NAME:
MUOGBO I. MICHAEL
MATRIC
NUMBER: SS/PP/2368
COURSE:
INTRODUCTION TO EPISTEMOLOGY
COURSE
CODE: SS/PHL/204
LECTURER:
DR. RONALD O. BADRU
TOPIC:
CRITICALLY
DISCUSS THE FOCUS OF EPISTEMOLOGY IN THE CONTEMPORARY ERA.
INTRODUCTION
Epistemology as a disciplinary term
derives from a lexical composition of two Greek words; episteme and logos. Episteme
means knowledge and logos means theory. A
lexical synthesis of these two Greek words gives the etymological meaning of
epistemology as the theory of knowledge. Epistemology as a theory of knowledge
means it deals with the analysis of sets of facts as principles that guide our
understanding of issues that relates to knowledge. As a theory, it generally
investigates the nature and possibility of knowledge.[1]
Knowledge presupposes consciousness.
Epistemology as a discourse and a
branch of philosophy has its goal to attain in the different eras or epochs of
the history of philosophy. Disregarding the epistemological goals of the
different epochs of philosophy, epistemology has a central and basic goal that
it strives towards its attainment: it aims to serve as an identification of
principles for evaluating beliefs in an attempt to acquire true beliefs and
avoid false beliefs, providing adequate reason and justification for the
truthfulness of a belief.
As earlier mentioned in this paper,
epistemology has its goals to attain in the different epochs that existed in
the history of philosophy, starting from the ancient epoch down to this our
contemporary era. This term paper is concerned with a critical discussion of
the focus of epistemology in the contemporary epoch of philosophy. Before I
proceed with the interest of this paper, I wish to make a clarification of
concept that are used or would be used in the course of this discussion.
CONCEPTUAL
CLARIFICATION
Epistemology as examined
etymologically above means the theory of knowledge. In dealing with this
course, there are certain fundamental questions one has to give answers to,
questions like: is there knowledge? What is knowledge? What is the nature of
knowledge? Is knowledge valuable? What is the value of knowledge?
The answer to the questions above
is necessary for one to truly grasp, understand and assimilate the worth and
essence of this branch of philosophy as an academic discipline. This is
necessary so as to clearly understand the subject matter of epistemology. It
also enables us to know how to apply the concept of knowledge because that is
what the analysis of a concept does. The expression “to know” is a slippery
one. It is not always used in the same sense.[2]
Knowledge is a justified true belief, not just any belief. If a belief is true
and justified, then it qualifies to be called knowledge.[3]
For knowledge to be, one needs to ascertain a true belief. Knowledge has been a
fascinating cause for reflection because of its advantage over ignorance and in
the contemporary society; knowledge confers power on those that possess it.
As this paper is concerned with the
focus of epistemology in the contemporary era, it would be of importance to
clarify the concept of the contemporary era with regards to this work. The
contemporary era is one of the four main epochs in the history of philosophy.
This era started because of the attempt of philosophers to refute the positions
of idealism and the main subject of discussion in the era is the justification
of true belief, the Gettier problem. This era also includes the philosophy of
this our present time. The contemporary period in the history
of philosophy has altered epistemology considerably
THE
FOCUS OF EPISTEMOLOGY IN THE CONTEMPORARY ERA
Right from the historical beginning
of philosophy, philosophers are said to have directed all their effort towards
the focus of knowledge for ages, though they all focused on different forms of
knowledge. For instance, the knowledge that the first Milesian trio
(philosophers) of the ancient period of philosophy seek is not the same as to
what philosophers in the medieval period seek though all are under the roof of
epistemic quest.
The contemporary period of
philosophy is said to have taken a different form of thinking and philosophy
and it is dominated by many philosophical schools of thought and methods of
philosophizing which includes logical positivism, pragmatism, neo-idealist, phenomenologist,
existentialism, analytic movements etc.
LOGICAL
POSITIVISM: otherwise known as neo-positivism, logical
positivism is a contemporary philosophical school of thought which dates back
to the classical positivism of a 19th century philosopher, Auguste
Comte. Logical positivists were scientists turned philosophers.[4]
They emphasized and maintained a rigorously scientific attitude towards
knowledge. They emphasized on the power of scientific method in an attainment
of a genuine and justifiable knowledge about the world. They held that genuine
knowledge must be based on experience and it must be about observable
phenomena. The logical positivists believed that assumptions are meaningless if
they cannot be verified and shown to be true or false.
Philosophers in line with this
school of thought include Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Hans Riecheribach,
Richard Von Mises etc.
THE
PRAGMATISTS: this is a philosophical school of
thought in the contemporary era of the history of philosophy that emphasizes on
the philosophical theory of meaning and truth. This philosophical movement was
started in America by C.S Pierce and developed by Williams James and John Dewey.
It is a theory offering the method for the determination of meaning and truth
values of an idea or proposition.
Charles Sanders Pierce in one of
his formulations of the basic principles of pragmatism says: in order to
ascertain the meaning of an intellectual conception, one should consider what
practical consequences that might conceivably result by necessity from the truth
of that conception; and the sum of these consequences will constitute the
entire meaning of conception.[5]
EXISTENTIALISM:
this is a contemporary philosophy school of thought that concerns itself with
human existence with all its characteristic features. It is regarded best as a
movement and not a school. No doubt, it is the most influential philosophical
movement in the contemporary era with regards to their philosophical positions.
Philosophers of this movement
include Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Satre,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Albert Casmus etc.
ANALYTIC
MOVEMENT: this is a
contemporary philosophical movement that comes up to depose the position of
idealism. This philosophical movement was led by G.E Moore, B Russell and
Wittgenstein. This movement mostly concerned itself with defending the
doctrines of common sense.
JUSTIFICATION
OF TRUE BELIEF: the most current issue in the
contemporary era of philosophy is that of Edmund Gettier. In the contemporary
focus of epistemology, there is what is called propositional knowledge.
Propositional knowledge also called “know that” is so called because it is
an epistemic claim expressed using a
proposition, declarative claims, while the latter, procedural knowledge
otherwise called “know how” is so called because the knowledge involves
emphasis on how to do something.
From the ancient period of Plato’s
philosophy to 1962 there was a belief in the three basic values of
propositional knowledge: truth, belief and justification. This is because false
proposition is not a subject of knowledge so it requires truth, so for one to
know, he must believe that he knows and this entails belief and belief must be
based on concrete evidences therefore it needs justification.
GETTIER’S
PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE:
Edmund Gettier is a contemporary
philosopher who came along to counter argue the possibility of the three
elements discussed above. For Gettier, it is a possibility for one to have the
three fundamental elements without knowing. Gettier backed up his argument with
his article titled “is justified true
belief knowledge?” Gettier argued against the traditional definition of
knowledge.
About five decades now, since the
advent of Gettier counter example, analytic philosophers have struggled either
to defend the standard analysis of knowledge against Gettier’s example or to
revise the standard analysis of knowledge in the light of Gettier’s example.
The debate is largely an attempt to revamp the necessary and sufficient
conditions for knowledge. It is about making a proper distinction between
knowledge and belief, giving a better and more comprehensible analysis of
justification to what it entails and what it does not, and how best to deduce
from the given proposition, and how to differentiate between first person and
third person knowledge.[6]
CONCLUSION:
The contemporary era of philosophy
constitutes of the period between the 19th century till this our
present time. The main focus of this period or epoch of philosophy is the issue
of justified true belief as Gettier would ask: “is justified true belief
knowledge?”
This
epoch is characterized with many moments, theories and philosophical schools of
thought and this period in the history of philosophy has altered epistemology
considerably; it made a great contribution to epistemology. The three paged
article, is justified true belief knowledge?, of Edmund Gettier brought about a
great debate in this period of philosophical history. In the attempt to define
knowledge issues were exposed about the understanding of human knowledge. The
definition and concept of knowing stipulates belief, truth and justification.
[1]
Anselm K. Jimoh. Certitude and doubt, Ebony
books and creations, Ibadan, Oyo state. 2013. pg 20
[2]
Ibid pg 28
[3]
Joseph Omoregbe. A simplified history of
western philosophy, volume three: conptemporary philosophy. Joja press
limited, Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos. 2005. pg 15
[4]
Ibid pg 10
[5]
ibid pg 14.
[6]
Anselm K. Jimoh. Certitude and doubt, Ebony
books and creations, Ibadan, Oyo state. 2013.
pg 39.
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