Epistemology

Epistemologyfrom the Greek words episteme = science and logos = word/speech is the philosophy of knowledge.Concise Oxford Dictionary It seeks to answer the questions "What is knowledge?" and "How is knowledge acquired?"

Epistemologists

Epistemologists are philosophers who are interested in questions such as whether it is possible to have knowledge, what kind of knowledge there is, and how people come to know things.

Examples

One of the first philosophers to make a clear statement on these questions was Xenophanes (570 – 470 BC). The following saying was, and still is, famous:

"Certain truth has no man... for even if he ever succeeds in saying what is true, he will never know it".Guthrie W.K.C. 1962. A history of Greek philosophy. Vol 1: the earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans. Cambridge. p395 (quotation abbreviated)

This is an early form of skepticism.

Notable questions

 What is truth?
 What is science?
 What is knowledge?
 How can we know anything?

Notable positions

 Knowing how vs. knowing that: This was an idea of Gilbert Ryle. Moral questions, for example, may come down to knowing how to behave. Science could be about knowing that something is the case.Ryle, Gilbert. 1949. The concept of mind, chapter 2.
 Rational vs. empirical knowledge: Rational knowledge (if it exists) is knowledge built up from a person's internal thought. Empirical knowledge is built up from what is received through the senses.Ayer A.J. 1956. The problem of knowledge.Russell, Bertrand 1914. Our knowledge of the external world.
 Error: Knowledge cannot err vs. the possibility of making mistakes is an essential part of knowledge (Ludwig Wittgenstein).

There are other debates of this kind.Woozley A.D. 1949. Theory of knowledge. (elementary)Hamlyn D.W. 1970. Theory of knowledge. (more advanced)

Related pages

 Philosophy
 Medieval philosophy
 Ancient Greek philosophy
 Epistemic community
 Philosophy of science

 References