Epistemology

PHL 215: Philosophy Methods and Applications

November 21, 2011

Epistemology is a branch of study in philosophy that studies knowledge. “The broad definition accords the derivation of the term empiricism from the ancient Greek work empeira, “experience”.” (Empiricism, 2011) Epistemology consist of many elements surrounding justified belief such as what constitutes a justified belief; a belief could be justified because certain factors are present, or “what we experience through clusters of sensory impressions” (Moore, Bruder, 2011 pg.129) or a belief could be justified due to someone mental state. Epistemology distinguishes between adequate knowledge and inadequate knowledge. Copernicus during the 1600’s believed that theoretical knowledge was determined based on past events. Galileo fought with him in separating science from the church. Galileo claimed that individuals should be able to question and investigate matters which may be false in experience or reason. Galileo did not question the Church to rule in their domain, but matters which could be shown to be true or false in life’s observations should not be subject to scripture or justified only by scripture. “It is the separation of ethics from knowledge (of nature, history, etc), of the separation of science from the legitimate domain of the Church; he claimed the right of the people to investigate profane matters, questions which were capable of falsification in experience or reason, while the Holy Fathers could confine themselves to determining what was necessary to gain access to eternal life and avoid damnation”. (Markie, P., and Edward N. Z., 2008)

Descartes and Bacon’s thought was the opposite of Copernicus and Galileo. Descartes and Bacon choose to start from the very beginning to build a foundation of adequate knowledge. They did not look to the past to determine what was true or false knowledge. Plato another early philosopher believe that if an individual thought it to be possible for an idea to be plausible then it could be true. The major schools of thought surround epistemology are rationalism and empiricism. Empiricism knowledge is obtained from experiences. They are against reasoning since reason does not provide knowledge. Rationalists believe there is some knowledge gain that is part of our nature; there is not an experience or deduction to determine truth. Rationalists believe that knowledge can be deduced and some knowledge is knowable by intuition alone. The key contributors to empiricism include Plato, Aristotle, Rene Descartes, David Hume, Locke, Berkeley, Immanuel Kant, Copernicus, Galileo, Noam Chomsky, and Leibniz. Some of the empiricists include Locke, Berkeley and Hume because that did not believe knowledge could be gain from innate knowledge but knowledge originated from experiences. The rationalist which shared the view that knowledge is arises from nature, or knowledge that is deduce. “Descartes thinks that the idea of God, or perfection and infinity, and knowledge of my own existence is innate; G.W. Leibniz thinks that logical principles are innate; and Noam Chomsky thinks that the ability to use language (e.g., language rules) is innate”. (David J. Y., 2008) Plato on the other hand believes we have innate knowledge of certain concepts such beauty, virtue and mathematical forms and objects. There are some principle issues surrounding empiricism include generalization of cognitive thought in a given context to other cognitive process. There is not always evidence to prove an idea is true simply based on experiences or simply knowing. Situations are not always the same, so knowledge gain from one experience may not be useful in a new situation that is slightly different. The thought of empiricism leaves a lot to be desired because the definition is so different, and there are other ways that may be more plausible to justifying adequate and inadequate truth.

References

David J. Y., (2008), Empiricism versus Rationalism. Retrieved November 21st, 2011 from http://www.mesacc.edu/~yount/text/empm-v-ratm.html
Empiricism, (2011), In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved on November 21st, 2011 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186146/empiricism
Epistemology, (2008), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved on November 21st, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com
Markie, P., and Edward N. Z., (2008), Rationalism vs. Empiricism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on November 21st, 2011 from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/rationalism-empiricism/