C. S. Peirce and the Implications of Pragmatism
An examination of the basic assumptions of pragmatism, the influential school of epistemology founded by Charles Sanders Peirce. Read Article
13 Articles Categorized under Epistemology
Wittgenstein and Language Games
A general overview of Wittgenstein's epistemology, how it denies objective meaning outside of language games, and the consequences thereof: relativism in postmodern philosophy. Read Article
Not All Idealisms are Equal—The Case of George Berkeley
Although the term “idealism” is used in many senses to describe various trends in epistemology, each case is most illuminatingly understood in its historical context. To understand Berkeley's idealism, we must understand it as a reaction to Locke. Read Article
Intelligibility in the World of Experience
The way we know the world determines to a large extent our ability to understand what a thing is, such as a tree or an animal. This in turn forms our understanding of the intelligibility in the world itself Read Article
Thomas Hobbes and Nominalist Logic
In his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes outlines the character of speech, and words which are the components of speech. His assumption that words only nominally represent particulars affects how he understands propositional logic. Read Article
The Seven Liberal Arts are Speculative Sciences
The division of the sciences, especially of the liberal arts from the other sciences, is propaedeutic for knowing and understanding the world around us. Read Article
Hierarchy and Independence among the Sciences, Especially Philosophy and Theology
During the Middle Ages, the rediscovery of Aristotelianism brought about the question of what the relationship between each science was. Is there a natural hierarchy? Can any science be understood independently of the other sciences? Read Article
Knowledge and the Desire for Power
The need to dominate nature is a corruption of the desire to know. It stems from the desire to see the effects of all our knowledge in action, whether harmful or beneficial. Read Article
Simplicius and Aquinas on Aristotle’s Categories
A comparison is made between the Thomistic and the Neo-Platonic notion of signs, and how such signs relate to our knowledge of the world. Read Article
Hume and the Deconstruction of Epistemology
Hume attempts to deconstruct epistemology through a criticism of the necessity of cause and effect. Instead, he spurs the investigation of nature through statistics and probability. Read Article
Kant on Truth in the Critique of Pure Reason
Kant gives a revised definition of truth that contains his own vocabulary and explores the possibility of general criterion of truth. Read Article
Plotinus on the Union of Intelligibles and Intellect
A reflection on Plotinus' treatment of the union of Intellect and the intelligibles and a comparison of his treatment with the epistemological. Read Article
Aristotle’ Physics and How to Begin Philosophy
Aristotle explains in his Physics that good philosophy begins with the observation of physical objects, and ends with relating those objects to thought. Read Article