Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Epistemology
/ɪˌpɪstəˈmɒlədʒi/noun
The branch of philosophy concerned with what knowledge is and how it is justified.
The Greek roots
ἐπιστήμη
epistḗmē
knowledge, understanding
λόγος
lógos
study, account
Literally: “study of knowledge”
The story of the word
James Frederick Ferrier minted the word in 1854 in his Institutes of Metaphysic, splitting philosophy into epistemology, the theory of knowing, and agnoiology, the theory of ignorance. Only one of the two found customers. ἐπιστήμη is knowledge of the settled, demonstrable kind, from ἐπίστασθαι, literally to stand upon, and it is set against δόξα, opinion, which stands on nothing.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1854
Same family
epistemicepidemicepilogue
In a sentence
The argument is really about epistemology, not about the data.
Her seminar on epistemology filled up in an hour.