epistemology

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ɪˌpɪstəˈmɒlədʒi/
• (America) IPA: /ɪˌpɪstəˈmɑlədʒi/, /əˌpɪstəˈmɑlədʒi/, /ɛˌpɪstəˈmɑlədʒi/, /iˌpɪstəˈmɑlədʒi/
• (Aus) IPA: /ɛˌpɪstiːˈmɔlədʒi/

Noun

epistemology

1. (uncountable) The branch of philosophy dealing with the study of knowledge; theory of knowledge, asking such questions as "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", "What do people know?", "How do we know what we know?".

   Some thinkers take the view that, beginning with the work of Descartes, epistemology began to replace metaphysics as the most important area of philosophy.

2. (countable) A particular theory of knowledge.

   In his epistemology, Plato maintains that our knowledge of universal concepts is a kind of recollection.

   • I believe that 'intuitionism' is usually, and rightly, taken to mean Brouwer's epistemology of mathematics, which is unrelated to the origin or content of topos theory.

Synonyms

• epistemics

Related terms

• episteme
• epistemic
• epistemically
• epistemics
• epistemological
• epistemologically
• epistemologist
• epistemonical

Translations

• French: épistémologie
• German: Erkenntnistheorie, Epistemologie
• Italian: epistemologia
• Portuguese: epistemologia
• Russian: эпистемоло́гия
• Spanish: gnoseología, epistemología

Translations

• Portuguese: epistemologia
• Russian: эпистемоло́гия

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