Epistemology means science, knowledge . Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, the science that investigates belief and knowledge , looking for the nature of scientific knowledge and its limitations.
The origin of the epistemological concept is in the study of philosophy, which defines it as a science that analyzes how to treat a problem arising from a specific philosophical assumption, within the philosophical current of idealism.
epistemology
The central theme of this theory of knowledge is the reality of things.
The assumptions on which epistemology is based are:
knowledge is tangible and does not necessarily need human perception either within or outside the scope of science; thus, knowledge can be questioned universally or abstractly;
knowledge is just a representation of the idea that actually exists only within human consciousness.
Based on these assumptions, two questions need to be verified:
does this idea correspond to something real that exists outside the consciousness of the one who thinks it?
And if the answer to the first question is negative:
Is there any difference between real and unreal ideas? What would those differences be?
The theory of knowledge lost its force when Kant, in his Critique of Pure Reason, refuted the first assumption of epistemology.
In the field of philosophy, epistemology was replaced by methodology, which studies the validation procedures of scientific knowledge.
ORIGIN OF EPISTEMOLOGY
The root of the birth of epistemology lies in questioning the very existence of things. For Descartes, knowledge is the representation of the idea and the idea is a mental entity that exists only within the consciousness of the individual who thinks it.
Epistemology is the science that seeks to validate knowledge, seeking evidence that knowledge exists outside the individual’s consciousness and whether it can be discerned from a belief, a fantastic or unrealistic idea.
Within epistemology there are two distinct positions regarding how knowledge should be validated:
EMPIRICISM
Under this position, knowledge can only be differentiated from belief through what is apprehended and experienced by the human being.
See here all about the meaning of Empiricism and Empirical Knowledge .
RATIONALISM
According to the rationalist approach, the individual can validate knowledge through reason, without the need for empirical evidence.
See here everything about the meaning of Rationalism .
GENETIC EPISTEMOLOGY
Genetic epistemology is a theory of Jean Piaget; Piaget tried to merge two theories that dealt with the origin of knowledge.
For some, knowledge would be something innate in human beings, that is, it is already present within each individual at birth. This theory was called apriorism.
Piaget unites these two concepts by stating that knowledge is achieved through an interaction of what the individual is born with and what he apprehends with his senses.
LEGAL EPISTEMOLOGY
Just as philosophy uses epistemology to validate the object of its study: knowledge, the study of law uses epistemology to validate the origin of the concepts on which it is based. Legal epistemology seeks to define the factors that lead to the very origin of law.
According to the theory of legal epistemology, each individual has a different way of thinking and acting and, therefore, the law needs deep reflection, since it can have several interpretations, according to the understanding of each one.
CONVERGENT EPISTEMOLOGY
Convergent epistemology unites three fields of science:
psychogenetics;
psychoanalysis;
social Psychology.
Developed by psychopedagogue Jorge Visca, convergent epistemology seeks to understand more broadly the learning mechanisms of human beings.
