Towards an integral marketing research practice in the ontological and epistemological dimensions through the non-dualistic paradigm of reality

Abstract

Scientific social inquiry beholds four dimensions of research, namely the epistemological, the ontological, the sociological, and the methodological dimension. Regardless of the approach taken, the goal of any scientific social inquiry is to produce knowledge that is as close as possible to the truth (implicitly or explicitly). Nonetheless, in ensuring that all scientific inquiry is truthful, it also has to be objective as well as rational.The nature of reality as it manifested itself in the new quantum physics changed irrevocably the dimensions of what constituted objectivity in science. Quantum physics, but more so the Heisenberg Principle was so cataclysmic that it not only attacked one or two conclusions about Classical Physics, but it completely replaced the very cornerstone and foundation on which the whole edifice of the Newtonian reality was based. In short, the Heisenberg Principle was the realisation that the conscious observer directly influenced what was being observed. In some mysterious fashion, the subject and the object were intimately united. It held a monistic worldview by proclaiming only oneness, and consequently relinquished the Cartesian dualism of the world.Hence, this research draws on the key postulate of oneness (monism) as put forward by quantum mechanics and questions the objectiveness, rationality and truthfulness of scientific inquiry. It does so by using a theoretical research design, i.e. a non-experimental conceptual historical inductive study. Providing an overview of monistic philosophy, it concludes that all is mind and the physical dualistic reality is a mere illusion. In reconciling the physical with the metaphysical worlds, the paper draws on Ouspensky’s Space-time and Mind model. By analysing the so-called fifth dimension of space, the research then proposes the inclusion of the Precognitive Research design, which augments the existing research designs (exploratory, descriptive and causal), and will enable scientists to come closer to truthful knowledge.