epistemology - Concepts

Explore concepts tagged with "epistemology"

Total concepts: 47

Concepts

Reach of Explanations - The extent to which a good explanation applies beyond the phenomena it was originally designed to explain.
Social Constructionism - The theory that much of what we perceive as reality is shaped and maintained through social processes, language, and shared meanings.
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 Uncertainty - The uncertainty arising from lack of knowledge or information, rather than from inherent randomness or variability in the world.
Belief Revision - The process of changing one's beliefs when confronted with new evidence that contradicts prior assumptions.
Epistemic Vigilance - The cognitive capacity to evaluate the reliability, trustworthiness, and accuracy of information received from others before accepting it as knowledge.
Parsimony - The principle of preferring the simplest adequate explanation or model, requiring no more assumptions than necessary.
Mimesis - The philosophical concept of imitation or representation, central to Greek theories of art, reality, and knowledge.
Theory of Forms - Plato's metaphysical theory that abstract, perfect Forms are the true reality of which physical things are mere copies.
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 Rationality - The systematic pursuit of accurate beliefs through evidence, reason, and willingness to update one's views.
Calibration - The alignment between confidence in one's judgments and actual accuracy, reflecting how well subjective certainty matches objective correctness.
Platonism - The philosophical tradition descending from Plato, centered on the reality of abstract Forms and the primacy of reason.
Rationalism - The philosophical view that reason is the primary source of knowledge and truth.
Epistemic Bubble - An information environment where relevant perspectives are absent, not because they are excluded but because they were never included.
Hitchens's Razor - The principle that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence, placing the burden of proof on the claimant.
Scientific Method - A systematic process of observation, hypothesis formation, experimentation, and revision used to build reliable knowledge about the world.
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.
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.
Scout Mindset - Julia Galef's concept of approaching beliefs as a scout seeking accurate maps of reality rather than a soldier defending existing positions.
Episteme - The underlying framework of knowledge and assumptions that defines what counts as truth and valid reasoning in a given historical era.
Myside Bias - The tendency to evaluate evidence, generate arguments, and test hypotheses in a way biased toward one's own prior opinions and beliefs.
Weltanschauung - A comprehensive worldview or philosophy of life that shapes how an individual or group interprets and interacts with the world.
Knowledge Half-Life - The time it takes for half of the knowledge in a given field to become outdated, superseded, or proven incorrect.
Empiricism - The philosophical position that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience and observation rather than innate ideas or pure reason.
Epistemic Responsibility - The moral and intellectual obligation to form beliefs carefully, seek adequate evidence, and maintain honest practices in acquiring, holding, and sharing knowledge.
Bundle Theory - The philosophical view, associated with David Hume, that the self is not a substance but merely a bundle of perceptions in constant flux.
Epistemology - The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, scope, and limits of knowledge.
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.
Justified True Belief - The classical definition of knowledge as a belief that is both true and supported by adequate justification or evidence.
Evidence-Based Thinking - The disciplined practice of forming beliefs and making decisions based on the best available evidence rather than intuition, tradition, or authority.
Ultracrepidarianism - Giving opinions on matters beyond one's knowledge or expertise.
Dichotomy - Division or contrast between two mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive things, ideas, or categories.
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.
One True Proposition Affliction - Cognitive trap of believing there is only one correct answer or truth about complex matters, ignoring nuance and context.
Anamnesis - Plato's theory that learning is the soul's recollection of eternal truths it knew before birth.
Bold Conjectures - Karl Popper's idea that scientific progress comes from risky, high-content hypotheses that forbid much and could easily be wrong.
Law of Excluded Middle - Classical logic principle that for any proposition, either it or its negation must be true—there is no third option.
Consilience - When evidence from multiple independent sources converges to support the same conclusion.
Map is Not the Territory - Models and representations of reality are not reality itself.
Skepticism - The philosophical attitude of questioning claims and withholding judgment until sufficient evidence and reasoning are provided.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sagan Standard - The principle that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, scaling the strength of proof to the implausibility of a claim.

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