I believe that the alpha and omega of
all philosophy is epistemology, which aims to determine the nature, basis, and
extent of knowledge. Because I place
epistemology prior to all other divisions of philosophy, I’ve been especially
interested in exploring this branch of philosophy. Within epistemology are all other branches of
philosophy. These branches are only
meaningful in the light of knowledge-based presuppositions. Metaphysics, for example, asks the question
“what is real”, and can only be answered based on an epistemology. Epistemology also informs the branch of logic
that studies principles of reasoning. A
theory of knowledge is required to meaningfully discuss aesthetics, in which we
make certain judgments to the beauty or quality of a painting, for
example. While it may take specialized
training to exercised nuanced artistic discrimination, I don’t think it’s
inaccurate to say that between the best impressionistic painting and the worst
impressionistic painting, there is an objective difference. Also, I think we can only discriminate within
classes. It is not meaningful, for
example, to qualitatively compare African spears with Roman spears or first
grade water color paintings and tenth grade watercolor paintings. Ethics asks the question: What is the highest
good? Some philosophers have answered
that happiness or perfection or duty is the supreme or ultimate end of human
conduct. My view simply is that truth
is the highest good, and anything less than truth warps what we perceive is
happiness, perfection, and duty. The
nature of right and wrong and questions of justice within ethics can only be
answered on a foundation of epistemology.
A classic challenge in jurisprudence is: if I perceive what I am doing
is good but I do bad can I be held responsible?