EPISTEMOLOGY

-The object of Philosophical Inquiry

• Derived from the ancient Greek word epistémé meaning ‘Knowledge’,
added with the suffix - ‘logy’ meaning ‘study or science of’,
‘Epistemology’ translates to ‘the study or science of knowledge’ (or Theory
of Knowledge).
Generally, Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that investigates the
origin, nature, methods and limits of human Knowledge. It explores the
processes of ‘Knowing about knowing’ .
• It examines the various types of Knowing, the nature of Truth, and the
relationship between Knowledge and belief.
• It also deals with the means of production of Knowledge as well as
Skepticism about different knowledge claims.
• It is essentially about issues having to do with creation and dissemination
of Knowledge in particular areas of inquiry.
 Basic Questions in Epistemology:
• “what is knowledge”?
• “What is the difference between knowledge and belief”?
• “Is the world really what I think it is”?
• “ Is everything that I feel, see and think really true? And if it isn’t, then what is true?
• “What is the best way to go about figuring out what is true”?
• “Is science the best way or are there more ethical paths to the truth; paths that science
can never really travel”?
• “How is knowledge acquired? (What are the sources of Knowledge)?
• “What are features of genuine Knowledge as distinct from what appears to be
knowledge
• “How do know if I’m right after researching for truth”?
• “How will I ever know if I’m right”?
• “How can we use our senses, the testimony of others and other resources to acquire
knowledge”?
• “What can we know beyond the information provided by the senses”?
• “Are there limits to what we can know”?
• What are the structures and limits of Knowledge?
• “Are there different kinds of Knowledge with different grounds and characteristics?
• What is truth and what is false? how can we Know what we know is true ?
• Can I ever be certain about anything?
 “knowledge” variously defined as :
• ‘Information about something divine or corporeal ’
• ‘Relatively objective ideas and facts about the physical and social world around us’
• ‘The awareness and understanding of particular aspects of reality’
• ‘It is the clear, lucid information gained through process of reason applied to reality.
• Knowledge as ‘Justified true belief’.
 Based on this traditional approach, knowledge requires three (3) necessary and
sufficient conditions so that knowledge can be defined as ‘justified true belief’.
These are:
i Truth – since false propositions cannot be known to count as knowledge; it must be
actually true.
ii) Belief- we cannot know something that we do not belief in – to
know is to believe
iii) Justification- as opposed to believing in something purely as a
matter of luck , it must be self evident
 How is Knowledge acquired?
• Philosophers often distinguish between two kinds of Knowledge:
• i) a priori (rational/non-empirical) and ii) posteriori (empirical) Knowledge.
• a priori is where knowledge is possible independent of, or prior to any
experience and requires only the use of reason e.g. knowledge of mathematical or
logical truths such as the law of non-contradiction and of abstract claims.
• As initially propounded by Socrates and Plato, a priori knowledge entails a
process of “remembering” or “recollection”-that we do not learn, rather we
remember or recollect from the “Pleroma” –What one cannot know, he simply
never knew”
• Posteriori (or empirical) knowledge on the other hand, is knowledge
acquired from observations and experience where knowledge is
possible only subsequent (or posteriori ) to certain sense experiences.
• Thus, as opposed to a priori knowledge where we ‘remember’ or
‘recollect’, in ‘posteriori’ Knowledge, our minds are empty at birth
(based on the concept of ‘tabula rasa’) and we acquire knowledge
from the world (or ‘Kenoma’) as we experience it through our senses.
• Scientific knowledge is generally posteriori i.e. knowledge derived
from the experience of the senses.
• Some philosophers called Rationalists believe that all knowledge is
ultimately grounded upon reason while others called Empiricists
believe that all knowledge is ultimately grounded in experience
 Nature of Truth
• Truth and Knowledge are central subject in Philosophy. Just as with
the nature of knowledge, the nature of truth has been a topic of
discussion on its own right for centuries among philosophers.
• Philosophers have attempted to define criteria for distinguishing
between truth and error. But they disagree about what truth means and
how to arrive at true ideas.
• Discussions on the subject of truth seek to address basic questions
such as “what are truths” and “what (if anything) make them true”?
 A number of theories on the nature of truth have been put forward by
philosophers to address these questions and these theories include:
i) The Correspondence Theory – This theory holds that an idea is
true if it corresponds to facts or reality. That the truth or falsity of a
statement or an idea is determined only by how it relates to the world
and whether it actually describes (i.e. corresponds with) that world.
Truth is a relationship between statements and the way the world
really is, sometimes called facts. As G.E Moore puts it, “there is no
difference between truth and the reality to which it corresponds”.
 iii) The coherence theory: This theory states that truth is a matter of degree and that an
idea is true to the extent to which it coheres (fits or hangs together) with other beliefs or
ideas that one holds or any existing body of knowledge.
• As Joachim, one of the leading thinkers of the coherence theory puts it, “truth in its
essential nature is that systematic coherence which is the character of a significant
whole”.
• Individual judgments or beliefs are to him, not the whole truths. They are only true to a
degree – the degree measuring the extent to which they express the content of the single
“whole complete truth”. Any real judgment we make will only be partially true.
Thus, based on the notion of “whole complete truth” and “systemic coherence” the
coherence theory can be reduced to a single slogan that: “A belief or idea is true if and
only if it is part of a coherent system of beliefs, ideas or existing body of Knowledge.
ii) The Pragmatic Theory: Pragmatism, an essentially American
Philosophical school of thought offers a different perspective on the
theory of truth.
• Led by its leading thinkers including William James, Charles Sanders
Pierce and John Dewey, the pragmatist theory of truth maintains that
truth has a practical value and is verifiable. That is:
• An idea is true if it works or settles the problem it deals with.
• A true idea is verifiable from practical experience
• iv) Skepticism: While the three theories of truth discussed above
affirm the existence of truth and seek to establish its essential nature,
the skeptics question the very existence of truth and the possibility of
its attainment.
• The skeptics theory of truth claims that knowledge is impossible to
attain and that truth is unknowable.
Types/Sources/characteristics of Knowledge.

• Types of Knowledge vary with their sources and their methods of acquisition and
validation.
• Rational Knowledge; This is the type of knowledge we acquire by exercise of reason
alone- that is, not by observation of the actual state of affairs, but by introspection or
inferring new knowledge from what we know already.
• The Principles of formal logic and pure mathematics are paradigms of rational
knowledge. Their truth is demonstrable by abstract reasoning alone.
• Take the logical principle that two contradictory statements cannot both be true at once.
That “Bingo is a dog” and “Bingo is not a dog” cannot both be predicated of the same
object at the same time.
• Or the principle that if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C
 • Given some hypothesis or premise, we can go on to deduce a number of conclusions that
must necessarily follow. For example, the fact that there is a teacher implies that there must
be a learner. From the presence of a teacher we logically infer or deduce that there must be a
learner or some learners (whether present there or not)
• The hallmark of this type of Knowledge is that the conclusions being inferred must
logically follow from what went before.
• It is based on law of deductive reasoning and argumentation (called syllogism) that follows
from a Major premise, a Minor premise and a conclusion .
• Limitations: Rational Knowledge is not without its limitations: It is fundamentally abstract
and formal. It deals with logical relations and impersonal meanings and disregards
emotional needs and actual state of affairs.
• Because we live emotionally, among state of affairs, rational knowledge alone is hardly
sufficient. We also need other forms of knowledge.
• Furthermore, Human Reason is unable to see and therefore cannot
perceive many physical phenomena. In other words, reason on its own
is based on incomplete empirical data. Thus, the conclusions it makes
on its cannot be guaranteed to be true. Therefore, reason may be so
constituted that it may lead to error.
 Empirical or Scientific Knowledge
• This is the type of knowledge we obtain through the observation of
things around us, through our senses and through personal experience
from actions in which we are involved.
• It is also the characteristic knowledge in the sciences both natural and
social.
• It is an empirical type of knowledge which means that it can be
verified for its truth.
• By seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and tasting, we form our
conception of the world around us. Knowledge, therefore, is composed
in ideas formed in accordance with observed facts – or sensed-facts.
• Whereas the rationalist tells us to “think things through” the
empiricist advises us to “look and see”.
• The paradigm of empirical knowledge is modern science. Scientific
hypotheses are tested by observation or by experimentation to find
which hypothesis accounts most satisfactorily for a certain set of
phenomenon.
 • Limitations: The limitations of empirical Knowledge include:
i) Its sole reliance on sense experience and empiricism as the basis of knowledge – the assertion
that what the senses do not perceive and what is not empirically verified either does exist or is
false. This theory of knowledge limits human knowledge to only what can be perceived or verified
through the senses. However, humans are incapable of perceiving some knowledge which is unseen
or cannot be perceived with our limited senses. To conclude that such things do not exist would be
an error. The faith in the limitation of human knowledge and the unseen should be an incentive for
us to not stop our minds at the sensory stage and never think that we have discovered everything.
ii) It should also be pointed out that our senses may at times deceive us - as when a stick that is
really straight looks bent in water. Or the case of loss of taste in sickness or mirage, hallucinations
and other forms of optical illusions resulting in altered realities presented to the senses etc. As
pointed by Rene Descartes, sense perception may be illusionary.
• Socrates also raised similar doubt when he asked before drinking the hemlock, “have our senses
truth in them? Are they not ...inaccurate witnesses?”
 Revealed/Authoritative Knowledge

• Revealed Knowledge is the characteristic knowledge in all religions, especially the

revealed religions of Islam and Christianity which we are familiar with through the
Qur án and the Bible.
• Revealed Knowledge may be described as Knowledge that God has disclosed to man
• In His omniscience, God inspired certain men to convey truths that He had revealed
to them so that these truths might be known thereafter by all mankind.
• Because it is the word of God, it is true forever. If it were not, God would be either
ignorant, or deceitful which is to say that He would not be God.
• The methods of the original acquisition was by Vision, Trance or Dream possible
only to those to whom Allah or God had chosen to reveal Himself.
• Unlike scientific knowledge, this is a type of knowledge that is not
open to observation or other empirical tests.
• It is based on Faith . No body has seen God except those prophets to
whom He had revealed Himself. But all Muslims and Christians Know
for sure that God exists.
• They believe and their belief is not open to doubt or investigation.
• However, in addition to just believing as matter of faith, it has been
argued, that God’s Knowledge can also be attained through logical
reasoning, contemplation and introspection.
• Authoritative Knowledge -somewhat similar to Revealed Knowledge.
• This relates to information received from people; superlative beings,
books or traditions. The strength of this knowledge depends on the
forte and validity of its source.
 Intuitive Knowledge
• Revealed knowledge is God-given and external to man.
• Intuitive knowledge is knowledge that a person finds within himself in a moment of
insight.
• Insight or Intuition is explained as the sudden eruption into consciousness of an idea or
conclusion produced by a long process of unconscious work. All of a sudden we see the
solution to a problem with which our unconscious has been at grips for days, months or
even years.
• It is this prior labor of the unconscious that gives the moment of insight its exhilaration
and its seeming certainty. We feel sure of our insights just because, without being aware
of it, we have worked so hard for them. We are exhilarated by them because the psychic
energy so long invested in search for a solution is released suddenly in sheer pleasure of
discovery. We are exhilarated too, because this very discharge of energy gives us a sense
of the fullness of our mental powers.
• As different from scientific knowledge, Intuitive Knowledge is
knowledge that is proposed, and accepted on the strength of the
imaginative vision or private experience of the person proposing it.
• It is Knowledge derived from beliefs, perception and faith rather than
hard or cold facts.
• The truths embodied in the works of arts are a form of intuitive
knowledge. They are offered as insights and we ourselves recognize
them as true intuitively.
 Reflection points:
What basic type of Knowledge do you deal with in your course of
study? Is it rational or empirical knowledge or both?
How do you perceive, acquire or grasp knowledge in your course?
How do you validate (confirm) knowledge (truth) in your discipline?
 Do you ‘think through it’ or ‘look and see it’?