How do we know what we know? How do we acquire that knowing?
Epistemology, one of the five classical fields of philosophical inquiry, is the study of knowledge, of the nature of knowledge, of how it is obtained, of how it is processed, and of it’s relationship to the known or knowable world. At it’s core, epistemology is about truth, the knowable truth. How do we know what we know? What does what we know mean?
Is knowledge constructed around experience? Is it a product of logical and reasonable deductions about a material world? Is is an intrinsic part of the construct of a knowable world?
I think the common perception of epistemology is that it is about “truth”. What is “true”? How do what we know what is true to be true?
For me epistemology is at the core of how we define our realities. The answer to those questions helps to clarify the perspective from which we approach our understanding and knowing. The answers guide us in our world perspectives.
If you believe that world is not knowable or that reality is a matter of perception, for instance, that will serve to provide a frame for how you answer those questions and where you choose to focus the boundaries of the construction of knowledge.