Epistemological Perspective

Prof. Kumar Neeraj Sachdev

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
 Philosophical Perspectives
Ethical Perspective - Values
Logical Perspective - Reasoning
Epistemological Perspective -
Knowledge
Metaphysical Perspective - Reality
 Epistemology
Epistemology is the study or theory of knowledge.
The word 'epistemology' comes from ancient Greek:
the noun episteme meaning 'knowledge' and the
suffix - ology meaning 'the science of' or 'the study of.
Epistemic knowledge is not about what we know, but
about how do we know or what it means to know.
Throughout history of Philosophy, knowledge is
treated as a mental act, a mental achievement, a
mental state, a mental disposition, and a mental
ability.
 Epistemological perspective seeks to answer questions
about how human beings perceive the world and gain
knowledge about it. An epistemological perspective
begins in response to questions such as the following:
What it is for someone to know that something is so?
Where does our knowledge come from?
How do we know?
What are the limits of human knowledge?
What knowledge is inherent to humans and what is
learned after birth? Can new facts be assimilated without
innate concepts?
 When we look at the history of epistemological
perspectives, we can discern a clear trend.
The earlier perspectives of knowledge stressed its
absolute and permanent character.
The later perspectives put the emphasis on relativity of
knowledge or its situation-dependence; its continuous
development or evolution, and its active interference
with the world and its subjects and objects.
The whole trend moves from a static, passive view of
knowledge towards a more and more adaptive and
active one.
 One view of knowledge is an awareness of
absolute, universal Ideas or Forms, existing
independent of any subject trying to
comprehend them.
Another view puts more emphasis on logical
and empirical methods for gathering
knowledge but that still accepts the view that
such knowledge is comprehension of
necessary and universal principles.
 Rationalist thinkers argue that all knowledge comes from reason,
and everything, worthy of knowledge, in the world of humans is
fundamentally rational.
It is through the human mind that the human being knows.
Empiricists insist that real human knowledge can only be arrived at
through human experience. It is through the human senses that the
human being knows.
The implementation of empiricism in the newly developed
experimental sciences led to a view of knowledge which is still
explicitly or implicitly held by many people nowadays.
According to this view, knowledge results from a kind of mapping or
reflection of external objects, through our sensory organs, possibly
aided by different observation instruments, to our brain or mind.
 Further, it is suggested that, knowledge results
from the organization of perceptual data on the
basis of inborn cognitive structures.
The inborn cognitive structures are given such as
space, time, and causality.
This epistemological perspective does accept the
human subjectivity of basic concepts, like space
and time, and the impossibility to reach at purely
objective representation of things-in-themselves.
 We may therefore conclude
that knowledge is the
human ability to provide
the right answers.
Thank You.