Aligning Art and Epistemology: Illustrations to Distinguish Discovery from Knowledge

Abstract

This paper explains the use of artwork in an exercise to develop students’ understanding of the fundamental ways of knowing. The objective is to move students toward employing methods of genuine discovery. Art history provides the theoretical underpinnings for this view, while epistemology poses the aligning principles. The author uses art from various periods to illustrate the transitions between belief, knowledge, observation, and method. Students learn to distinguish between existing knowledge and the discovery of new knowledge in the process of inquiry. This understanding is valuable in business research where organizational phenomena become increasingly abstract at higher levels of aggregation.