The metaphysician might study such things as where the lines are properly drawn between identifying something as living or nonliving, whether our perception of being alive necessarily means that we are alive, and whether or not we can trust that we are awake and not merely dreaming that we are awake (Taylor, 2002). The epistemologist might study whether (and how) one can know whether our assumptions and perceptions are capable of yielding information on the basis of which any conclusions can be drawn at all. The epistemologist would be concerned with how we know what we know and with what we can possibly know, whereas the metaphysician would be concerned with understanding the nature of what we perceive around us (Taylor, 2002).
Axiologists are ethicists and artists depending on whether they study relative virtue or relative beauty, respectively (Hursthouse, 1999; Rosenstand, 2008; Taylor, 2002). The ethicist is primarily concerned with differentiating moral right (or good) from moral wrong (or evil); the aesthetist is primarily concerned with what tangible things or ideas (such as poetry or even mathematics) are beautiful. Finally, the logician studies the relationship and degree of consistency or inconsistency between conceptual ideas. His tools consist of formal rules of argument and deductive reasoning that enable him to distinguish conceptually valid conclusions from those that are not supported by the evidence or information upon which they are supposedly based (Rosenstand, 2008; Taylor, 2002; Wiley, 1999).
Theory
Theory refers to a process of formulating an idea that proposes to explain observed phenomena (Rosenstand, 2008; Taylor, 2002; Wiley, 1999). More specifically, a theory consists of a formal hypothesis (or set of hypotheses) that make testable claims about a phenomenon or series...
The hallmark of any theory is that it be testable and capable of being disproved by empirical data. A proposed theory must also be testable in ways that allow it to be tested and retested repeatedly by independent testers sharing only the same initial hypothesis (or hypotheses) and the same methodology for conducting the tests of the validity of the theory. Hypotheses that are confirmed by empirically valid tests are said to prove the theory, although more technically, nothing is ever actually "provable" for reasons that raise questions within the realm of epistemology (Taylor, 2002).
Conclusion
The concepts of ideology, philosophy, and theory are closely related in very general ways but clearly differentiable in principle. Ideology refers to a broad set of beliefs or ideas that may or may not also encompass philosophies. Generally, philosophy refers to a structured way of thinking used to establish component goals and methods of achieving them. Philosophy itself consists of four branches (metaphysics, epistemology, axiology, and logic). Logic is a formal set of rules of consistency and deduction that allow different conceptual ideas to be compared for consistency and evaluated for apparent truth or falsehood.
Sources Consulted
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Taylor, R. (2002). Freedom, Anarchy, and the Law: An Introduction to Political
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