Philosophy:Outline of epistemology

Short description: Overview of and topical guide to epistemology

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to epistemology:

Epistemology (aka theory of knowledge) – branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808–1864). Epistemology asks questions such as: "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", and "What do people know?"

Core topics of epistemology

• Knowledge
  • Sources of knowledge (Pramana in Sanskrit)
    • Perception
    • Memory
    • Introspection
    • Inference
    • Testimony
  • Types of knowledge
    • Descriptive knowledge – "Knowledge that"
    • Procedural knowledge – "Knowledge how"
    • Knowledge by acquaintance
  • A priori and a posteriori
  • Analytic–synthetic distinction
  • Gettier problem
• Justification
  • Regress argument
  • Theories of justification
    • Foundationalism – Basic beliefs justify other, non-basic beliefs.
    • Coherentism – Beliefs are justified if they cohere with other beliefs a person holds, each belief is justified if it coheres with the overall system of beliefs.
    • Infinitism – Beliefs are justified by infinite chains of reasons.
    • Foundherentism – Both fallible foundations and coherence are components of justification—proposed by Susan Haack.
    • Internalism and externalism – The believer must be able to justify a belief through internal knowledge (internalism), or outside sources of knowledge can be used to justify a belief (externalism).
    • Innatism – The mind is born with knowledge.
    • Reformed epistemology – Beliefs are warranted by proper cognitive function—proposed by Alvin Plantinga.
    • Evidentialism – Beliefs depend solely on the evidence for them.
    • Reliabilism – A belief is justified if it is the result of a reliable process.
    • Infallibilism – Knowledge is incompatible with the possibility of being wrong.
    • Fallibilism – Claims can be accepted even though they cannot be conclusively proven or justified.
    • Non-justificationism – Knowledge is produced by attacking claims and refuting them instead of justifying them.
  • Falsification (Falsifiability)
  • Proof (truth)
    • Standard of proof
• Truth
  • Criteria of truth
• Belief
  • Belief revision
• Virtue epistemology
  • Unity of knowledge and action

Schools of thought

• Empiricism
• Rationalism
• Epistemological skepticism
• Pragmatism
• Naturalized epistemology
• Contextualism
• Relativism
• Constructivist epistemology
• Idealism
• Bayesian epistemology
• Feminist epistemology
• Innatism
• Naïve realism
• Phenomenalism
• Positivism
• Critical rationalism

Domains of inquiry in epistemology

• Formal epistemology – subdiscipline of epistemology that uses formal methods from logic, probability theory and computability theory to elucidate traditional epistemic problems
  • Computational epistemology
• Historical epistemology – study of the historical conditions of, and changes in, different kinds of knowledge
• Meta-epistemology – metaphilosophical study of the subject, matter, methods and aims of epistemology and of approaches to understanding and structuring knowledge of knowledge itself
• Social epistemology – study of collective knowledge and the social dimensions of knowledge

Related fields

• Philosophy of science
• Sociology of knowledge

See also

• Applied epistemology
• Epistemic logic
• History of epistemology
• Personal epistemology