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Running Head: EPISTEMOLOGY ESSAY
Epistemology Essay
Kayla Furrow
Liberty University
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EPISTEMOLOGY ESSAY
Epistemology is the study of knowledge, its origins and justifications[Dav15].
Philosophers have pondered for years what determines something to be knowledge over belief,
or where knowledge originates, or how knowledge can be validated and determined. A belief can
be present despite existence of facts proving or denying the belief – each person decides what is
knowledgeable. This is seen often in religion: religious people will say that their faith or their
god is real, that it is knowledgeable to acknowledge their religions validity; a non-religious
person will say that faith is misplaced and a god is untestable, that it is knowledgeable to believe
only in things that can be empirically “proven” [Dav15].
The accreditation of knowledge is heavily influenced by how the world is mirrored
within a person’s perception. For example, a naïve realist believes that the world truly is exactly
how they perceive it; conversely, an antirealist views the world as having minimal correlation to
their perceptions of it [Dav15]. Somewhere in the middle critical realists can be found applying
some personal perception to their interpretation of the world, while also acknowledging reality
and differing perceptions to mold a better world perception [Dav15]. A critical realist can lean
closer to a naïve realist or an antirealist depending on their experiences and perceptions, but no
matter where on the realism-spectrum a person resides, their interpretation of the world will
determine what they consider to be knowledgeable. Knowledge is determined by reality: if a
person is religious then they will believe their religion to be truth; if a person foregoes religion
then they will believe empirical data to be truth – does that make either one wrong or right? That
is the question that drives the curiosity behind epistemology.
Personally, I would say I am a critical realist with more naïve leanings, though I am
beginning to notice more antirealist leanings in my thought processes. I believe in God, and I
believe that the universe was created by Him. As a woman of science with a love for biology, this
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EPISTEMOLOGY ESSAY
is a hard stance to hold, but evolution just seems and sounds so preposterous to me! In the end,
believing in evolution and the Big Bang requires as much faith as believing in God, so if it came
down to only one reason why I am Christian, I would much rather believe in a God who can give
me eternity than a dinosaur evolving into modern day birds. But, I try to see the better in people
despite knowing that many people only look out for themselves; I view myself as needing to help
others over myself despite knowing that other people are just as capable without me. I think my
knowledge of the nature and necessities of people help me form a critical position, but my
personal nature of wanting to see the good in people and value their time over my own is what
lends to my naivete. But, I am starting to see where people take advantage of that and I am trying
to get away from those people and surround myself with positive people, which is where I see
antirealist qualities expressed in my perceptions. At this time in my life, I frequently think about
I Peter 5:8 ESV, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Keeping an open mind is important because when you
stop paying attention even for one second the devil begins to slip in. I need to step away from the
people taking advantage of my kindness because it can easily lead to a slippery slope of sin and
pain.
There are several different ways to determine what is knowledge. One way is through
Authority [Dav15]. Parents, pastors, teachers, or others in positions of “knowledge” and
authority will share what is knowledgeable to them to younger generations, who continue the
trend. If all of humanity were to take authority as the only source of knowledge, the human race
would like not be nearly as technologically and medically advanced as it is currently. Defiance of
certain pieces of knowledge can expose new truths, and human nature calls for exploration which
leads into the next origin of knowledge: Logic. Logic is a way of evaluating knowledge by
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EPISTEMOLOGY ESSAY
comparing it to other consistent or real truths [Dav15]. Logic can justify whether something is
truly knowledgeable, but justification may not always lend to truth: justification is a positive
evaluation of an idea that can be determined even if the idea is actually false [Ste11]. Logic,
while comparing an idea to a truth, is not rigorously tested like Empiricism. Empiricism is a
means of testing an idea to prove its validity by means of questions, tests, or experiments
[Dav15]. Some things have been definitively proven through empiricism (like the laws of
thermodynamics and the law of gravity) while other things cannot be tested or definitively
proven but are defended through empiricism (like the theory of evolution and the Big Bang
theory). Empiricism is equated to science, but a person does not need to be a scientist to use
empiricism to define an idea into knowledge. Finally, knowledge can be inferred from
revelations [Dav15]. Some people have had revelations in simple thoughts or dreams, and while
revelations are more often attributed with religious people, revelations are not exclusive to
Christians. Anyone can have a revelation. All of these methods of knowing, however, are limited.
They all require human interpretation by some means and all humans are subject to error. While
many things can be tested (like the law of gravity through empiricism) is it still only and idea.
Gravity itself is not physically tangible, and tomorrow someone could have a revelation that it is
not gravity at all but something completely different: that idea would then be tested and possibly
could become the next law of how things stay on the planet. Nothing can be definitively proven
or explained, so all things are subject to error.
For Christians, it is important to place value in all methods of knowing and to not only
rely on one specific method. Consider knowledge that comes from authority – parents are wise
and can share valuable information, but as the human race progresses some advice loses its value
in the lives of a young person living in the twenty-first century. Use logic to challenge certain
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EPISTEMOLOGY ESSAY
ideas, use empiricism to prove an idea wrong or right. Allow your heart and mind to be open to
God so that if He reveals something to you, you can then use logic to justify it, empiricism to
prove its validity, and authority to share it with others. Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV says, “The
secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our
children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
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EPISTEMOLOGY ESSAY
References
Entwistle, D. (2015). Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity. Eugene, OR:
Cascade Books.
Peterson, S. (2011). Utilitarian epistemology. Synthese, 1173-1184.
