TET Notes - Epistemology (மெய்யறிவியல்)

 

 Epistemology

(மெய்யறிவியல்

அல்லது அறிவாராய்ச்சி இயல்)

v Epistemology is the philosophical study of the nature, origin and limits of human knowledge.

 

v  Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the theory of knowledge.

 

v The term epistemology is derived from the Greek word ‘episteme’ and ‘logos’.

 

v Episteme_ knowledge

 

v Logos study

 

 

Epistemology centers on four areas

 

1.      Philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge.

 

2.     Various problems of skepticism

 

3.     The sources and scope of knowledge and justified belief.

 

4.     The criteria for knowledge and justification.

 

Knowledge

 

v Knowledge is always concerned about knowing something.

 

v It could be natural objects or man made things, events, persons, their activities etc.

 

v The fact or condition of being aware of something.

 

v It is a branch of learning.

 

 

Definition of knowledge

 

v Knowledge is sum of human understanding of the world it may be physical, biological, social, mental and spiritual.

 

Meaning of knowledge

 

v Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness or understanding of something, such as facts, information, descriptions or skill which is acquired through experience.

 

v Knowledge can be conceived as experience organized through language into pattern of thought, thus creating meaning.

 

v Human beings have evolved many varieties of knowledge which include a number of ways thinking, feeling, and of doing things and constructing knowledge.

 

v The process of understanding the meaning or defining knowledge directs us to identify three aspects of knowledge.

 

                       

Three aspects of knowledge

 

       I.            Process involved in knowledge

     II.            Types of knowledge

  III.            Purpose of knowledge

 

Process involved in knowledge

 

v The first aspect is the processes involved in knowledge or acquisition or generation or construction.

 

v It finally enters into the domain of ways of acquisition or generation or construction of knowledge. It is the ways of knowing.

 

  Types of knowledge

 

v Knowledge is sum of human understanding

 

v There must be different types of knowledge. 

 

v Experiential knowledge

 

v Experimental knowledge

 

v Intuitive knowledge

 

v Logical knowledge

 

v  Revealed knowledge

 

Purpose of knowledge

 

v The purpose of knowing is different in different context.

 

  Knowing and knowledge

 

v Knowing is both a process and a product.

 

v As a process it refers to the method of coming to know the phenomenon.

 

v Knowledge as a product is the resultant of knowing. Knowing happens through perception, reason and emotion.

 

v Different sources of knowing construct different forms of understanding and different types of knowledge.

 

Sense perception

 

v The acquisition of knowledge begins with the reception of external stimuli by our sense organs.

 

v Having knowledge about a stimulus that impinges on our sense organs.

 

v These sensory inputs so not constitute knowledge. But they are the material of knowledge.so sense organs play important roles in the origin of knowledge.

 

v Sense organs consider as gateways of knowledge.

 

v The first stage of knowledge is perceptual knowledge and the second is conceptual knowledge