Epistemology

We tell you what epistemology is, its characteristics and representatives. Also, its history, its problems and its difference with epistemology.

What is epistemology?

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that studies the scope and capacity of human knowledge.

Unlike epistemology, which studies scientific knowledge, epistemology asks about knowledge in a general sense: the way we know the world.

Epistemology is as old as philosophy. Its origins can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle.two Greek philosophers considered a fundamental part of the history of philosophy.

Etymology

The word epistemology comes from the Greek gnosiswhich means “knowledge” or “power to know,” and logoswhich means “reasoning” or “speech.” It can be translated as science or theory of knowledge.

• See also: Epistemology

History of epistemology

For most philosophers and historians of philosophy, epistemology begins in Greecein the 5th century BC. C., with Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC).

Plato's theory of ideas and Aristotle's theory of knowledge are the first epistemological systems developed in philosophy.

Later, With René Descartes (1596-1650) and David Hume (1711-1776), epistemology became an autonomous discipline. These philosophers transformed it into an independent branch of metaphysics, through two aspects: one rationalist (Descartes) and the other empiricist (Hume).

Modern philosophers maintained that to investigate what there is and what exists, they first had to know how what is known is known.

Modernity was followed by a combination of rationalist and empiricist trends that led to philosophies of knowledge such as those of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and, later, that of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), founder of phenomenology.

The phenomenologylike Kant's epistemological theory, combines elements of the rationalist side with the empiricist. Its emergence was so radical that it can be considered a new branch of philosophy, heir to epistemology.

Various derivatives arose from Husserl's work, such as the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), his most important disciple, hermeneutics, heir to Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) and Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), the works of Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) and the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980).

Characteristics of epistemology

The characteristics of epistemology may vary from one epistemological theory to another. However, it is possible to list some general features that all theories share, since, in general, they seek to respond to similar problems.

• Questions about the nature of knowledge. It seeks to understand what knowledge is, how it is acquired, and how it differs from other forms of beliefs, opinions, or information.
• It asks about the origin of knowledge. Examine how things come to be known. Explores whether knowledge comes from sensible experience, reason, intuition or other sources.
• Analyze how beliefs and statements are justified. It asks what makes a belief reasonable or justified, grounded or founded.
• Investigate the relationship between knowledge and belief. It asks how knowledge and belief are related, and whether there is a significant difference between the two.
• Examines empiricism and rationalism. It studies two fundamental approaches to acquiring knowledge: empiricism, which maintains that knowledge comes from experience and observation, and rationalism, which highlights the importance of reason and logical thinking.
• He wonders if it is possible to achieve absolute truth. It seeks to understand the relationship between beliefs about reality and reality itself.
• Explore the limits of human knowledge. It investigates the possibility of error, the role of culture and the influence of personal perceptions.
• Investigate biases that affect understanding. Examines how the world is perceived through the senses and how illusions and perceptual biases can affect our understanding of reality.

Gnoseology and epistemology

Although epistemology and epistemology are sometimes spoken of as if they were synonyms, there are some subtle differences between the two currents.

While epistemology studies knowledge in general, epistemology studies scientific knowledge..

Furthermore, each of these branches of philosophy has its own methodologies and questions that, at times, can intersect. Epistemology is a relatively young branch of philosophy, since it was previously part of epistemology as a general theory of knowledge.

Postures towards knowledge

The different epistemological theories have different positions regarding knowledge:

• Empiricism. He maintains that knowledge is derived primarily from sensory experience and observation of the world. Empiricists believe that our ideas and concepts are formed from sensory impressions and that all knowledge comes from direct perception or empirical experience.
• Rationalism. Emphasizes the role of reason and deduction in the acquisition of knowledge. Rationalists argue that some fundamental truths can be known a priori, that is, without depending on experience.
• Phenomenology. It focuses on direct conscious experience and how people perceive and understand the world. Phenomenologists seek to explore the structure of consciousness and how experiences are given meaning, but to do so they suspend all preconceived theories regarding the existence of things. For phenomenologists, things, objects and people occur as long as they appear in sight, it does not matter whether they “exist” or not.
• Idealism. It states that reality is ultimately a product of the mind or consciousness. Idealists argue that knowledge is a mental construction and that nothing can be known beyond one's own ideas and perceptions.
• Realism. It maintains that there is an objective reality independent of our perception. Realists claim that this reality can be known through experience and that beliefs must appropriately correspond to this external reality.
• Skepticism. It questions the possibility of achieving secure and absolute knowledge. Skeptics question the reliability of perception, memory, and other sources of knowledge, leading to an attitude of suspension of judgment or disbelief.
• Pragmatism. Emphasizes the usefulness and practicality of knowledge. Pragmatists consider that the value of a belief or theory lies in its ability to guide action and solve practical problems, rather than in its correspondence with an objective reality.
• Constructivism. It maintains that knowledge is actively constructed by individuals through their interaction with the environment and society. Constructivists argue that knowledge is relative and depends on the perspective and experiences of each individual.
• Relativism. It states that knowledge is relative to a particular cultural, historical or social context. Relativists maintain that there are no absolute truths and that beliefs are influenced by circumstances and cultural background.

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References

• L. Benítez, The world in René Descartes, Mexico, Autonomous University of Mexico, 1993.
• J. Cottingham (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Descartes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• J. Noxon, The evolution of Hume's philosophy, Madrid, Revista de Occident, 1974.
• R. Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1979.
• H. Allison, Kant's Transcendental Idealism. An interpretation and defense, Barcelona/Mexico, Anthropos, 1992.
• R. Bernet, I. Kern, and E. Marbach, An Introduction to Husserlian Phenomenology, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1995.
• E. Lévinas, The phenomenological theory of intuition, Follow me, Salamanca, 2004.