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Social Epistemology: The Benefit of “We”
In many situations and events, many seek to find an individual to who will be praised for the success or criticized for the failure. Frequently, those in reflection ignore or either fail to recognize the collaborative efforts of many who initiated and developed such situations. A contemporary example is how most frequently blame President Barack Obama for negative events such as the current recession, and even simple things such as gas prices, welfare, ect. Many decide to ignore other political parties and politician that effect nationwide decisions. Also, the idea that decisions made in previous presidential tenures affect the range of resources the incumbent has to work with. Examples like this contribute to the overall idea that many fail to see the group effect on situations/events and rather attempt to find individuals to either praise or blame.
This ideology or mind-set can be found within certain disciplines, especially epistemology. Throughout its discourse, many seek to define knowledge in aspects of the individual without giving reference to group contributions. Alvin Goldman (2010) believes that even though much reference is given to the individual, the history of epistemology has many social aspects that are frequently overlooked. Also, Cynthia Townley (2011) believes that the study of epistemology downplays the importance of epistemic dependence in order to give credit to individual examples of knowledge. She defines dependence as a communal exchange of knowledge and distinguishes it from independence, which is self-generated or an individual act of knowledge. In any case, one can see, upon reflection, that many propositions of knowledge are rarely self-generated. ...
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...l epistemology and epistemic dependence contributes to the “good life.”
Works Cited
Duncan, P. (2006). What is this thing called knowledge. (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Goldman, A. (2010). Social epistemology. In E. Zaltha (Ed.), The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/epistemology-social/
McInnis, R. G. (2001). Discursive communities/interpretive communities: The new logic, john locke, and dictionary-making, 1660-1760 (pp. 325-345). In R. McInnins (Ed.), Discourse synthesis: studies in historical and contemporary social epistemology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Townley, C. (2011). A defense of ignorance: its values and roles in feminist and social epistemology. (pp. 1-23). Layham, MD: Lexington Books.
Zagzebski, L. (2009). On epistemology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous quality shared between humans is the capacity to know. The English language seems stark and stale when considering a definition for the word itself that encompasses the various feelings that can be summoned in knowing something. John Farella examines the inequality that exists in the relationship between the West...
Kitchener, R. F. (1986) Piaget's Theory of Knowledge. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Knowledge, its source and truthfulness have been under question for a long time. People have always wondered what exactly constitutes facts and if there are any defining laws that can be attributed to all knowledge or information available in the world. Many philosophers speculated on how information can be interpreted according to its falsity or truthfulness, but have not come to definite conclusions. Edmund Gettier has provided one of the key pieces in understanding and trying to figure out what knowledge really is.
Feminism and Epistemology is a phrase derived from the feminist epistemological and philosophical sciences studies. Feminist and epistemology studies gender influences to perfection in a subject, individual’s conception of knowledge, and competence in inquiry and justifying oneself. Under the study, diverse formalities influencing performance are analyzed. The study outlines how dominant practices and conceptions of acquiring, attributing and justification disadvantages women and other minority groups. The study equips individuals with information to facilitate an end to marginalization. Baselessly, the marginalized groups are discounted as knowers and argued to be less competent in knowing. Their perfect articulation of social relations is discounted. The research has been
Therefore, Feminists, advocates, practitioners, and scholars need to be prepared to develop the kind of courage that is needed. The intellectual stamina and energy required to exercise feminist curiosity do not come uninvited. It is consciously cultivated and nurtured. I feel this revelation by Enloe is not meant to discourage us from exercising feminist curiosity. Rather, I believe it is an honest admission that there is a personal cost involved in pursuing social justice – a kind of cost that is more of an encouragement than a dissuasion. I feel this is meant to motivate and inspire us to expense energy to roll off the boulders on the door to shed lights on women’s situations. It is often said that you need to know your enemy in order to fight them. I believe this is the point Enloe is driving at. It is only when we know that people will raise eyebrows, make condescending remarks and gestures that will we be in the position to prepare well for an insightful and constructive
When it comes to knowledge, women are left out in various ways. Firstly, women are left out when they fail to be known. Langston uses the term “terra incognita” to describe the status women attain when they are left out out of fields such as history and philosophy
The quest for knowledge, a topic often contemplated in philosophy, remains persistent with mankind seeking to understand the uncertainty in the world surrounding him. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that raises questions and provides answers about what constitutes knowledge and justifies belief. The main concerns of knowledge in epistemology are how it is defined, what the source is, how it’s acquired, what its limitations are, and what kind of knowledge is necessary. Three very well known philosophers of their time offer their different ideas on the subject of knowledge and epistemology.
Lagemaat, Richard van de. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
First of all, I demonstrate that epistemology is the study of all that encompasses knowledge. Furthermore, I support the traditional epistemological concept of justified true belief by arguing that this model is largely relied on in the expectations of current empirical data.
Lagemaat, Richard Van De. Theory of knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
The philosopher, Linda Zagzebski, offers a virtue based definition of knowledge. She arrives at this definition by presenting numerous accounts of knowledge definitions that fail, explore why they fail, then shows how her theory satisfies knowledge criteria.
Truth and beliefs contribute in building the knowledge of a person. Cogent reasons for the beliefs convert the beliefs into knowledge. However, sometimes the beliefs are actually assumption, so they may be wrong. Truth is the facts known from different sources. Something can be considered as knowledge, only if it is true. The word epistemology refers to studying the source of knowledge. The epistemology helps in understanding the process of development of knowledge, sources of knowledge and makes distinctions between belief and actual truth. I critically examined and analyzed the origin and the process of acquiring the knowledge for the two essays I wrote earlier. One essay, an analytical one, was written on the subject of increasing prison population and improper justice system. The second essay was written on the subject of human resource management. To develop the knowledge and understanding I demonstrated in the essays, I had to search for resources, rationalize the information gained and evaluate it in conjunction with my personal beliefs.
West, Candace, and Sarah Fenstermaker. Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Social Inequality, Power and Resistance. New York; London: Routledge, 2002.
van de Lagemaat, R. (2011) Theory of knowledge for the IB diploma, Cambridge University Press. 5. Viroli, M. (1998) Machiavelli, London, Oxford University Press, retrieved January 3, 2014 from http://www.questia.com/read/23271960?title=Machiavelli 6. Wilde, O. (1945).
Masterman, M. (1970). The Nature of a Paradigm. In I. Lakatos, & A. Musgrave (Eds.), Criticism and The Growth of Knowledge (pp. 59-90). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.