What is Epistemology and what is it for?

Psychology is a science, specifically the science of behavior and mental processes. However, no science generates knowledge by itself if it is far from philosophy, a discipline related to reflection and the exploration of new ways of perceiving and interpreting things.

Epistemology, in particular, is one of the most relevant branches of philosophy from a scientific point of view. Next we will see what exactly it consists of and what its function is.

• Related article: "Differences between Psychology and Philosophy"

What is epistemology?

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that is responsible for examining the foundations on which the creation of knowledge is based. Etymologically, this term comes from the union of the words "episteme" (knowledge) and "logos" (study).

Thus, epistemology is a division of philosophy that is responsible for exploring the internal coherence of the reasoning that leads to the creation of knowledge, the usefulness of their methodologies taking into account their objectives, the historical contexts in which these pieces of knowledge appeared and the the way in which they influenced its elaboration, and the limitations and usefulness of certain forms of research and of certain concepts, among others. things.

If we were to reduce the meaning of epistemology to one question, it would be: what can we come to know, and why? Thus, this branch of philosophy is in charge of both looking for valid statements about those contents that we can know, and also about the procedures and methods that we should use to reach that goal.

Relationship with gnoseology and philosophy of science

It should be clarified that epistemology deals with analyzing the obtaining of all kinds of knowledge, not only the scientific one, at least if we equate it to the concept of gnoseology, which is responsible for examining the scope of all kinds of knowledge in general. It must be borne in mind, however, that the relationship between gnoseology and epistemology is still the subject of debate today.

The philosophy of science, unlike epistemology, it is relatively recent, since it appears in the twentieth century, while the second already appears in the philosophers of ancient Greece. This means that the philosophy of science offers a more concrete and defined mode of production of knowledge, referring to the way in which science should be used (understood as a guarantee system for the generation of knowledge) both in the most concrete practices (such as example, a specific experiment) as well as in broad fields of science (such as the study of behavior patterns in human beings humans).

The functions of epistemology

We have seen roughly what the goals of epistemology are, but there are certain details that are worth delving deeper into. Epistemology handles, among other things, the following functions.

1. Examine the limits of knowledge

There are all kinds of philosophical currents that tell us about our ability to generate universally valid and robust knowledge. It ranges from naive realism, according to which it is in our power to know reality in a faithful and detailed way as it is, to the most postmodern and constructionist tendencies. extremes according to which it is not possible to create a definitive or universal knowledge of anything, and all we can do is create fully opinionable explanations of what we experience.

Epistemology, in this sense, has the function of seeing how the methods used to investigate allow a satisfactory answer to the questions from which one starts.

2. Evaluate methodologies

Epistemologists are also in charge of assess positively or negatively the use of certain methodologies research, either analysis tools or information gathering methods, taking into account the need to which they are supposed to respond. However, it is necessary to bear in mind that methodology and epistemology are not the same; the second takes very little for granted and questioning philosophical premises is among its functions, while The first focuses on the technical aspects of the investigation and relies on a number of highly assumptions. higher.

For example, an epistemologist may ask questions about the real utility of conducting experiments on animals to elicit knowledge about the human behavior, while a methodologist will focus more on ensuring that the laboratory conditions and the chosen animal species are correct.

3. Reflect on epistemic currents

Another of the great functions of epistemology is to create a debate between schools of thought that are ascribed to different ways of conceiving the creation of knowledge.

For example, when Karl Popper criticized the Sigmund Freud and his followers, he was doing philosophy of science, but also epistemology, because he doubted the ability of psychoanalysis to reach meaningful conclusions about how the mind works human. In short, he was criticizing not only the contents of one of the main psychological currents in history, but his way of conceiving the investigation.

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4. Reflection on metaphysics

Epistemology is also responsible for deciding what metaphysics is and in what sense it is necessary or not or essential or not.

Throughout history, many philosophers have tried to define what is beyond the material and physical and what are mere constructs generated by the mind to explain the reality that surrounds us, and this is still a highly debated topic.

Bibliographic references:

• Barnes, Kuhn, Merton: Studies on Sociology of Science, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1980.
• Black, M.: Induction and probability, Madrid: Cátedra, 1979.
• Hempel, C. G.: The scientific explanation, Buenos Aires: Paidos, 1979.
• Quintanilla, M. A.: Ideology and science, Valencia, 1976.