The End of Philosophy of Science and the Idea of Open Epistemologies

Authors: Ribeiro HJ*

DOI: 10.23880/phij-16000190

Volume 4, Issue 3

Abstract

The author seeks to clarify the concept of epistemology, which can involve either a theory of knowledge per se or, additionally, also a philosophy of science as such. The fundamental thesis is that both problems have been inextricably linked since Descartes and Kant even when it may appear, in this or that author, that it is simply about only one of them. In any case, it is essential to explain how and why this happens in order to understand the concept of epistemology at a time when that of “philosophy of science” seems to have reached its final stage, as happened in the philosophies of several prominent authors in the second half of the 20th century: Kuhn, Quine, Feyerabend, Rorty, and others. The idea of “open epistemologies” is here addressed from this broad point of view.

Keywords: Epistemology; Feyerabend; Kuhn; Quine; Science; Theory of Knowledge

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