to participate in weekly discussions.
The spartan training supplements the content of the class, and it bears excellent fruit.
Ethnography is a method and a field of study which focuses on civilizations and cultures. That's my operational definition though (there's political issues in the definition).
Ethnology is an epistemology which provides pathways for ethnography to work.
The magic behind the magic.
So, know what end you are trying to achieve, it will inform you what "-logy" you are doing.
In research:
- It will help inform you of much more literature to enrich your study.
- It will help you craft your design.
- It will help you form your argument better.
- It will help you better understand your topic.
In academic life:
- Need I say more? It helps you study better.
- It gives you better understanding.
- It helps you review.
- It will give you mastery on the subject.
- It leads you from knowledge to wisdom.
- Need I say more?
In debates:
- It helps you understand the angles around the topic.
- It helps you strategize your argument.
- It helps you dismantle the opposing arguments.
- It makes you open to the truth if the opponent is making sense, making you the bigger person.
- It elevates debate to discourse.
So, how do we do epistemologies and thus gain access to the magic behind the magic of knowledge? There is an entire body of materials on epistemology. But here are practical stuff.
- You are doing it whenever you do reviews of related literatures.
- You are doing it when you focus on how a researcher did their method.
- You are doing it when you focus on how a researcher formulated their argument.
- You do it everytime you read this blog.
- You did it when you gave value to your 101 class (i.e. Psych 101, Econ 101, it's Political Science as a Profession or Pol 201 or Pol 3211 in political science at the University of Santo Tomas)
- You do it when you value the "intro to" classes.
- There are certain "minor" or general education classes (logic, rhetoric) which also help you epistemologize.
- You also do it when you read, listen, participate in pedagogical and co-curricular stuff. I.e. attending conferences, publishing, apprentice as a Research Assistant or Teaching Assistant.
- Read on updates regarding your discipline. These are usually in purely academic journals where the articles are about what's going on in the field rather than the specific topics.
Of course, I won't end without our Magic:the Gathering flavor text of the day. Check out the quote on this card.
