Re: knowledge and belief

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

John Cowan:
>> There seems to be some confusion as to what is an
>> epistemology. In some examples, it seems to be taken
>> as the way by which something gets to be known.
>
>That is the standard meaning.
>
>> In other cases it is the theory or lore within which
>> something is a fact. For example:
>
>In those cases (djuno, jetnu, etc.) it should really be
>called a "metaphysics".   (BTW, what is the plural of
>"metaphysics"?)

I used metaphysics as an alternate to epistemology for jetnu (which was
a shorter definition and had more room for alternate wordings).

However, metaphysics is a much vaguer and more nebulous term, not merely
restricted to ways of knowing.  Indeed, pc once told me (I think) that
metaphysics as a field was divided into 3 subareas of which epistemology is
only one.  The other two areas (ontlogy and cosmology) have little to
do with knowledge.  Thus "a metaphysics" could be too broad and have
nothing to do with knowledge, whereas "an epistemology" is inherently at least
part of "a metaphysics".

lojbab
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
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