Fundamentos Ontológicos y Epistemológicos de la Investigación Cualitativa

The development of Science inthe seventeenth century has been guided by positivist perspectives that conceive as true scientific knowledge what can be quantifiable, measured and manipulated, establishing a dual relationship between the subject and object of study. However, in contrast to this mechanistic perspective, the qualitative research approach is opposed, which seeks to demonstrate through ontological and epistemological foundations, that acquiring knowledge in its entirety is impossible; because everything that is investigated is notsimple objects, but also people, which due to their social structure are complex beings. Qualitative research proposes starting from the cognitive subject to the known subject by establishing a human network of comunition through cognitive interaction, which is possible through language, giving rise to a unidirectional relationship. However, qualitative research, due to its descriptive nature, is criticized by positivist science as it is accused of being subjective, unable to provide object knowledge. However, from the qualitative research it is proposed to start from emerging designs that allow us to understand reality and give rise to our own techniques and instruments for research.