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EPISTEMOLOGY

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 701 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EPISTEMOLOGY .(Gr. Einarip.oi, knowledge, and Aoyos, theory, See also:

account; Germ. Erkenntnistheorie), in See also:philosophy, a See also:term applied, probably first by J. F. See also:Ferrier, to that See also:department of thought whose subject See also:matter is the nature and origin of knowledge. It is thus contrasted with See also:metaphysics, which considers the nature of reality, and with See also:psychology, which deals with the See also:objective See also:part of See also:cognition, and, as Prof. See also:James See also:Ward said, " is essentially genetic in its method " (Mind, See also:April 1883, pp. 166-167). Epistemology is concerned rather with the possibility of knowledge in the abstract (sub specie aeternitatis, Ward, ibid.). In the See also:evolution of thought epistemological inquiry succeeded the speculations of the See also:early thinkers, who concerned themselves primarily with attempts to explain existence. The See also:differences of See also:opinion which arose on this problem naturally led to the inquiry as to whether any universally valid statement was possible. The See also:Sophists and the Sceptics, See also:Plato and See also:Aristotle, the See also:Stoics and the Epicureans took up the question, and from the See also:time of See also:Locke and See also:Kant it has been prominent in See also:modern philosophy.

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to draw a hard and fast See also:

line between epistemology and other branches of philosophy. If, for example, philosophy is divided into the theory of knowing and the theory of being, it is impossible entirely to See also:separate the latter (See also:Ontology) from the See also:analysis of knowledge (Epistemology), so See also:close is the connexion between the two. Again, the relation between See also:logic in its widest sense and the theory of knowledge is extremely close. Some thinkers have identified the two, while others regard Epistemology as a subdivision of logic; others demarcate their relative See also:spheres by confining logic to the See also:science of the See also:laws of thought, i.e. to formal logic. An See also:attempt has been made by some philosophers to substitute " Gnosiology " (Gr. yvc o is) for " Epistemology " as a See also:special term for that part of Epistemology which is See also:con-fined to " systematic analysis of the conceptions employed by See also:ordinary and scientific thought in interpreting the See also:world, and including an investigation of the See also:art of knowledge, or the nature of knowledge as such." " Epistemology " would thus be reserved for the broad questions of " the origin, nature and limits of knowledge " (See also:Baldwin's See also:Diet. of Philos. i. pp. 333 and 414). The term Gnosiology has not, however, come into See also:general use.

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