THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

by: MARY-ROSE B. ILAGAN

Epistemology (from Greek ἐπιστήμη – epistēmē, "knowledge, science" + λόγος, "logos") or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge.

All men by nature desire knowledge. Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.

Frank Herbert (1920 - 1986)

What is knowledge? How are beliefs justified? How is knowledge acquired?

What do people know?

Philosophers use the tripartite theory of knowledge, which analyses knowledge as justified true belief

Gettier cases shows that a person does have a justified true belief, but in which there is no knowledge.

Reliabilism

a theory that suggests a belief is justified only if it is produced by processes

that typically yield a sufficiently high ratio of

true to false beliefs.

Coherentism

Unlike foundationalists, coherentists reject the idea that individual beliefs are justified by being inferred from other beliefs. Instead, according to coherentism, whole systems of beliefs are justified by their coherence.

Foundationalism

the justification for all of our beliefs is ultimately derived from the basic beliefs that act as the

foundation for all that we know.

A priori knowledge is knowledge that is known independently of experience (that is, it is non-empirical, or arrived at beforehand).

A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that is known by experience (that is, it is empirical, or arrived at afterward).

Analytic/synthetic distinctionAnalytic

Some propositions are such that we appear to be justified in believing them just so far as we understand their meaning.

"My father's brother is my uncle."

Synthetic have distinct subjects and predicates."My father's brother has black hair."

Empiricismis the theory that

experience is of primary importance in giving us knowledge of the world.

Whatever we learn, according to empiricists,

we learn through perception.

Rationalism

holds that it is reason, not experience, that is most

important for our acquisition of knowledge.

Constructivism

is a view in philosophy according to which all

knowledge is "constructed"

Infinitism

Infinitists typically take the infinite series to be merely potential, in the sense that an individual may have indefinitely many reasons available to him, without having consciously thought through all of these reasons when the need arises.

Skepticism " we cannot move on to point

B until we have proved point A, and if in order to prove point A we must establish it with absolute certainty, then it looks as though we will have a very hard time proving any point at all."

Skeptics argue that the belief in something does not necessarily justify an assertion of knowledge of it.