Epistemology
( A Dictionary of Philosophy, Macmillan)
The
branch of philosophy
concerned with the theory of
knowledge.
Traditionally, central issues in epistemology
are the nature and derivation of
knowledge, the scope of
knowledge, and the reliability of
claims to knowledge.
Philosophers
have frequently been divided over the question of
how knowledge is derived. Rationalists (for example, Plato and Descartes) have
argued that ideas of
reason intrinsic to the mind are the only source of
knowledge. In opposition to this view, empiricists (for example, Locke and Hume)
have argued that sense experience is the primary source of
our ideas, and hence of
knowledge (see empiricism;
rationalism).
A
significant turning-point in the debate between rationalists and empiricists
occurred with Kant's discussion of
whether there could be synthetic a priori knowledge - knowledge which is not
derived from experience but which is a condition of
the comprehensibility of
experience (see analytic
and synthetic). For example, Hume had maintained that our knowledge of
causation consists in our experience of
the constant conjunction of
events. But Kant took the view that the concept of
cause is not empirical but rather a pure category of
the understanding, required to make sense of
the relation of events
within experience.
Although
Kant's epistemology is
anti-empiricist in denying that all knowledge is derived
from experience, it nevertheless stands in opposition to, for example, Platonic epistemology
over the question of
the scope of
knowledge; for, while Plato considered true knowledge to be confined to the
supra-sensible world of
the Forms or Ideas, Kant insisted, with the empiricists, that knowledge is
limited to the world of
experience.
With
respect to the question of
the reliability of
knowledge, a potent influence in the history
of epistemology
has been the role of
the sceptic in demanding whether any claim to knowledge can be upheld against
the possibility of
doubt. Descartes'
epistemology, indeed,
was to pivot precisely upon the sceptic's method of
doubt in his setting aside any claim that was open to doubt until he discovered
some indubitable truths, for example, cogito
ergo sum.
In
contemporary epistemology
the sceptic's role has diminished. G. E. Moore
and Wittgenstein,
in particular, have been influential in redirecting philosophical attention from
the defence of claims
to knowledge against doubt to the analysis of
their meaning. For instance, it would now commonly be held, in A. J. Ayer's
standard formulation, that what is meant by the claim to know proposition p
is that at least (a) p is
believed, (b) p is true, and
(c) there are good reasons for believing that p
is true (se
A Dictionary of Philosophy © Laurence Urdang Associates Ltd 1979, Market
House Books Limited, Aylesbury, 1983, 2002e
belief).
Epistemology. A Dictionary of Philosophy, Macmillan (2002). Retrieved 26 August 2003,
from xreferplus. http://www.xreferplus.com/entry/1426205
Epistemology(The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy)
(from
Greek episteme,
¡¥knowledge¡¦, and logos,
¡¥explanation¡¦)
The
study of the nature of
knowledge and justification; specifically, the study of
(a) the defining features, (b) the substantive conditions or sources, and (c)
the limits of knowledge
and justification. The latter three categories are represented by traditional
philosophical controversy over the analysis of
knowledge and justification, the sources of
knowledge and justification (e.g., rationalism versus empiricism), and the
viability of skepticism
about knowledge and justification.
Epistemology. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (1999). Retrieved 26 August 2003,
From :xreferplus. http://www.xreferplus.com/entry/827481
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