What is epistemology? Why does epistemology matter?
Epistemology is the study of what constitutes knowledge, of how we know what we know, and of how to form justified or warranted beliefs. For example, philosophers specializing in epistemology consider the conditions under which one may reasonably believe that what she sees is in fact the way he perceives it. This is not useless speculation, but serves the purpose of determining reliable ways to believe what is true and to doubt what is false. Epistemology is especially pertinent to evaluating and developing methods of testing scientific hypotheses. Major contributions to scientific epistemology have been made not only by philosophers of science concerned with formulating methods or premises that have had past success in discerning truth, but also by statisticians concerned with the use of probability theory to make valid inferences from limited experimental data. While these advances are valuable, scientists often make discoveries without wondering how they know what they know. This ne
