Understanding Key Concepts in Epistemology
Coherentism: Doctrine of truth that requires no unique correspondence between thought and world, but overall agreement and procedural consistency.
Knowledge: Collective act of intellectual apprehension of the world.
Belief: Knowledge that cannot be proven.
Deduction: A procedure that reflexively derives specific conclusions from universal premises.
Dogma: Knowledge that needs no proof because it cannot be doubted.
Dogmatism: Belief in the possibility of reaching a basic knowledge with absolutely no doubt about the self, the world, or divinity.
Episteme: Greek word which means “science.”
Skepticism: Defense theory that explores radical doubts and/or the impossibility of knowledge as an epistemic and sometimes vital orientation.
Gnoseology: Derived from the Greek word gnosis (knowledge) and synonymous with “theory of knowledge.”
Hypothesis: A set of theses that need to be proven, either through experience or by calculation.
Idea: Mental representation of the essence of something. For Plato, it is the pure, immaterial form of the thing.
Inductivism: Theory that considers that general laws are derived from the matching set of individual experiences, or by displaying a series of coincidental experiences.
Innatism: The theory that knowledge of the principles of truth and personal identity is innate or pre-exists in our mind.
Irrationalism: Theory that denies the reality, the utility, or the ability of reason to judge human life.
Method: In Greek, it means “way.” For Descartes, it is a set of simple rules to know the truth.
Ontology: From the Greek “to on,” which means being. General theory about being.
Opinion: Subjective knowledge and subject to contradiction; by extension, the capacity of the mind to create subjectivity.
Rationalism: Defense theory that prioritizes reason over feeling, emotion, and experience as a source of knowledge.
Relativism: The theory that knowledge is always limited by cognitive ability, membership of a culture, or human subjectivity. Usually accompanies skepticism.
Knowledge: Objective knowledge, above opinion.
Theory: Proven set of theses.
Thesis: Statement that one makes about something. When it needs to be tested, it is called a hypothesis; when it does not need to be tested, it is called dogma.
Knowledge: Is the activity in which we learn things about the world around us (people, animals, objects, etc.) and ourselves. We try to understand and explain things as we see them. To have knowledge, there must be a subject (in this case, me) and an object (that I know). So, I know when I learn about an object.
The Theory of Knowledge
Another activity would be asking ourselves if what we know is reliable or not. The object is to know it, but if one’s knowledge is called knowledge of the second degree.
The Problem of Truth
There is the object and subject that lead to objective and subjective perspectives. When we know an object objectively, we say what is true; moreover, we can say that knowledge is subjective when it becomes entirely true but it is our opinion.
The Empiricists give more importance to sensory experience (sensations through the senses) in the process of knowledge. It is empirical knowledge.
The Rationalists have based more on the process with the right knowledge, thinking the experience would lead to a sensitive understanding misleading.
Types of Knowledge
Ordinary knowledge is knowledge through which the world is known spontaneously and usefully. The reality is as presented to us in our sensory acquisition.
Mythical thinking is based on the transmission of explanations in the form of legends. It is the most widespread and frequent way to explain natural phenomena in the past.
Scientific knowledge is knowledge as opposed to the ordinary. It is spontaneous, much more elaborate, developed by a community of scientists who seek explanations empirically verified as part of coherent theoretical systems.