Epistemology & Methodology I:

In this Introduction we shall state the business of both descriptive and normative epistemology, and shall locate them in the map oflearning. This must be done because epistemology has been pronounced dead, and methodology nonexisting; and because, when acknowledged at all, they are often misplaced. 1. DESCRIPTIVE EPISTEMOLOGY The following problems are typical of classical epistemology: (i) What can we know? (ii) How do we know? (iii) What, if anything, does the subject contribute to his knowledge? (iv) What is truth? (v) How can we recognize truth? (vi) What is probable knowledge as opposed to certain knowledge? (vii) Is there a priori knowledge, and if so of what? (viii) How are knowledge and action related? (ix) How are knowledge and language related? (x) What is the status of concepts and propositions? In some guise or other all of these problems are still with us. To be sure, if construed as a demand for an inventory of knowledge the first problem is not a philosophical one any more than the question 'What is there?'. But it is a genuine philosophical problem if construed thus: 'What kinds of object are knowable-and which ones are not?' However, it is doubtful that philosophy can offer a correct answer to this problem without the help of science and technology. For example, only these disciplines can tell us whether man can know not only phenomena (appearances) but also noumena (things in themselves or self-existing objects).

Contenu

of Epistemology I.- 1. Descriptive Epistemology.- 2. Normative Epistemology (Methodology).- 3. Epistemology and Biology.- 4. Epistemology and Psychology.- 5. The Place of Epistemology.- 6. Uses of Epistemology.- 7. Concluding Remarks.- I. Cognition and Communication.- 1. Cognition.- 1. The Knowing Subject.- 1.1. The Cognitive Organ.- 1.2. Brain States and Processes.- 2. Cognitive Functions.- 2.1. Perceiving, Thinking, and all that.- 2.2. Learning.- 3. Development and Evolution.- 3.1. Cognitive Development.- 3.2. Cognitive Evolution.- 4. Concluding Remarks.- 2. Knowledge.- 1. From Cognition to Knowledge.- 1.1. Knowledge Acquisition and Use.- 1.2. Knowledge Evolution.- 2. Modes of Knowledge.- 2.1. Basic Categories.- 2.2. Tacit and Explicit Knowledge.- 3. Belief.- 3.1. Belief System.- 3.2. Belief and Knowledge.- 4. Inquiry.- 4.1. Field of Knowledge.- 4.2. How is Knowledge Possible?.- 5. Concluding Remarks.- 3. Communication.- 1. Subject and World.- 1.1. Subject-Object Relation.- 1.2. Inter-Subject Relation.- 2. Social Matrix.- 2.1. Cognitive Habitat and Niche.- 2.2. Learning Community.- 3. Communication.- 3.1. Communication System.- 3.2. Language, Thought, and Reality.- 4. Concluding Remarks.- II. Perceiving and Thinking.- 4. Perceiving.- 1. From Sensing to Perceiving.- 1.1. Sensing.- 1.2. Perceiving.- 2. Observing.- 2.1. Direct Observation.- 2.2. Indirect Observation.- 3. Mapping Reality.- 3.1. Perceptual Mapping.- 3.2. Appearance and Reality.- 4. Concluding Remarks.- 5. Conceiving.- 1. Concept.- 1.1. From Percept to Concept.- 1.2. Concept Formation.- 2. Proposition.- 2.1. From Thought to Proposition.- 2.2. A Priori and a Posteriori.- 3. Exactification.- 3.1. From Vagueness to Exactness.- 3.2. Quality and Quantity.- 4. Representation.- 4.1. Conceptual Map.- 4.2. Discovery or Invention?.- 5. Concluding Remarks.- 6. Inferring.- 1. From Spontaneity to Formality.- 1.1. Natural Reasoning.- 1.2. Formal Reasoning.- 2. Plausible Reasoning.- 2.1. Analogical Inference.- 2.2. Statistical Inference and Hypothetical Reasoning.- 3. Discussing.- 3.1. Analysis and Criticism.- 3.2. Controversy.- 4. Concluding Remarks.- III. Exploring and Theorizing.- 7. Exploring.- 1. Exploratory Behavior.- 1.1. Psychobiology of Problems.- 1.2. Sources and Choices.- 2. From Intuition to Method.- 2.1. Intuition.- 2.2. Method.- 3. Approach and Research.- 3.1. Approach.- 3.2. Research.- 4. Analysis of Problems.- 4.1. Logic and Semantics of Problems.- 4.2. Solved, Unsolved, Insoluble.- 5. Concluding Remarks.- 8. Conjecturing.- 1. From Preconception to Hypothesis.- 1.1. Psychobiology of Conjecturing.- 1.2. Hypothesis.- 2. Scope and Depth.- 2.1. Scope.- 2.2. Depth.- 3. Chance and Cause.- 3.1. Probabilistic Hypotheses.- 3.2. Causal Hypotheses.- 4. Requirements.- 4.1. Strength and Precision.- 4.2. Systemicity and Scrutability.- 5. Concluding Remarks.- 9. Systematizing.- 1. Classification and Theory.- 1.1. Classification.- 1.2. Theory.- 2. Construction and Reality.- 2.1. Theory Construction.- 2.2. Theory and Reality.- 3. Convention and Law.- 3.1. Convention.- 3.2. Law.- 4. Concluding Remarks.- Appendices.- 1. The Power of Mathematics in Theory Construction: A Simple Model of Evolution.- 2. The Prose Identifying the Variables.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.