Urrgh - such hideous words. But what exactly is the difference?
Please help ;-) my brain has gone all waa-waa over this, this morning and it's only 10 o'clock.

As i understand it, epistemology refers to your take on the nature of knowledge (e.g. can knowledge be adequately produced via the scientific method?) and ontology refers to your take on the nature of being (e.g. is there an essential nature than can be measured, or is 'being' merely the production of discourse, for example).
If you're doing post-structuralist work like i am, in a way i think its easier to debate such questions as I'm essentially going against the mainstream grain (i.e. my responses to the above 3 questions would be no, no & yes). But I'm still just working all this out, so other debates on this post would be welcome!

Thanks Zelda. I think I am a no. no yes too.
Are you a fellow discouse analyst, can't remember?

discourse , I mean.

I have to look this up every time - my brain has black holes for certain things I can never remember and this is one of them!

Yes, i think Im a 'Foucauldian Discourse Analyst'. Im just starting to analyse, although is quite scary as I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing - although i understand thats what doing a PhD should feel like! Whats your discipline? (I'm in psychology, with a criminology-slant)

I know exactly what you mean about the blackhole . I have been to seminars on this & even explained sucessfully to a group of undergrads, but when asked the other day what my epistemological standpoint was I turned into a dithering wreak.

Zelda technically I am a communications student, but I hold a precarious position in the fact that my research is all to do with computers. Good luck with the Foucault - again I teach this stuff - I even do a whole module of C.D.A with undergrads & I am still not 100% I know what I am doing with my own analysis!!

come on Soc Sci's . Zelda's response is extremely useful, but I'd be really grateful for any additional thoughts on the murky waters of epistemology / onotology.