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RE: "Doing" Epistemology?

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I suppose what I want to know is what is the role of the epistemologist in philosophy, or what should the role be, what are the questions that need to be answered in this area, what are the methods that need to be used. These might seem like strange things to ask, as they should have obvious answers for any philosophy student, but I want to see what people think, just to illuminate the different conceptions there are about what epistemology is, and what one is actually doing when one does epistemology. Yes, one might say "writing, reading etc..." but that doesn’t distinguish doing epistemology from doing philosophy or from doing history... perhaps you will say "writing, reading, about epistemology etc..." this doesn’t quite address what I want to know, perhaps because my question is misleading. I want to know what is epistemology other than the investigation into epistemological talk or language? The answer might be "nothing", but perhaps some people have a broader conception of epistemology?

Craig

BUPS Philosophy Societies Liaison Officer

www.bups.org
www.bups.org/pages/societies.shtml 

Personal
craig@craigfrench.co.uk
www.craigfrench.co.uk

Heythrop College, University of London
www.heythrop.ac.uk
www.philweb.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Craig French 
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 11:42 PM
To: 'djf500@york.ac.uk'
Subject: RE: "Doing" Epistemology?

I suppose what I want to know is what is the role of the epistemologist in philosophy, or what should the role be, what are the questions that need to be answered in this area, what are the methods that need to be used. These might seem like strange things to ask, as they should have obvious answers for any philosophy student, but I want to see what people think, just to illuminate the different conceptions there are about what epistemology is, and what one is actually doing when they do epistemology. Yes, one might say "writing, reading etc..." but that doesn’t distinguish doing epistemology from doing philosophy or from doing history... perhaps you will say "writing, reading, about epistemology etc..." this doesn’t quite address what I want to know, perhaps because my question is misleading. I want to know what is epistemology other than the investigation into epistemological talk? The answer might be "nothing", but perhaps some people have a broader conception of epistemology?

BUPS Philosophy Societies Liaison Officer

www.bups.org
www.bups.org/pages/societies.shtml 

Personal
craig@craigfrench.co.uk
www.craigfrench.co.uk

Heythrop College, University of London
www.heythrop.ac.uk
www.philweb.org


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-bups-dis@purplepancake.com [mailto:owner-bups-dis@purplepancake.com] On Behalf Of djf500@york.ac.uk
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 11:35 PM
To: BUPS-DIS@bups.org
Subject: Re: "Doing" Epistemology?

To reply to this message or start a new topic please email: BUPS-DIS@bups.org


In so far as epistemology is the name given to a subject area, doing work 
(thinking and writing essays) in that area is called 'doing epistemology' - 
I don't see the problem. The same sort of thing crops up in very normal 
conversions - "what subjects are you doing this term?" etc. If the 
insinuation is that it is an odd phrase, i'd say it appears odd because not 
very many (normal) people do epistemology, and not because of any 
grammatical peculiarity.



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