Epistemology

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to enlighten and explore the conception termed as epistemology in a holistic manner. The research to be carried out in this paper is executed under the contexts of epistemology and diverse philosophical conceptions. Moreover, the paper strives to discover the reliability of the thesis statement which asserts that there is a strong correlation between knowledge and belief. In addition, the paper also describes that without belief there is no concept of knowledge. This conception to be discussed in the paper lies under the context of epistemology. Therefore, the paper researches the relationship between knowledge and belief. The paper explores the significance of knowledge and also belief. Moreover, the paper strives to discover the philosophical interpretation of knowledge and belief in order to interpret correlation between them. The paper analyzes different arguments in favor and in contrast to the thesis statement in order to illustrate valid findings.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Thesis Statement6

Philosophical Interpretation of Epistemology6

Philosophical Interpretation of Knowledge8

The Significance of Belief in Epistemology10

Correlation between Knowledge and Belief11

Needs and Priorities of Student14

Curriculum Criteria15

Effective Communication16

Skills of the Students17

Student Motivation18

Conclusion19

References21

Epistemology

Introduction

Epistemology is concerned with justifying not some particular truth or type of knowledge but knowledge in general. Predominant in American philosophy of education is the analytic position promoted in Israel Scheffler's Conditions of Knowledge. It does not explicitly consider the genesis, transmission, or evaluation of knowledge but assumes that objective knowledge is justified in immediate relation to a nonhuman reality. In the empiricist tradition, science is taken as the basic warrant for knowledge. The relationship between elementary states-of-affairs in the world cannot be inferred by logic from self-evident truths; they are natural associations tentatively projected inductively as generalizations from limited past experience. Empiricists focus on what we observe with senses, presuming that these will accurately be described within coherent theoretical frameworks.

Empirical science aims to put forward bold hypotheses and subject their deductive consequences to rigorous testing and criticism. Rationalists tend to focus on those deductive consequences, or on those theoretical concepts that tie sensations together to make them meaningful, presuming a mind that organizes perceptions of the world. Empiricist and rationalist theories of knowledge depend on two traditional theories of truth: the correspondence theory, which says that statements correspond directly to what is in the world, and the coherence theory, which says that a statement is true to the extent to which it coheres with all other beliefs and knowledge structures.

The belief has to correspond to the way things are in the world, once again fitting the empiricistic concern for scientific testing. And finally, one's beliefs have to be justifiable—that is, they have to fit coherently within a set of beliefs, both personal and public, once again constructed from experience and fitting rationally together. Analytic philosophers combine these two theories of truth for their epistemology. Knowing comes about through a process of observation and reasoning, in which we build cumulatively on the knowledge of predecessors. Like the mathematician Alfred Tarski, they believe that the truth of any sentence consists in its agreement ...