Outline of epistemology

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

Epistemology (aka theory of knowledge) – branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808–1864). 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)
• Perception
• Memory
• Introspection
• Inference
• Testimony
• 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
• FoundationalismBasic beliefs justify other, non-basic beliefs.
• CoherentismBeliefs are justified if they cohere with other beliefs a person holds, each belief is justified if it coheres with the overall system of beliefs.
• InfinitismBeliefs are justified by infinite chains of reasons.
• FoundherentismBoth fallible foundations and coherence are components of justification—proposed by Susan Haack.
• Internalism and externalismThe 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).
• InnatismThe mind is born with knowledge.
• Reformed epistemologyBeliefs are warranted by proper cognitive function—proposed by Alvin Plantinga.
• EvidentialismBeliefs depend solely on the evidence for them.
• ReliabilismA belief is justified if it is the result of a reliable process.
• InfallibilismKnowledge is incompatible with the possibility of being wrong.
• FallibilismClaims can be accepted even though they cannot be conclusively proven or justified.
• Non-justificationismKnowledge 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

• Empiricism
• Rationalism
• Epistemological skepticism
• Pragmatism
• Naturalized epistemology
• Contextualism
• Relativism
• Constructivist epistemology
• Idealism
• Bayesian epistemology
• Feminist epistemology
• Innatism
• Naïve realism
• Phenomenalism
• Positivism
• Critical rationalism

Domains of inquiry in epistemology

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

Related fields

• Philosophy of science
• Sociology of knowledge

See also

• Applied epistemology
• Epistemic logic
• History of epistemology
• Personal epistemology

References

Further reading

• 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. 1999. "Contextualism, Skepticism, and Reasons", in Tomberlin 1999.
• Dancy, Jonathan. 1991. An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (Second Edition). John Wiley & Sons.
• DeRose, Keith. 1999. "Contextualism: An Explanation and Defense ", 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 .
• 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.
• Hay, Clare. 2008. The Theory of Knowledge: A Coursebook, The Lutterworth Press, Cambridge.
• 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.
• Kirkham, Richard. 1984. "Does the Gettier Problem Rest on a Mistake?" Mind, 93.
• Klein, Peter. 1981. Certainty: a Refutation of Skepticism, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
• Kyburg, H.E. 1961. Probability and the Logic of Rational Belief, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
• Korzybski, Alfred. 1994 (1933). Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Fifth Edition. Ft. Worth, TX: Institute of General Semantics.
• Morin, Edgar. 1986. La Méthode, Tome 3, La Connaissance de la connaissance (Method, 3rd volume : The knowledge of knowledge)
• Morton, Adam. 2002. A Guide Through the Theory of Knowledge (Third Edition) Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
• Nelson, Quee. 2007. The Slightest Philosophy, Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing, 296 pages.
• Niiniluoto, Ilkka. 2002. Critical Scientific Realism, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
• Plato. Meno.
• Popper, Karl R. 1972. Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
• Preyer, G./Siebelt, F./Ulfig, A. 1994. Language, Mind and Epistemology, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Russell, Bertrand. 1912. The Problems of Philosophy, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Russell, Bertrand. 1940. An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, Nottingham: Spokesman Books.
• Santayana, George. 1923. Scepticism and Animal Faith, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons – London: Constable and Co.
• Spir, African. 1877. Denken und Wirklichkeit: Versuch einer Erneuerung der kritischen Philosophie (Thought and Reality: Attempt at a Renewal of Critical Philosophy), (Second Edition) Leipzig: J.G. Findel.
• 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.
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Frank P. Ramsey and C.K. Ogden (trns.), Dover. Online text .

External links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles

Encyclopædia Britannica

• Epistemology by Avrum Stroll and A.P. Martinich

Other links

• The London Philosophy Study Guide offers many suggestions on what to read, depending on the student's familiarity with the subject: Epistemology & Methodology
• Knowledge-How at Philpapers
• What Is Epistemology? – a brief introduction to the topic by Keith DeRose.
• Epistemology Introduction, Part 1 and Part 2 by Paul Newall at the Galilean Library.
• Teaching Theory of Knowledge (1986) – Marjorie Clay (ed.), an electronic publication from The Council for Philosophical Studies.
• An Introduction to Epistemology by Paul Newall, aimed at beginners.
• A Summary of Sunni Epistemology A concise and accessible introduction to epistemology in the Muslim world for laymen