Epistemology PDF

# Epistemology ## What are the branches of science? - **Natural sciences:** These are all those scientific disciplines that are dedicated to the study of nature, using the scientific method to reproduce (that is, under controlled conditions) the phenomena they are interested in. They are also know...

# Epistemology ## What are the branches of science? - **Natural sciences:** These are all those scientific disciplines that are dedicated to the study of nature, using the scientific method to reproduce (that is, under controlled conditions) the phenomena they are interested in. They are also known as experimental sciences, hard sciences or physical-natural sciences. - **Formal sciences:** Formal sciences are not dedicated to study of nature, but rather objects and systems that are purely abstract. However, they can be applied to the real world. Their objects of study exist only in the world of the mind, and their validity is derived not from experiments, but from axioms, reasoning and inferences. - **Social sciences:** Also known as human sciences, this set of disciplines is dedicated to the study of humanity, but retaining an empirical, critical perspective, guided by the scientific method. ## What is science? - Science is the set of organized, hierarchical and verifiable knowledge obtained from the observation of natural and social phenomena of reality (both natural and human), and also from the experimentation and empirical demonstration of the interpretations we give them. ## What is epistemology? - Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies how knowledge is obtained and its validity. ## What is the gnoseological? - Gnoseology or the theory of knowledge deals with knowledge in general, that is, with the philosophical theory of the origin, nature and scope of human knowledge. ## What is the role of epistemology? - Epistemology addresses the way in which we understand, acquire and validate knowledge. For that purpose, it investigates the limits of what it is possible to know and how. - It questions the limits of knowledge. It revises and challenges the accepted methods of knowledge construction from the real world.