Epistemology Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Philosophy

Epistemology: The Branch of Philosophy Concerning Knowledge

Epistemology is a major subfield of philosophy, concerned with knowledge, justification, rationality of belief, and related issues.
Epistemologists study the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, and aim to answer questions like "What do we know?" and "How do we know that we know?"
The word "epistemology" is derived from the Greek word "epistēmē" meaning "knowledge" and the suffix "-logia" meaning "logical discourse."
Epistemology predates the introduction of the term into the lexicon of philosophy, with almost every major historical philosopher considering questions about what we know and how we know it.
Epistemology aims to answer questions about the core concepts of knowledge, belief, truth, and justification.
Knowledge can be propositional, procedural, or acquaintance knowledge, with epistemology primarily concerned with propositional knowledge.
A priori knowledge is independent of experience, while a posteriori knowledge is derived from experience.
Belief is an attitude held regarding something that is taken to be true, with beliefs being either occurrent or dispositional.
Truth is the property or state of being in accordance with facts or reality, and is a condition necessary for knowledge.
Justification is the reason that someone holds a rationally admissible belief, with sources of justification including perceptual experience, reason, and authoritative testimony.
Internalism and externalism are two central debates about the nature of justification, with internalists holding that justification is determined by the believer's mental states and externalists holding that justification is determined by external factors such as the reliability of the belief-forming process.
Epistemologists use a variety of methods to understand the relationship between past epistemology and contemporary epistemology, with contentious questions including whether the problems of epistemology are perennial and whether contemporary philosophers should aim to rationally reconstruct and evaluate historical views or merely describe them.Epistemology: The Study of Knowledge
Epistemological externalists believe that external factors can be conditions of justification for knowledge, while internalists believe that all knowledge-yielding conditions are within the psychological states of those who gain knowledge.
René Descartes is an early example of the internalist path to justification, with his belief that man must use his capacities for knowledge correctly and carefully through methodological doubt.
Defining knowledge is a central issue in epistemology, with factual knowledge being widely accepted as a form of cognitive success that establishes epistemic contact with reality.
The historically most influential definition of knowledge characterizes it in relation to three essential features: as a belief that is true and justified.
The justified-true-belief account of knowledge came under severe criticism in the second half of the 20th century, with the Gettier problem, which proposed various counterexamples.
Virtue epistemology has been proposed as a solution to the value problem in epistemology, arguing that epistemology should evaluate the "properties" of people as epistemic agents (i.e. intellectual virtues), rather than merely the properties of propositions and propositional mental attitudes.
Sources of knowledge and justified belief include perception, reason, memory, and testimony.
Epistemologists draw a distinction between what can be known a priori (independently of experience) and what can only be known a posteriori (through experience).
A way to understand the difference between a priori and a posteriori knowledge is through an example, such as the proposition "All crows are birds" (a priori) versus "All crows are black" (a posteriori).
Evolutionary psychology takes a novel approach to the problem of a priori and a posteriori knowledge, suggesting that there is an innate predisposition for certain types of learning.
Epistemology is a continually evolving field, with ongoing debates and discussions about the nature of knowledge and how it is acquired.
The study of epistemology has applications in various fields, including philosophy, psychology, and education.Epistemology: The Philosophy of Knowledge
Immanuel Kant introduced the distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" propositions, which has significant epistemological consequences.
The regress problem (Agrippa's Trilemma) is the problem of providing a complete logical foundation for human knowledge.
Foundationalism is the belief that certain "foundations" or "basic beliefs" support other beliefs but do not themselves require justification from other beliefs.
Coherentism is the rejection of the assumption that the regress proceeds according to a pattern of linear justification.
Infinitism is an alternative resolution to the regress problem whereby an individual may have indefinitely many reasons available to them.
Foundherentism is an intermediate position, meant to unify foundationalism and coherentism.
Empiricism is a view in the theory of knowledge which focuses on the role of experience in the generation of knowledge.
Rationalism is the epistemological view that reason is the chief source of knowledge and the main determinant of what constitutes knowledge.
Skepticism is a position that questions the possibility of human knowledge.
Pyrrhonism is a form of epistemic skepticism that supposes that certainty cannot be achieved with regard to beliefs.
Pragmatism is a fallibilist epistemology that emphasizes the role of action in knowing.
Naturalized epistemology considers the evolutionary role of knowledge for agents living and evolving in the world.Overview of Epistemology
Naturalized epistemology is an empirical approach to epistemology that replaces traditional epistemological questions with empirical ones.
Epistemic relativism holds that there is no perspective-independent fact of the matter about what is true, rational, or justified.
Epistemic constructivism is a view that all knowledge is a compilation of human-made constructions.
Epistemic idealism is a broad term referring to both an ontological view and an epistemological view that everything we know can be reduced to mental phenomena.
Bayesian epistemology is a formal approach to epistemology that considers beliefs as subjective probabilities subject to the laws of probability theory.
Feminist epistemology applies feminist theory to epistemological questions, including the concept of epistemic injustice.
Decolonial epistemology is a term used in decolonization studies that describes the killing of knowledge systems under systemic oppression.
Indian pramana is a tradition of epistemology that refers to various means or sources of knowledge that Indian philosophers held to be reliable.
Formal epistemology uses formal tools and methods from decision theory, logic, probability theory, and computability theory to model and reason about issues of epistemological interest.
Historical epistemology is the study of the historical conditions of, and changes in, different kinds of knowledge.
Metaepistemology is the metaphilosophical study of the methods, aims, and subject matter of epistemology.
Social epistemology deals with questions about knowledge in contexts where our knowledge attributions cannot be explained by simply examining individuals in isolation from one another.