EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY: MAIN TRENDS AND ENDS. (Эпистемология и Методология)

EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY: MAIN TRENDS AND ENDS. (Эпистемология и Методология)

Anton Matyukhin

ICEF, GROUP 3,

ENGLISH GROUP 1.

ESSAY IN PHILOSOPHY

EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY: MAIN TRENDS AND ENDS.

Международный Институт Экономики и Финансов, 1 курс,

Высшая школа экономики.

30.03.1999.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Epistemology.

2. History.

3. Epistemology as a discipline

4. TWO EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

5. Implications.

6. Methodology.

7. Some Mental Activities Common to All Methods.

8. Observation and Experiment.

9. Analysis and Synthesis.

10. Imagination, Supposition and Idealisation.

11. Inference.

12. Comparison and Analogy.

13. Classification.

14. Inductive and deductive methods.

15. The Deductive-inductive Method.

16. RELATION OF EPISTEMOLOGY TO OTHER BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

17. Bibliography.

Epistemology.

Epistemology is one of the main branches of philosophy; its subject

matter concerns the nature, origin, scope, and limits of human knowledge.

The name is derived from the Greek terms episteme (knowledge) and logos

(theory), and accordingly this branch of philosophy is also referred to as

the theory of knowledge.

It is the branch of philosophy that investigates the basic nature of

knowledge, including its sources and validation. Epistemology is concerned

with the basic relationship between man’s mind and reality, and with the

basic operations of human reason. It therefore sets the standards for the

validation of all knowledge; it is the fundamental arbiter of cognitive

method.

Epistemology as a term in philosophy was probably first applied, by J.

F. Ferrier, to that department of thought whose subject matter is the

nature and validity of knowledge (Gr. epistimum, knowledge, and logos,

theory, account; Ger. Erkenntnistheorie). It is thus contrasted with

metaphysics, which considers the nature of reality, and with psychology,

which deals with the objective part of cognition, and, as Prof. James Ward

said, "is essentially genetic in its method." Epistemology is concerned

rather with the possibility of knowledge in the abstract. In the evolution

of thought epistemological inquiry succeeded the speculations of the early

thinkers, who concerned themselves primarily with attempts to explain

existence. The differences of opinion, which arose on this problem

naturally, led to the inquiry as to whether any universally valid statement

was possible. The Sophists and the Sceptics, Plato and Aristotle, the

Stoics and the Epicureans took up the question and from the time of Locke

and Kant it has been prominent in modern philosophy. It is extremely

difficult, if not impossible, to draw a hard and fast 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 separate the latter (Ontology) from the analysis of

knowledge (Epistemology), so close is the connection 'between the two.

Again, the relation between 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 spheres by confining logic to the science of the laws of

thought, i.e., to formal logic. An attempt has been made by some

philosophers to substitute "Gnosiology" for "Epistemology" as a special

term for that part of Epistemology which is confined to "systematic

analysis of the conceptions employed by ordinary and scientific thought in

interpreting the world, and including an investigation of the 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". The term Gnosiology has not come into general use.

History.

Epistemological issues have been discussed throughout the history of

philosophy. Among the ancient Greeks, questions of knowledge were raised by

Plato and Aristotle, as well as by the Sophists and the Sceptics, and many

of the chief issues, positions and arguments were explored at this time. In

the systems of Plato and Aristotle, however, epistemological questions were

largely subordinated to metaphysical ones, and epistemology did not emerge

as a distinct area of inquiry.

The scholastics of the late medieval period were especially concerned

with two epistemological questions: the relationship between reason and

faith, and the nature of concepts and universals. The major positions on

the latter issue—realism, nominalism, and conceptualism—were defined during

this period.

The Reformation and the rise of modern science raised questions about

cognitive methodology, and gave rise to a rebirth of sceptical doctrines,

trends that culminated in the writings of Rene Descartes (1596-1650).

During the modern period, from Descartes to Immanuel Kant (1724-1804),

epistemological concerns were at the forefront of philosophy, as thinkers

attempted to understand the implications of the new science. They also

attempted, unsuccessfully, to deal with sceptical attacks on the validity

of sense perception, concepts, and induction. In the 19th and 20th

centuries, epistemological issues continued to receive attention from

philosophers of various schools, including Idealism, Logical Positivism,

and Linguistic Analysis.

A familiarity with the history of philosophy provides the best

introduction to epistemology. The following works are of special importance

for epistemology:

Plato, Theaetetus

Aristotle, Posterior Analytics

Rene Descartes, Meditations

John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding

David Hume, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

Epistemology as a discipline.

Why should there be such a subject as epistemology? Aristotle provided

the answer when he said that philosophy begins in wonder, in a kind of

puzzlement about things. Nearly all human beings wish to comprehend the

world they live in, a world that includes the individual as well as other

persons, and most people construct hypotheses of varying degrees of

sophistication to help them make sense of that world. No conjectures would

be necessary if the world were simple; but its features and events defy

easy explanation. The ordinary person is likely to give up somewhere in the

process of trying to develop a coherent account of things and to rest

content with whatever degree of understanding he has managed to achieve.

Philosophers, in contrast, are struck by, even obsessed by, matters that

are not immediately comprehensible. Philosophers are, of course, ordinary

persons in all respects except perhaps one. They aim to construct theories

about the world and its inhabitants that are consistent, synoptic, true to

the facts and that possess explanatory power. They thus carry the process

of inquiry further than people generally tend to do, and this is what

saying that they have developed a philosophy about these matters means.

Epistemologists, in particular, are philosophers whose theories deal with

puzzles about the nature, scope, and limits of human knowledge.

Like ordinary persons, epistemologists usually start from the assumption

that they have plenty of knowledge about the world and its multifarious

features. Yet, as they reflect upon what is presumably known,

epistemologists begin to discover that commonly accepted convictions are

less secure than originally assumed and that many of man's firmest beliefs

are dubious or possibly even chimerical. Anomalous features of the world

that most people notice but tend to minimise or ignore cause such doubts

and hesitations. Epistemologists notice these things too, but, in wondering

about them, they come to realise that they provide profound challenges to

the knowledge claims that most individuals blithely and unreflectingly

accept as true.

What then are these puzzling issues? While there is a vast array of

anomalies and perplexities, two of these issues will be briefly described

in order to illustrate why such difficulties call into question common

claims to have knowledge about the world.

TWO EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

"Our knowledge of the external world".

Most people have noticed that vision can play tricks on them. A straight

stick put in water looks bent to them, but they know it is not; railroad

tracks are seen to be converging in the distance, yet one knows that they

are not; the wheels of wagons on a movie screen appear to be going

backward, but one knows that they are not; and the pages of English-

language books reflected in mirrors cannot be read from left to right, yet

one knows that they were printed to be read that way. Each of these

phenomena is thus misleading in some way. If human beings were to accept

the world as being exactly as it looks, they would be mistaken about how

things really are. They would think the stick in water really to be bent,

the railway tracks really to be convergent, and the writing on pages really

to be reversed. These are visual anomalies, and they produce the sorts of

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