Ways of knowing centered on the subject, and the invitation to be subjects involved in the problem and the reality that one wants to know

Abstract

This article brings together contributions from three researchers from the region whose way of knowing refers to the subject-subject epistemological scheme. The referenced authors (Ortiz Ocaña, Torres Carrillo and Sandoval Álvarez) share an ethical-political and epistemological position from which they seek to overcome the apparent and capture emergencies, investigating “from and with the subject” and not “on the subject”. As they warn us, the good intention of the researcher, affinity or empathy is not vast, but rather, feeling part of the investigated group which requires imbueing ourselves with their reflections, feelings, dreams, desires, traditions, customs and values ​​(Ortíz Ocaña, Arias López y Pedrozo Conedo, 2018; Ortíz Ocaña y Arias López, 2019). These practices enter into dialogue with the ways of narrating the story from below (Torres Carrillo, 2017), and this is complemented by a way of “investigating from the subject in perspective of autonomy” (Sandoval & Alonso, 2015, Salcido & Sandoval, 2016; Sandoval 2016, 2021). In sum, they agree that epistemic thinking should prevail over theoretical thinking as a basis for thinking, categorizing and re-categorizing, assuming that the categories are polysemic and not tied to a “look from” (Zemelman, 2005). This requires critical use of concepts and theories. In summary, we will go through the contributions of these three authors, and we will stop at the last one to understand what it means to be a subject involved in the problem and the reality that one wants to know.