Empiricism and Postmodernism

Empiricism and Postmodernism

Empiricism and Postmodernism

Epistemological Empiricism and Postmodernism

Knowledge is a type of belief, and epistemology is the study of knowledge, that is, the analysis of how we know the world, as opposed to ontology, which deals with what we take to be real. An epistemology is a worldview with a particular set of assumptions, a definition of truth, and priorities concerning what constitute valid and important knowledge. Knowledge comprises those beliefs that are both true (they conform to what is real) and justified (the one who thinks them true has sufficient reason to think them true) (Roth, 2008, 3-14). This formulation attempts to formally distinguish the type of belief we call knowledge from other types of belief, such as errors (untrue beliefs) and lucky guesses (true beliefs held without justification).

Everyone has an epistemology, whether they know it or not. In academic analysis, epistemologies are made explicit as they underlie the rules of knowledge formation. Different epistemologies have different criteria for what constitutes valid knowledge, different definitions of truth, and different priorities in terms of how analysis should be done (Williams, 2001, 21-92). Each piece of knowledge can be considered a proposition. Propositions can be sorted (not without remainder) into three epistemic classes: demonstrable propositions (those that can be shown to be true by appeal to logic or fact), defensible propositions (those for which a convincing rational argument can be made), and preferred propositions (those that reflect individual subjective taste and cannot or need not be defended).

Comparison between Empericism and Postmodernism

Empiricism is an epistemological doctrine that regards sensory information as the exclusive basis of all knowledge. While comparing empiricism and postmodernism we can say that for purposes of tracking the influence of empiricism on social theory, empiricism receives its canonical formulation at the hands of David Hume. With Hume, empiricism becomes the fundamental criterion for arbitrating the possible meaningfulness of statements. This leads directly, in the fullness of time, to the view that the only evidence that bears on the truth or falsity of claims made by social theories can be observable (empirical) evidence. Thus, empiricism comes to exert a determinative influence early in the twentieth century on what counts as necessary for evaluating any social theory. Yet, the twentieth century also witnesses both the apotheosis and philosophical transformation of Humean empiricism (Gupta, 2008, 1-29).

In comparison to epistemological approach of empiricism, postmodernism can be considered as involving a rejection of, or at least a movement away from, modern views on knowledge. At least since the European Renaissance, and probably well before, the acquisition of knowledge has been widely seen as emancipatory, holding, at least potentially, prospects of freedom from social and natural constraints. In relation to empiricism the viewpoint was quite explicitly articulated in the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries and can be seen to infuse the met narratives that have informed many of the philosophical perspectives that have, as noted earlier, been processed through geography through the course of the 20th ...