Outline of epistemology

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to epistemology:

Epistemology (a.k.a. theory of knowledge) – branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge.^[1] The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808–1864).^[2] Epistemology asks questions such as: "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", and "What do people know?"

Core topics of epistemology

Knowledge
- Sources of knowledge (Pramana in Sanskrit)
- Types of knowledge
  - Descriptive knowledge – "Knowledge that"
  - Procedural knowledge – "Knowledge how"
  - Knowledge by acquaintance
- A priori and a posteriori
- Analytic–synthetic distinction
- Gettier problem
Justification
- Regress argument
  - Münchhausen trilemma
- Theories of justification
  - Foundationalism – Basic beliefs justify other, non-basic beliefs.
  - Coherentism – Beliefs are justified if they cohere with other beliefs a person holds, each belief is justified if it coheres with the overall system of beliefs.
  - Infinitism – Beliefs are justified by infinite chains of reasons.
  - Foundherentism – Both fallible foundations and coherence are components of justification—proposed by Susan Haack.
  - Internalism and externalism – The believer must be able to justify a belief through internal knowledge (internalism), or outside sources of knowledge can be used to justify a belief (externalism).
  - Innatism – The mind is born with knowledge.
  - Reformed epistemology – Beliefs are warranted by proper cognitive function—proposed by Alvin Plantinga.
  - Evidentialism – Beliefs depend solely on the evidence for them.
  - Reliabilism – A belief is justified if it is the result of a reliable process.
  - Infallibilism – Knowledge is incompatible with the possibility of being wrong.
  - Fallibilism – Claims can be accepted even though they cannot be conclusively proven or justified.
  - Non-justificationism – Knowledge is produced by attacking claims and refuting them instead of justifying them.
- Falsification (Falsifiability)
- Proof (truth)
  - Standard of proof
Truth
- Criteria of truth
Belief
- Belief revision
Virtue epistemology
- Unity of knowledge and action

Schools of thought

Domains of inquiry in epistemology

Formal epistemology – subdiscipline of epistemology that uses formal methods from logic, probability theory and computability theory to elucidate traditional epistemic problems
- Computational epistemology
Historical epistemology – study of the historical conditions of, and changes in, different kinds of knowledge
Meta-epistemology – metaphilosophical study of the subject, matter, methods and aims of epistemology and of approaches to understanding and structuring knowledge of knowledge itself
Social epistemology – study of collective knowledge and the social dimensions of knowledge

Related fields

References

Annis, David (1978). "A Contextualist Theory of Epistemic Justification". American Philosophical Quarterly. 15: 213–219.
Ayer, Alfred Jules. 1936. Language, Truth, and Logic.
BonJour, Laurence. 2002. Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Bovens, Luc & Hartmann, Stephan. 2003. Bayesian Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Butchvarov, Panayot. 1970. The Concept of Knowledge. Evanston, Northwestern University Press.
Cohen, Stewart (1998a). "Contextualist Solutions to Epistemological Problems: Skepticism, Gettier, and the Lottery". Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 76 (2): 289–306. doi:10.1080/00048409812348411.
Cohen, Stewart. 1999. "Contextualism, Skepticism, and Reasons", in Tomberlin 1999.
Dancy, Jonathan. 1991. An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (Second Edition). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-631-13622-3
DeRose, Keith (1992). "Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 15: 213–219.
DeRose, Keith. 1999. "Contextualism: An Explanation and Defense Archived 15 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine", in Greco and Sosa 1999.
Descartes, Rene. 1641. Meditations on First Philosophy
Feldman, Richard. 1999. "Contextualism and Skepticism", in Tomberlin 1999, pp. 91–114.
Gettier, Edmund. 1963. "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?", Analysis, Vol. 23, pp. 121–123. Online text Archived 19 August 2005 at the Wayback Machine.
Greco, J. & Sosa, E. 1999. Blackwell Guide to Epistemology, Blackwell Publishing.
Harris, Errol E. 1970. Hypothesis And Perception, George Allen and Unwin, London, Reprinted 2002 Routledge, London.
Harwood, Sterling (1989). "Taking Skepticism Seriously – And In Context". Philosophical Investigations. 12 (3): 223–233. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9205.1989.tb00275.x.
Hay, Clare. 2008. The Theory of Knowledge: A Coursebook, The Lutterworth Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-7188-3088-5
Hawthorne, John. 2005. "The Case for Closure", Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Peter Sosa and Matthias Steup (ed.): 26–43.
Hendricks, Vincent F. 2006. Mainstream and Formal Epistemology, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1781. Critique of Pure Reason.
Keeton, Morris T. 1962. "Empiricism", in Dictionary of Philosophy, Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, pp. 89–90.
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Plato. Meno.
Popper, Karl R. 1972. Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Russell, Bertrand. 1940. An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, Nottingham: Spokesman Books.
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Steup, Matthias. 2005. "Knowledge and Skepticism", Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Peter Sosa and Matthias Steup (eds.): 1–13.
Tomberlin, James (ed.). 1999. Philosophical Perspectives 13, Epistemology, Blackwell Publishing.
Turri, John (2016). Knowledge and the Norm of Assertion: An Essay in Philosophical Science. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. Open Book Publishers. doi:10.11647/OBP.0083. ISBN 978-1-78374-183-0. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
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Outline of epistemology

Core topics of epistemology

Schools of thought

Domains of inquiry in epistemology

Related fields

See also

References

Further reading

External links

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