Epistemology

Epistemology ^[1] is the philosophy of knowledge.^[2] It seeks to answer the questions "What is knowledge?" and "How is knowledge acquired?"

Epistemologists are philosophers who are interested in questions such as whether it is possible to have knowledge, what kind of knowledge there is, and how people come to know things.

One of the first philosophers to make a clear statement on these questions was Xenophanes (570–470 BC). The following saying was, and still is, famous:

"Certain truth has no man... for even if he ever succeeds in saying what is true, he will never know it".^[3]

This is an early kind of skepticism.

1. ↑ from the Greek words episteme = science and logos = word/speech
2. ↑ Concise Oxford Dictionary
3. ↑ Guthrie W.K.C. 1962. A history of Greek philosophy. Vol 1: the earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans. Cambridge. p395 (quotation abbreviated)