Research philosophy deals with the source, nature and development of knowledge. Research philosophy is associated with assumption, knowledge and nature of the study. It deals with the specific way of developing knowledge. “The term research philosophy refers to a system of beliefs and assumptions about the development of knowledge” (Saunders et al., 2009, p124) As a quick summary, a research philosophy is a belief about the way in which data about a phenomenon should be gathered, analysed and used.
Scientific research philosophy can also be referred as a system of the researcher’s thought, following which new, reliable knowledge about the research object is obtained. In other words, it is the basis of the research, which involves the choice of research strategy, formulation of the problem, data collection, processing, and analysis. In general, the research philosophies include pragmatism, positivism, realism or interpretivism. These philosophical approaches enable them to decide which approach should be adopted by the researcher and why, which is derived from research questions.
Why research philosophy is important?
Research philosophy is a particular way of developing knowledge that defines the philosophical paradigm. This development and understanding of knowledge depend on certain assumptions based on our perspective of the world. Therefore, choosing an appropriate research philosophy is an important part of the research methodology.