epistemology

noun [ɛˌpɪstəˈmɑləˌdʒi]

pronunciation

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, open source

Epistemology means the theory of knowledge: in philosophy the inquiry into what knowledge is, how it is justified, and where certainty ends against a bare list of facts.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

philos. A department of philosophy concerned with knowledge as such: its sources, justification, certainty and scope, and the method of building knowledge, rather than a catalogue of one observed datum alone.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
philos. / hist. lex. In a wider historical-lexical register: a name for inquiry into how knowledge is methodically grounded, as older dictionaries record it; sometimes glossed simply as the theory of cognition, without a full typology of schools.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
philos. In a typology of schools and handbooks: a body of claims about sources, certainty, justification and the range of knowledge (e.g. empiricism against rationalism, scepticism against cognitive dogmatism), set beside ontology rather than inside it: ontology treats being, this lemma treats knowing.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
colloq. In everyday and journalistic talk: a shorthand for broad talk about knowledge itself, or for scolding "how we know", sometimes confused with methodology of science, with psychology of cognition, or with the bare word episteme without a philosophical frame. Loose scope, to confirm at review.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Examples

The lecture kept epistemology as inquiry into the grounds of knowledge, and ontology as inquiry into what exists: the first asks how we know, the second what there is.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Her handbook called epistemology the theory of knowledge and set it beside questions of method and limits of certainty, not beside the course of a single sensory experience.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
In the seminar they quoted Webster's gloss: epistemology names the theory of knowledge's method and its grounds.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
The commentator warned that a casual "epistemology of the debate" often serves as ornate cover for source criticism, with no philosophical method attached.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
She weighed an epistemological claim about justification against a bare empirical report, asking where observation ends and a thesis about certainty begins.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Usage

In casual prose epistemology often labels broad talk about knowledge itself, or a critique of how we know, and speakers skip the split between philosophical, historical-lexical and colloquial layers. Precise prose marks those layers: Webster's inquiry into method and grounds of knowledge; Arct's theory of cognition; and contemporary contrasts with ontology, methodology and psychology of cognition. State which layer you mean. If you do not, the name collapses into research methodology alone, into gnoseology as an alternate label, and into loose journalistic jargon.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Webster 1913 under Epistemology gives a compressed Greek note ([Gr. -logy.]) and presents the lemma as a study of how knowledge is methodically grounded. Separate lemmas Epistemological and Epistemic are absent; the adjective epistemological appears in running text (e.g. under Enlightenment: epistemological theories of Locke). Skeat 1910 has no separate EPISTEMOLOGY; Greek ἐπιστήμη turns up at other entries as "science" (among them PRACTICH). Those open lemmas supply the facts; the sentences here are drafted apart from them.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913; W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 1910, open source

Arct (9th ed., 1921) records Epistemologia with a Greek marker (*g.) and the gloss: teorja poznania (theory of cognition). A separate Epistemologiczny or Epistemolog lemma was not caught in the OCR query used here. Treat that line as 1920s lexical evidence, not as a ready site definition. Only the lexical fact is borrowed from Arct.

source

Editorial team; facts: M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921, open source

Writers often pair the lemma with philosophical, of knowledge, question, justification, or limits (of knowledge). Epistemologist names an adherent; epistemological is the common related adjective (present in Webster running text, though not as a separate headword). Exact writers keep the lemma clear of ontology (being), of methodology (research procedures), and of bare empirical reportage that never asks about justification or certainty. Authors still draw the borders differently.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Word forms

Regular English noun, usually uncountable; the plural epistemologies is used for rival systems or historical versions of the theory of knowledge, and less often for distinct domain approaches.

word forms

przypadek	forma
singular	epistemology
plural	epistemologies

Word forms: Editorial team

Collocations

philosophical epistemology

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
theory of knowledge

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
epistemological question

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
epistemological justification

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
limits of knowledge

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms theory of knowledge / theory of cognition (in Arct: Epistemologia = teorja poznania; partial range, not a full synonym of every register), inquiry into method and grounds of knowledge (in Webster: Epistemology gloss as theory/science of method or grounds of knowledge; historical-lexical English register, not a modern synonym alone), gnoseology / theory of knowledge (name variant in academic register; partial scope, to confirm with a PD source at review)

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Editorial team; facts: M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 1921 (Epistemologia = teorja poznania), open source

Antonyms ontology (science of being against the theory of knowledge; didactic contrastive neighbour, not a strict dictionary antonym), bare empiricism without theses about justification and limits of knowledge (classroom foil; editorial scope, to confirm at review), cognitive dogmatism without critique of sources of certainty (classroom foil; editorial range, to confirm at review)

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (Epistemology vs. Ontology as separate departments), open source

Etymology

English epistemology joins a Greek base for knowledge or science with the -logy ending ("study, account"). Webster 1913 records Epistemology with a shortened Greek etymology ([Gr. -logy.]) and casts it as inquiry into method and into the grounds of knowledge. Separate headwords Epistemological and Epistemic are absent in that edition; the adjective epistemological appears in running text. Skeat 1910 has no separate EPISTEMOLOGY; Greek ἐπιστήμη appears at other lemmas as "science". Arct 1921 lists Epistemologia (*g.) with the gloss teorja poznania. The editorial senses above are written separately from those dictionary lines. A related Polish noun is epistemologia.

source

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open source

also

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open source

also

M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921, open source

Related words

epistemologist , noun: person who practises or holds epistemology / adherent of the theory of knowledge (editorial; not a separate Webster 1913 headword under Epistemology)
epistemological , adjective: pertaining to epistemology (Webster 1913: present in running text, e.g. Enlightenment; no separate headword Epistemological)
epistemic , adjective: pertaining to knowledge or to epistemology (editorial contemporary; Webster 1913 has no separate Epistemic lemma under this cluster)
ontology , contrastive neighbour (philos.): science of being against the theory of knowledge (Webster 1913 Ontology; Epistemology)
methodology , lexical neighbour (wider frame): research procedures against philosophical grounds of knowledge (editorial didactic contrast)
epistemologia , etymologically related Polish noun

Related entries

Questions and answers

What does epistemology mean in philosophy?

In philosophy the name covers questions about sources, justification, certainty and limits of cognition, that is about how knowledge is warranted. It is a department of philosophy, not a laboratory of bare facts alone. Scope follows school and handbook.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Where does the word epistemology come from?

The base is Greek. Webster 1913 has Epistemology with etymology [Gr. -logy.] and the sense of a theory, or science, of method and of the grounds of knowledge. Skeat 1910 has no separate EPISTEMOLOGY; ἐπιστήμη appears at other entries as "science". Arct 1921 registers Epistemologia (*g.) as teorja poznania. The English lemma follows that path.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913; W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 1910; M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 1921, open source

How does epistemology differ from ontology and methodology?

In didactic use epistemology asks about knowledge (method, grounds, limits), ontology about being (what exists). Methodology focuses on research procedures, not on philosophical grounds of certainty. In Webster Epistemology and Ontology are separate departments. Casual talk confuses all three with "general philosophy of knowledge".

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (Epistemology, Ontology); M. Arct 1921 (Epistemologia = teorja poznania), open source

What are the word forms of epistemology?

The noun is regular and usually uncountable: epistemology. A plural epistemologies marks distinct schools or successive historical shapes of the account. Related forms include epistemologist (adherent) and epistemological; epistemic is a contemporary adjective, not a separate Webster 1913 headword in this cluster.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)