Qualitative Inquiry, Ontology, and the Question of Being: “We Are Not Yet Thinking”

Mainstream/conventional qualitative research is fundamentally an epistemological activity, with the result that methodological issues are largely dealt with epistemologically rather than ontologically. For continental philosophy, however, epistemology has its basis in ontology. The continental approach to ontology has its origins in Heidegger’s reopening of the question of Being in Being and Time , which is viewed as having permanently altered the epistemological program that guides modern philosophy and modern science. Heidegger asks: What is the meaning of Being? Being is what determines beings as beings, but it is not itself a being. Heidegger conceives of Being as a question but because Being is not a being, the Being-question is unanswerable and always remains open. Being cannot be an object of knowledge but, instead, is an issue for thought. Heidegger’s examination of the Being-question also has a number of important implications for mainstream qualitative inquiry.