Epistemology and Truth
Epistemology How do we know what we know? Is what we believe to be truth really truth? A branch of Philosophy that seeks out to answer these questions and to discover the origin of knowledge is Epistemology. Much of what we believe is based on allegations and generalizations rather than established evidence. That’s way so many people have different beliefs throughout the world. I will be discussing more of these Worldviews in a later paragraph. Right now I’d like to continue to focus on Epistemology, which is the study of knowledge: how we obtain knowledge and how we justify it. These are some of the questions Epistemology attempts to answer: What is mind?; What is knowing?; What is true? Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that claims knowledge occurs from evidence collected via sense experience. It relies solely on experiences and evidence, especially of the senses, as the only source of knowledge. This theory differs from rationalism which relies upon reason and can incorporate innate knowledge. Rationalism is a method "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive" (Bourke 263). Empiricism stresses using scientific data discovered from experiments that is directly related to evidence. It is an essential role of the scientific method that all theories must be tested against observations. John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume are classical representatives of empiricism. This doctrine has problems within it though. For example: what about people who are color-blind? How they perceive the world is much different from a person who can see color. Every single person has different perceptions and in essence, has their own truth. Also this doctrine limits what you can say you know. If I haven’t had a personal experience touching, smelling, or tasting a banana, then how can I attest to knowing what a banana is? One last point I’d like to make concerning problems with Empiricism is that it creates
Cited: Anissimov, Michael, What is Logical Positivism?, 07 October 2010, Online. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-logical-positivism.htm Bourke, Vernon J. (1962), "Rationalism", p. 263 in Runes (1962). Dilts, Robert, The Article of the Month, Santa Cruz, CA, 1998, Online. http://www.nlpu.com/Articles/artic20.htm Hasker, William, Metaphysics: Constructing a World View, Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press, 1983. Print. Lowery, Mark, How to Point Out Seven Self-Refuting Secularist Propositions, Online. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=678 Rick, Lewis, Beyond Physics, Philosophy Now Magazine, Oct./Nov. 2010. Online. http://www.philosophynow.org/issue81/81lewis.htm Stevenson, C.L., Ethics and Language, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1944. Print. Wood, W. Jay, Epistemology: Becoming Intellectually Virtuous. Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press, 1998. Print. Zacharias, Ravi, Jesus Among Other Gods, Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, February 8, 2002. Print.