"Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge."
Investigation of the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.
Knowledge: The study of what we can know and how we can know it.
Perception: The study of how we receive and process information and how that impacts our understanding of reality.
Memory: The study of how we retain and recall information, and how reliable our memories are.
Belief: The study of what we believe to be true and how we come to accept certain beliefs and reject others.
Truth: The study of what it means for a statement or belief to be true, and how we can determine truth.
Justification: The study of how we support our beliefs and arguments with evidence and reasoning.
Skepticism: The study of how we can critically examine our beliefs and the claims of others.
Rationality: The study of how reason and logic can be used to support our beliefs and arguments.
Empiricism: The study of how our knowledge is grounded in our sensory experience of the world.
Rationalism: The study of how our knowledge is grounded in reason and intuition.
Knowledge acquisition: The study of how we acquire knowledge, including through observation, inference, and testimony.
Induction: The study of how we draw general conclusions from specific observations.
Deduction: The study of how we draw specific conclusions from general truths or principles.
Epistemological methods: The study of the techniques and methods we use to investigate and evaluate knowledge claims.
Epistemological theories: The study of various philosophical frameworks for understanding knowledge and truth, such as foundationalism, coherentism, and relativism.
Epistemic virtues: The study of the personal traits that lead to good epistemic practices, such as open-mindedness, curiosity, and intellectual humility.
Epistemic norms: The study of the rules or standards that govern epistemic practices, such as the norms of evidence and justification.
Epistemic responsibility: The study of the ethical implications of epistemic practices, including the ways in which we are responsible for our beliefs and the impact of those beliefs on others.
Social epistemology: The study of how knowledge and beliefs are created and communicated in social contexts, including the role of authority, testimony, and group dynamics.
Critical theory: The study of how power and ideology shape our beliefs and the ways in which we can challenge and critique dominant epistemic narratives.
Empiricism: The belief that knowledge arises primarily from sensory experience and observations of the natural world.
Rationalism: The belief that knowledge arises primarily through reason, logic, and analysis, independently of sensory experience.
Skepticism: The view that knowledge is uncertain, and that claims to knowledge should be rigorously tested and critically evaluated.
Realism: The belief that the external world exists independently of our consciousness or perception, and that we can gain reliable knowledge of it through observation and other forms of empirical investigation.
Idealism: The belief that the external world is a creation of our consciousness or perception, and that knowledge arises primarily through introspection and analysis of our mental states.
Constructivism: The view that knowledge is constructed by individuals or groups based on their perceptions, experiences, and cultural backgrounds.
Pragmatism: The belief that knowledge is a practical tool that is useful in achieving our goals and solving problems, rather than an absolute truth that exists independently of human action.
Naturalism: The view that knowledge should be based on a scientific understanding of the natural world and its processes.
Positivism: A philosophical approach that emphasizes the use of empirical methods to discover objective facts about the world, and rejects metaphysical speculation or introspective analysis.
Relativism: The view that knowledge is relative to the observer or to cultural and historical context, and that there are no absolute truths or standards of knowledge.
"Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics."
"Epistemologists study the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of belief, and various related issues."
"Debates in epistemology are generally clustered around four core areas:"
"The philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and the conditions required for a belief to constitute knowledge, such as truth and justification."
"Potential sources of knowledge and justified belief, such as perception, reason, memory, and testimony."
"The structure of a body of knowledge or justified belief, including whether all justified beliefs must be derived from justified foundational beliefs or whether justification requires only a coherent set of beliefs."
"Philosophical skepticism, which questions the possibility of knowledge, and related problems, such as whether skepticism poses a threat to our ordinary knowledge claims and whether it is possible to refute skeptical arguments."
"Epistemology aims to answer questions such as 'What do people know?', 'What does it mean to say that people know something?', 'What makes justified beliefs justified?', and 'How do people know that they know?'"
"Specialties in epistemology ask questions such as 'How can people create formal models about issues related to knowledge?' (in formal epistemology), 'What are the historical conditions of changes in different kinds of knowledge?' (in historical epistemology), 'What are the methods, aims, and subject matter of epistemological inquiry?' (in metaepistemology), and 'How do people know together?' (in social epistemology)." Please note that the provided quotes are not direct quotes but paraphrased excerpts from the paragraph.