epistemology
/ɪˌpɪstɪˈmɒlədʒi
/ /ɛˌpɪstɪˈmɒlədʒi/noun [mass noun] Philosophy
The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.The turn from epistemology to ontology was taken before Heidegger by Nicolai Hartmann....
- The authentic scientific ring of Russell's logic echoed in his epistemology of natural knowledge, Quine wrote.
- In Britain, John Locke reacted against the innatism of Cartesian epistemology, but retained a theory of ideas.
Derivatives
epistemologist
- It was sad for epistemologists, Hume and others, to have to acquiesce in the impossibility of strictly deriving the science of the external world from sensory evidence.
- This is not quite so straightforward an ‘empirical description’ as naturalistic epistemologists like to think.
- Contemporary feminist epistemologists have pointed out how traditional philosophy's emphasis on rational, logical absolutes has devalued the ambiguities of the embodied life.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Greek epistēmē 'knowledge', from epistasthai 'know, know how to do'.