Certainly, we have all heard the term epistemology at some point in our lives, the complexity of the word already gives it an important air and, in fact, it is important.
Although many do not know the epistemology that follow, there are people who study and debate this topic. But, after all, what is epistemology?Epistemology is a branch of philosophy whose purpose is knowledge.
- Knowledge is that set of knowledge that we accept as true.
- However.
- For knowledge to be accepted as true.
- Other knowledge must be classified as false.
- In this way epistemology focuses on the criteria that validate knowledge.
The opposite, that is, the destruction of knowledge, is known as epistemycide. For example, an epistemicide occurred when women were burned for witchcraft in Europe. In fact, they were burned by knowledge that did not please those in power; in this way, they destroyed knowledge.
Epistemology studies knowledge. In particular, how knowledge is obtained, that is, what criteria must be followed to obtain knowledge.
In addition, epistemology defines concepts such as ‘truth’, ‘objectivity’, ‘reality’ and ‘justification’. In this way, epistemology is used to define, among other things, what science is.
At first, to know what knowledge is and what is not, one has to wonder if it is possible to come to the knowledge of a certain truth, if we think that is not possible, we will be in the school of skeptics. I believe that the truths exist, two new questions will arise.
The first of these questions is how to come to this truth, if we believe that this can only be achieved through the use of the senses, we will be empirical, otherwise, if we think it is possible to come to the truth through the use of reason, we will be rationalists.
The second question concerns what the purpose of truth is, if we consider that the object of this truth is internal in itself, for example, the opinion we have on something, we will be idealistic, but if the object of truth is an external reality, we will be realistic.
“I think the epistemology created by television is not only inferior to press-based epistemology, but more dangerous and absurd. “- Neil Postman-
In psychology, as in other sciences, positioning yourself epistemologically is fundamental, science is generally considered to be the domains that attain knowledge of truth through the use of the senses, that is, they are empirical. In addition, they are realistic; that is, they see the truth as an external reality.
However, not all sciences have this position. There are schools such as interpretation, constructivism or humanism, which do not give the same answer to epistemological questions.
On the other hand, positivism and postpositivism are closer to the epistemology mentioned in the previous paragraph, so there is a debate about what epistemology true knowledge brings.
The knowledge of each of these schools will be different, although they can coincide at many points, the ways of acquiring knowledge or methodologies will be different, so the knowledge of some schools may be rejected by others.
While it may seem that epistemology is nothing more than an unanswered discussion of the wise, we now encounter a very relevant debate, the debate on alternative therapies, such as homeopathic products.
Recently, the efficacy of these homeopathic products has been questioned. Are they really effective? The answer given by postpositivism is “no”. Different experiments confirm that they have no real effect other than placebo.
However, a school whose epistemological position focuses on rationalism and an internal purpose could argue that if people who use these products say they work, it’s because they actually work.
Therefore, the debate on alternative therapies is at the epistemological level, depending on the answer to the questions posed at the beginning of the text, it can be considered whether or not these therapies produce the desired effect.
Therefore, it is necessary to know the epistemological position that defends one or the other position and, of course, to be critical and to know the limits of the different methods when it comes to providing real knowledge.