ABSTRACT

This chapter positions and frames epistemology as a distinct discipline yet also an integral component of knowledge construction in relation to its closest adjuncts, namely ontology, philosophy and methodology. The central tenet of the chapter revolves around the positing of human knowledge as innately subjective and, as a consequence of this, rooted in socially constructed meaning and the motivation to seek answers to and illuminations of key issues of concern to humanity. The chapter reconnects the liminal space between what is the basis of “knowing” and who the “knower” is in relation to how personal epistemology, or what is more commonly termed “epistemic positionality”, can be established, framed and authentically articulated. Wider considerations of the concept of tacit knowledge are woven into the chapter, in relation to how this can actively contribute to the potential transferability of knowledge. The recognition that it is epistemology that reconnects all disciplinary knowledge is presented via a consideration of the internalisation and meaning-making of knowledge in both the processes of knowledge construction and interpretation.