The Relationship Between Epistemology and Metaphysics

What is the relationship between epistemology and metaphysics

In many ways epistemology clears the way for metaphysical construction or hypothesis. By adhering to the principles of one branch of philosophy, it allows us to become better at searching within the other. It is true that epistemic ideas are often knocked down by metaphysics, but when one considers that it is entirely possible to base metaphysical ideas on epistemology, it becomes clear that the branches of philosophy are very much intertwined and somewhat interdependent upon each other for clarity and reason. It is a strange philosophical symbiosis from which a magnificent and new organism emerges. We know that the goal of metaphysics is to somehow develop an all-encompassing hypothesis as to what the ultimate nature of the universe is and reality itself. The human mind being the way it is, will not accept any of the possibilities unearthed by metaphysical questioning unless it is in part rationalized by epistemic inquiry. For example, the old question about the tree falling in the woods, would it still make sound if no one was there to hear it? Well science and its epistemic thirst for knowledge has solved that question by revealing the existence of sound waves, which would be there regardless of the emptiness of the woods. Or has it? On the surface epistemology seems to have solved the question but the fact is metaphysically speaking it has not been solved at all because the question was about the nature of reality itself, and whether or not the reality of the tree falling would even exist if there was no one to experience it. Would the universe simply withdraw the portion itself that was not being experienced by anyone? This question cannot be answered by either branch, but possibly by a combination of the two. With regards to epistemology, the world actually exists as a series of images, ideas and concrete forms that can be interacted with. Yet despite the objective references