epistemology - Concepts

Explore concepts tagged with "epistemology"

Total concepts: 37

Concepts

Scout Mindset - Julia Galef's concept of approaching beliefs as a scout seeking accurate maps of reality rather than a soldier defending existing positions.
Scientific Fallibilism - The principle that all scientific knowledge is provisional, approximate, and subject to revision, and that no scientific theory should be treated as final, complete, or absolutely true.
One True Proposition Affliction - Cognitive trap of believing there is only one correct answer or truth about complex matters, ignoring nuance and context.
Epistemology - The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, scope, and limits of knowledge.
Epistemic Uncertainty - The uncertainty arising from lack of knowledge or information, rather than from inherent randomness or variability in the world.
Cogito Ergo Sum - Descartes' foundational philosophical proposition meaning 'I think, therefore I am,' establishing the certainty of one's own existence through the act of thinking.
Epistemic Responsibility - The moral and intellectual obligation to form beliefs carefully, seek adequate evidence, and maintain honest practices in acquiring, holding, and sharing knowledge.
Evidence-Based Thinking - The disciplined practice of forming beliefs and making decisions based on the best available evidence rather than intuition, tradition, or authority.
Scientific Method - A systematic process of observation, hypothesis formation, experimentation, and revision used to build reliable knowledge about the world.
Calibration - The alignment between confidence in one's judgments and actual accuracy, reflecting how well subjective certainty matches objective correctness.
Pragmatism - A philosophical tradition holding that the truth or value of an idea should be measured by its practical usefulness and real-world consequences rather than by its correspondence to abstract or objective reality.
Epistemic Integrity - The practice of ensuring that one's knowledge claims are genuinely grounded in personal thinking and synthesis rather than passively absorbed or misattributed external information.
Epistemic Erosion - The gradual degradation of collective knowledge quality, critical thinking capacity, and epistemic trust caused by information pollution, AI-generated content, and declining verification standards.
Epistemic Humility - The recognition that one's knowledge is always limited, incomplete, and potentially wrong, combined with the disposition to hold beliefs lightly and remain genuinely open to revision when presented with new evidence.
Knowledge Half-Life - The time it takes for half of the knowledge in a given field to become outdated, superseded, or proven incorrect.
Consilience - When evidence from multiple independent sources converges to support the same conclusion.
Social Constructionism - The theory that much of what we perceive as reality is shaped and maintained through social processes, language, and shared meanings.
Skepticism - The philosophical attitude of questioning claims and withholding judgment until sufficient evidence and reasoning are provided.
Episteme - The underlying framework of knowledge and assumptions that defines what counts as truth and valid reasoning in a given historical era.
Reach of Explanations - The extent to which a good explanation applies beyond the phenomena it was originally designed to explain.
Myside Bias - The tendency to evaluate evidence, generate arguments, and test hypotheses in a way biased toward one's own prior opinions and beliefs.
Ultracrepidarianism - Giving opinions on matters beyond one's knowledge or expertise.
Falsifiability - Karl Popper's criterion that a theory is scientific only if it makes predictions that can potentially be proven wrong by observation or experiment.
Justified True Belief - The classical definition of knowledge as a belief that is both true and supported by adequate justification or evidence.
Critical Rationalism - Karl Popper's epistemology holding that knowledge grows through bold conjectures subjected to rigorous criticism and empirical testing, never by proof or induction.
Belief Revision - The process of changing one's beliefs when confronted with new evidence that contradicts prior assumptions.
Knowledge Has Unbounded Reach - David Deutsch's claim that there is no inherent limit to what humans can understand or achieve, because good explanations can be extended indefinitely.
Bold Conjectures - Karl Popper's idea that scientific progress comes from risky, high-content hypotheses that forbid much and could easily be wrong.
Weltanschauung - A comprehensive worldview or philosophy of life that shapes how an individual or group interprets and interacts with the world.
Empiricism - The philosophical position that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience and observation rather than innate ideas or pure reason.
Epistemic Bubble - An information environment where relevant perspectives are absent, not because they are excluded but because they were never included.
Hard-to-Vary Explanations - David Deutsch's criterion for good explanations: every detail plays a functional role so the account cannot be easily modified without ruining its explanatory power.
Intellectual Honesty - The practice of seeking truth and accuracy in reasoning, being willing to change beliefs when presented with evidence, and avoiding self-deception in intellectual pursuits.
Epistemic Vigilance - The cognitive capacity to evaluate the reliability, trustworthiness, and accuracy of information received from others before accepting it as knowledge.
Rationalism - The philosophical view that reason is the primary source of knowledge and truth.
Epistemic Rationality - The systematic pursuit of accurate beliefs through evidence, reason, and willingness to update one's views.
Map is Not the Territory - Models and representations of reality are not reality itself.

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