Relevance of philosophical approach to values in social science to maritime research

The origin of maritime research lies in a multi‐disciplinary approach. The philosophical grounding for academic research inherently shapes the methodological approach, data collection methods adopted, and analysis techniques deployed. Thus, there is a need for an insight into the philosophical underpinnings of maritime research for better understanding of research design in maritime context. The paper will examine social science and its grounding in philosophical concepts for qualitative research, and the relevance of philosophical approach to ‘values’ in social science, to maritime research by using qualitative methods. The aim is to apprise the novice maritime researchers ‐ in simplistic language, about the philosophical approach to values, as an alternative to complex descriptions of concepts available in philosophical articles and references.