One of the many things one learns at university is that there are many words that are easy to explain but difficult to apply in an everyday context. For example What is epistemology.
They are words that when you hear them sound like some kind of treatment for a terminal illness and that you are either embarrassed to ask what they mean because you fear being labeled ignorant; Or that you have secretly searched on Google and you have been left with the doubt because the definitions you find are too vague to resolve your concerns.
When I watched methodology classes in the first semesters, one of the words I heard repeated the most from my professors was epistemology.
According to the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy, epistemology is a compound word from two words of Greek origin epistḗmē, which means ‘knowledge’ and logía, which means logic. According to this same dictionary, epistemology is the theory of the foundations and methods of scientific knowledge.
The Ocean One Color Encyclopedic Dictionary, on the other hand, defines epistemology as the “critical study of scientific knowledge” (1997: 598).
If we look closely at the first definition we will notice several things. In the first place, we all know that there are several fields of knowledge (engineering is not the same as architecture, medicine and astronomy), which have their own theories, concepts and tools. Knowing this in advance, can we safely say that there is only one theory of knowledge and one scientific method?
The answer is no. The greatest bias of the DRAE definition is that, just as there is not a single field of knowledge, there is not only one theory or one single method of scientific knowledge.
Second, the first definition assumes that there is only one logic. It doesn’t tell you what it is, but in practical reality you know you don’t apply the same logical reasoning to analyze, for example, the structure of a building and the dreams of a patient with mental problems.
Thirdly, we cannot forget the second definition, which is more in line with what epistemology is, but which also has its gaps. One of the things that must be clear is that a critical study is not the acid comments we make on social networks about what someone said about a celebrity or an acquaintance of ours. A critical study is based on observations, evidence, comparisons without emotional or ideological bias.
And fourthly, if we go back to the first definition, we can see that it does not clarify what these foundations are (which vary from one science to another and which we cannot explain here due to lack of space) or those methods, which we are going to explain in the next section.
For the deduction to be valid, you must take into account that the general premises are not always applicable to particular contexts and explain why.
For the analogy and induction to be valid:
- Shared properties must be greater than non-shared ones.
- In making the analogy one should not take properties in isolation, or ignore significant differences.
- Although the strength of an analogy will depend on the ratio between shared and non-shared properties, in principle any set can have an infinite number of potential properties, so comparison is impossible in absolute quantitative terms. That is why shared properties must be more relevant than non-shared ones (Gándara; 1990).
Basic logical methods of epistemology
- Deductive method. This method looks for formal connections between general theoretical assumptions and particular knowledge (Vargas 1990: 23).
- Inductive Method. We can define it in two ways. Popper points out that “any inference that passes from singular statements, such as descriptions of the results of observations or experiments, to universal statements, such as hypotheses or theories” (1995:23) can be called induction.
- Analog Method. The analogy is “the basic application of the procedure of inductive inference, of projection of the known to the unknown”. We can learn this in manuals like Gándara. According to Navarrete (2006:125) the analogy can also be synthesized as the comparisons that we make within the same level –we compare something particular with something particular or something general with something general–. As formal logic, it also does not have a conclusive probative force, but only plausible or probable.
Step by Step
Now comes the hard part. If we want to create a theory or do research work we must ask ourselves a question. For example, if you are an environmentalist who wants to prove that a mining company is poisoning river water with mercury causing health problems for people and animals, you have to do a preliminary investigation on mercury poisoning.
What it requires you to have:
- Technical knowledge. To be able to speak properly about the subject of study.
- All the data you need to validate your study must be organized. Following the previous example, you can record the number of patients affected by mercury poisoning, the affected area (the territory in which you have observed environmental damage by mercury) and the number of water and blood samples in an Excel sheet. Then you synthesize your data into statistical tables, graphs, concept maps, etc.
In organization, you apply induction and analogy to:
- Compare blood samples.
- Compare the water samples.
- Compare symptoms of reported cases with documented cases of mercury poisoning in animals.
- Compare symptoms between people.
- If the water and blood samples, added to the study of the symptoms of mercury poisoning (sweating, tremors, liver failure, etc.) coincide with your premise that your health was affected by mercury and the mining company is responsible for it, your initial hypothesis can be considered verified and you can build a case with the support of the victims to sue the company.
Tips
Another thing that is hardly talked about in the university (unless you have training in a career related to finance) and without which you could not apply any of these logical methods to your study are:
- The permits. If the study involves people, you must have authorization from those people to carry out studies. If it involves the environment or animals, you must have permission from government entities to be able to carry them out.
- The money. No study is done without money. Materials such as books (whether physical or digital), paper, printing ink, laboratory materials (if the study requires it), specialists (if someone is hired to do an exam) and to the legal department (some studies require judicial permits that must be managed by lawyers).
- An open mind. When we apply basic logical methods well, we sometimes discover things that don’t fit our assumptions. Perhaps the company was not responsible for the mercury poisoning of the workers and they poisoned themselves doing illegal mining, or ingesting some toxic substance that causes similar symptoms.
In summary we can say that epistemology is a series of theories and logical methods that we apply to study a given phenomenon.