Epistemology
Notes
Epistemology asks how we know what we know — and whether we can know it at all. This Map covers the foundational philosophical traditions that answer this question differently, the structural limits of what can be known, and the concept of truth itself.
Foundations of Knowledge maps the canonical epistemological schools — rationalism, empiricism, pragmatism, relativism, and coherentism — as competing theories of where knowledge is grounded and how it is validated. These are not just academic positions; they reflect deep differences in how evidence, reason, and experience are weighted.
Nature and Limits of Knowledge examines what we cannot fully know: the hard limits of qualia and subjective experience, the role of social construction in shaping reality, the mediating effects of perception, and the anxiety that comes with irreducible epistemic uncertainty.
Truth engages with truth as a contested concept — distinguishing between objective facts, socially constructed realities, perspectival truths, and the practical criterion of usefulness. What counts as "true" depends on what theory of knowledge you hold.
Philosophers
Socrates (philosopher) Rene Descartes (philosopher) David Hume (philosopher) Bruno Latour (philosopher)