Epistemology and Morality

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer demonstrates that epistemology is by its own nature problematic and that this problematic nature is only resolved by introducing morality. The paper relates that the problematic nature of epistemology is because it is studied merely as in investigation into knowledge, and is severed from action. Thus, human beings come to understand the world but do not obtain final knowledge and that the resolution to this contradiction in human understanding can only come through action. The paper concludes that it is the moral act that is capable of resolving contradiction in understanding.

From the Paper:

"Epistemology is the study of knowledge, and as such its object is to verify claims to truth. In the strict sense truth is said to be objective, so that if something is true for one observer it is necessarily true for all observers. But epistemology becomes problematic if we insist on such a strict notion of truth. Almost all investigators of the question have sought only partial knowledge, deeming that absolute knowledge is the strict domain of God. An exception to this rule is the school of Rationalism, which followed the seventeenth century French philosopher Rene Descartes, and which maintained that absolute knowledge is possible. Descartes' ontology, which serves as the basis to this school, will be considered in due course, and its error exposed. But partial, or subjective, knowledge cannot be the basis for any rigorous study, and therefore epistemology in inherently problematic. Indeed the historical verdict is that epistemology only leads towards resolution when knowledge is taken to be the basis for action, or in other words, when knowledge becomes the substrate to morality. When not leading to morality, epistemology inevitably leads to the doors of skepticism."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bacon F. (2001). The Advancement of Learning. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books.
• Brickhouse T C; N D Smith. (1994). Plato's Socrates. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Descartes R; B Spinoza; G W Leibniz. (1961). The Rationalists: Rene Descartes. London: Doubleday.
• Gibbard A. (1990). Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative Judgment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
• Kant I. (2005). Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott. New York: Broadview Press.

More papers on Epistemology and Morality:

• Comparison Essay # 124999 : "Hume and Kant on Justice"
• Essay # 50308 : "Moral Epistemology"
• Analytical Essay # 137099 : "Cartesian Dualism and Kantian Ethics"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: