What is metaphysics and epistemology of a certain philosophy?

by Lotus Link International

Question by Liquid Gold: What is metaphysics and epistemology of a certain philosophy?
As in, for example, the Metaphysics of Realism and the Epistemology of Realism or the Metaphysics of Naturalism and the Epistemology of Naturalism, etc. etc. etc.

I honestly don’t get it. Could somebody _please_ explain this one to me?

Like if I was to talk about, for example, let’s say Pragmatism. What would I say under metaphysics and under epistemology? =/

Is there a difference between either one? And what exactly do they mean??

I’m so bloody confused! :[

Best answer:

Answer by sasuke
metaphysics

Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world.[1] Someone who studies metaphysics would be called either a “metaphysician or a “metaphysicist”.
Metaphysics is that branch of philosophy,which deals with the investigation of principles of reality transcending those of any particular science.
The word derives from the Greek words ???? (metá) (meaning “beyond” or “after”) and ?????? (physiká) (meaning “physical”), “physical” referring to those works on matter by Aristotle in antiquity. The prefix meta- (“beyond”) was attached to the chapters in Aristotle’s work that physically followed after the chapters on “physics”, in posthumously edited collections. Aristotle himself did not call these works Metaphysics. Aristotle called some of the subjects treated there “first philosophy”.
A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into what types of things there are in the world and what relations these things bear to one another. The metaphysician also attempts to clarify the notions by which people understand the world, including existence, objecthood, property, space, time, causality, and possibility.
Before the development of modern science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as “natural philosophy”; the term “science” itself meant “knowledge” of epistemological origin. The scientific method, however, made natural philosophy an empirical and experimental activity unlike the rest of philosophy, and by the end of the eighteenth century it had begun to be called “science” in order to distinguish it from philosophy. Thereafter, metaphysics became the philosophical enquiry of a non-empirical character into the nature of existence.

epistemology
Epistemology (from Greek ???????? – episteme-, “knowledge, science” + ?????, “logos”) or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge.[1] It addresses the questions:
What is knowledge?
How is knowledge acquired?
What do people know?
How do we know what we know?
Much of the debate in this field has focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims.
The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808–1864).

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