“The wisest of all humans is he or she who knows that they know nothing.”-Socrates Epistemology, simply put is the study of knowledge. It looks at how we know, what we know, and do we really know anything at all? Knowledge is the foundation of any sound argument, and is used to get at the “truth” of things. In this paper, I will discuss epistemology and further explain it by relating it to something that I use to believe to be true that I no longer do. As defined in the Oxford Dictionary, epistemology is “The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion”. From the class lecture, epistemology was defined as “facts, information, …show more content…
In the lecture class we had a discussion on the difference between saying you “know” something, you “believe” something, and you “are certain” of something. There is a very controversial distinction between them, and it ultimately depends on the individual’s definition of each of them and what they personally mean to that individual. During the class lecture on Thursday, April 7th, the class watched three different videos that applied to epistemology. First, “Theory of Knowledge: An Introduction”, by Professor AC Graying. This video was focused on the justification of knowledge. “Justified true belief gettier problem(s). Second, “TED Talk: Perception” that discussed perception as to different kinds of knowing and related it to feelings. Lastly, “TED Ed Talk: What’s Invisible? Inventory of the Invisible” that said “the closer you look, the less you see”. This statement is a warning against ignorance and is trying to base your focus around …show more content…
The study is based on answering the following questions; how we know, and how do we really know anything at all? Simply stated, epistemology is belief, knowledge, understanding, and certainty about something. Many times there are things that people hold true to themselves, that they find out later on are not actually true. My explain of this was when I was younger and pictured all of the High School teenagers as “superficial” and thought that I would have to change my ways of life to be like that. This was found to be completely untrue, based on personal experience. Overall, knowledge of something is not universally defined and varies on the individual and what values that person holds true to themselves and how they state that they “know” it to be
Epistemology tells us how we come to acquire knowledge and what type of limits there are on our knowledge. Berkeley’s epistemological argument is that the physical and mental world are one-in-the-same. He denies the existence of an external world and believes that the world is only a collection of ideas in our heads. We only know things to be real as we experience them and we only experience our ideas. This leads Berkeley to the conclusion that for something to be real, that means that it is the object of some type of experience. Without epistemology, people would have no reason to believe in their thoughts and actions because there would be no difference between truth and error. We need epistemology to accept reality.
§ Physical Bodies - dreaming - e.g. do you know you are awake now? Or
The type of research conducted often depends on the epistemology of the researcher. Epistemology is considered the justification of knowledge; it is about the relationship between the researcher, knowledge, and how knowledge is created (Carter...
The epistemological concept questions “how do I know?” The epistemological dimension is how we view the assumptions of knowledge to decide what to believe (Marcia, 2008, p2). The way in which information is delivered affects how it perceived by those who receive the information. Intrapersonal dimension is how we chose and adopt the values and beliefs that we decide to live by (Marcia, 2008, p8). For example, as a student in the first phase of self-authorship, I seek my values and beliefs according to seeking acceptance from those around me, while others who may be further down the process chose their values and beliefs according to who they are. Interpersonal dimensions is the connection between yourself and with others (Marcia, 2008, p9). It is the understanding of others views and developing a mature and respectful way to interact with everyone. “Complex epistemological, intrapersonal, and interpersonal development is necessary for adults to build complex belief systems, to form a coherent sense of identity, and to develop authentic, mature relations with diverse others (Baxter Magolda, 2001).” Within this course, I believe that we have learned a bit of all of three dimensions. Reading the
Almost all epistemologists, since Edmund Gettier’s 1963 article, have agreed that he disproved the justified-true-belief conception of knowledge. He proposed two examples
The dictionary definition of knowledge is information acquired by a person through experience or education. Knowledge in the 21st century is viewed as a thought that is backed up by facts or evidence, therefore making this idea a very credible one to many. I believe that there is no such thing as knowledge, but rather justified true belief. The facts and the evidence used to amount to so called knowledge are just opinions of very educated people meaning they are falsifiable just like any other opinion. Edmund Gettier backs up this claim with, “it is possible for a person to be justified in a proposition that is in fact false” (109). On the other hand, a justified true belief is one that has plenty of evidence and reasons to believe that it is true, but it is also known that there could very well be evidence against this belief. A good example of justified true belief would be the principle of God. There is no way to know for a fact that the God people learn about and worship exists, for the fact that no one that is alive today has met God. However, as far as the other end of the argument goes there are reasons such as; reproduction, respiratory relationship between plants and humans, the urge to seek love, and many others to believe that God is alive and well today. If these ideas were facts that could be wholeheartedly
One of the major conflicts in the history of philosophy has been regarding the foundations of our knowledge. Epistemology is a philosophical term in reference to the nature, sources and limitations of knowledge; rationalism and empiricism are two approaches that seek to provide answers to the questions which have been posed by epistemology, including what is knowledge and where does it come from? Prominent rationalists, such as Descartes, Leibniz and Plato believed that all knowledge is “innate” and derived from reason and from within the mind; they differ in that they choose different objects of innate knowledge. In contrast, empiricists, including Hume, Locke and Berkeley believed that all knowledge comes from direct sense experience and
Epistemology means the study of knowledge. The term comes from the Greek word “episteme”, meaning “knowledge”, and “logos”, meaning, roughly, “study, or science of.” Logos is the root of all terms ending in “ology” such as psychology or anthropology. It examines the idea of information and how it identifies with comparable ideas, for example, truth, conviction and support. It likewise manages the methods for generation of learning, and also incredulity about various information claims. It is essentially about issues doing with the creation and scattering of information specifically regions of request. Epistemology asks questions such as, “What is knowledge?” and “what do people know?”. Knowledge in this case means that someone is aware of understanding a particular aspect of reality. The connection between metaphysics and epistemology is that epistemology justifies itself as what otherwise would be
Epistemology helped me investigate the procedure I went through for crafting the essays. I referred to books, online articles, journal and other publications to understand and justify the concepts and information. It helped me distinguish between what is false, what is true across diverse contexts, and to decide the boundaries of knowledge based on how that knowledge is acquired. I also evaluated the truthfulness of my beliefs and personal opinion. I am actuated by understanding the sources of knowledge and also the quality of the resulting knowledge – knowing its dimensions and limitations.
Epistemology, also known as theory of knowledge is the part of philosophy that discusses the nature and scope of knowledge. Some questions that study the nature of knowledge could be, Have you ever thought about how we know things? What does it mean for someone to know something? How much can we possibly know? How do you know that 2 + 2 = 4, or that the square root of 144 is 12? Do we know something from reason or from di...
The Justified True Belief (JTB) theory of knowledge, often attributed to Plato , is a fairly straightforward theory of knowledge. It states that something must be true if person S believes proposition P, proposition P is true, and S is justified in believing in believing that P is true . While many consider the JTB theory to be vital to the understanding of knowledge, some, such as American Philosopher Edmund Gettier, believe that it is flawed. I tend to agree with Gettier and others who object to the JTB theory as an adequate theory of knowledge, as the JTB theory allows for a type of implied confirmation bias that can lead people to be justified in believing they know something even though it isn’t true.
There are two main schools of thought, or methods, in regards to the subject of epistemology: rationalism and empiricism. These two, very different, schools of thought attempt to answer the philosophical question of how knowledge is acquired. While rationalists believe that this process occurs solely in our minds, empiricists argue that it is, instead, through sensory experience. After reading and understanding each argument it is clear that empiricism is the most relative explanatory position in epistemology.
Empiricism (en- peiran; to try something for yourself): The doctrine that all knowledge must come through the senses; there are no innate ideas born within us that only require to be remembered (ie, Plato). All knowledge is reducible to sensation, that is, our concepts are only sense images. In short, there is no knowledge other than that obtained by sense observation.
King, P.M. & Kitchener, K.S. (2002). The reflective judgment model: Twenty years of research on epistemic cognition. In B. K. Hofer and P. R. Pintrich (Eds.), Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing, (pp. 37-61). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Publisher.
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief. Much of the debate in epistemology centers on four areas: the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to such concepts as truth, belief, and justification, various problems of skepticism, the sources and scope of knowledge and justified belief, and the criteria for knowledge and justification. Epistemology addresses such questions as "What makes justified beliefs justified?", "What does it mean to say that we know something?" and fundamentally "How do we know that we know?"