View source for Episteme

{{short description|Philosophical term referring to systems of understanding (i.e. knowledge)}}
{{other uses}}

In [[philosophy]], '''{{transliteration|grc|episteme}}''' ({{Lang-grc|{{wikt-lang|en|ἐπιστήμη}}|epistēmē|science, knowledge}}; {{lang-fr|épistème}}) is knowledge or understanding. The term ''[[epistemology]]'' (the branch of philosophy concerning knowledge) is derived from {{transliteration|grc|episteme}}.

== History ==
[[File:Efez Celsus Library 5 RB.jpg|thumb|Personification of Episteme in [[Celsus Library]] in [[Ephesus]], Turkey.]]
=== Plato ===
{{seealso|Platonic epistemology}}
[[Plato]], following [[Xenophanes]], contrasts {{transliteration|grc|episteme}} with {{transliteration|grc|[[doxa]]}}: common belief or opinion.<ref>{{LSJ|do/ca^|δόξα|shortref}}.</ref> The term {{transliteration|grc|episteme}} is also distinguished from {{transliteration|grc|[[techne]]}}: a craft or applied practice.<ref>{{LSJ|te/xnh|τέχνη|shortref}}.</ref> In the ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)|Protagoras]]'', Plato's [[Socrates]] notes that {{transliteration|grc|[[nous]]}} and {{transliteration|grc|episteme}} are prerequisites for [[prudence]] ({{transliteration|grc|[[phronesis]]}}).

=== Aristotle ===
Aristotle distinguished between five virtues of thought: {{transliteration|grc|technê}}, {{transliteration|grc|epistêmê}}, {{transliteration|grc|phronêsis}}, {{transliteration|grc|sophia}}, and {{transliteration|grc|nous}}, with {{transliteration|grc|techne}} translating as "craft" or "art" and {{transliteration|grc|episteme}} as "knowledge".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Aristotle |title=[[The Nicomachean Ethics]] |at=1139b15}}</ref> A full account of {{transliteration|grc|epistêmê}} is given in ''[[Posterior Analytics]]'', where Aristotle argues that knowledge of necessary, rather than contingent, truths regarding causation is foundational for {{transliteration|grc|episteme}}. To emphasize the necessity, he uses [[geometry]]. Notably, Aristotle uses the notion of [[Causality|cause]] ({{transliteration|grc|aitia}}) in a [[Four causes|broader sense]] than contemporary thought. For example, understanding how geometrical [[axiom]]s lead to a [[theorem]] about properties of triangles counts as understanding the ''cause'' of the proven property of the right triangle. As a result, {{transliteration|grc|episteme}} is a virtue of thought that deals with what cannot be otherwise, while {{transliteration|grc|techne}} and {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} deal with what is contingent.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{Cite book |author=Aristotle |title=[[Posterior Analytics]] |at=71b10–15}}
|2={{Citation |last=Parry |first=Richard |title=Episteme and Techne |date=2021 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/episteme-techne/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Winter 2021 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=2022-04-01}}
}}</ref>

== Contemporary interpretations ==
=== Michel Foucault ===<!-- 'Episteme (Foucault)' and 'Épistémè' redirect here -->
For Foucault, an {{lang|fr|épistémè}} is the guiding unconsciousness of subjectivity within a given epoch – subjective parameters which form an historical ''[[A priori and a posteriori|a priori]]''.<ref name=OrderThings>{{cite book|last=Foucault|first=Michel|orig-year=1966|year=1970|title-link=The Order of Things|title=The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences}}</ref>{{rp|xxii}} He uses the term '''{{lang|fr|épistémè}}'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> ({{IPA-fr|epistemɛ}}) in his ''[[The Order of Things]]'', in a specialized sense to mean the historical, non-temporal, ''a priori'' knowledge that grounds truth and [[discourse]]s, thus representing the [[condition of possibility|condition of their possibility]] within a particular [[epoch]]. In the book, Foucault describes {{lang|fr|épistémè}}:{{r|OrderThings|page=183}}

<blockquote>In any given culture and at any given moment, there is always only one {{lang|fr|épistémè}} that defines the conditions of possibility of all knowledge, whether expressed in a theory or silently invested in a practice.</blockquote>

In subsequent writings, he makes it clear that several {{lang|fr|épistémè}} may co-exist and interact at the same time, being parts of various [[power-knowledge]] systems.<ref>{{Citation | first = Michel | last = Foucault | title = Power/Knowledge | year = 1980 | page = 197 | quote = I would define the episteme retrospectively as the strategic apparatus which permits of separating out from among all the statements which are possible those that will be acceptable within, I won’t say a scientific theory, but a field of scientificity, and which it is possible to say are true or false. The episteme is the ‘apparatus’ which makes possible the separation, not of the true from the false, but of what may from what may not be characterised as scientific.|editor-first=C.|editor-last=Gordon|location=Brighton|publisher=[[Harvester Press Microform Publications|Havester]]}}</ref> Foucault attempts to demonstrate the constitutive limits of discourse, and in particular, the rules enabling their productivity; however, Foucault maintains that, though [[ideology]] may infiltrate and form science, it need not do so: it must be demonstrated how ideology actually forms the science in question; contradictions and lack of objectivity are not an indicator of ideology.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|last=Foucault|first=Michel|year=1980|orig-year=1969|title=L'Archéologie du savoir [The Archaeology of Knowledge]|lang=fr|location=Paris|publisher=Gallimard|at=IV.VI.c}}
|2={{Citation | first = Michel | last = Foucault | title = Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972–1977 | year = 1980 | quote = Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power. Each society has its regime of truth, its "general politics” of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true; the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true.|chapter=Truth and Power|pages=109–133|editor-first=C.|editor-last=Gordon|location=Brighton|publisher=[[Harvester Press Microform Publications|Havester]]}}
|3={{cite book|editor-link=Paul Rabinow|editor-last=Rabinow|editor-first=Paul|year=1991|title=The Foucault Reader: An introduction to Foucault’s thought|location=London|publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]|isbn=0140124861}}
}}</ref> [[Jean Piaget]] has compared Foucault's use of {{lang|fr|épistémè}} with [[Thomas Kuhn]]'s notion of a [[paradigm]].<ref>{{Citation | first = Jean | last = Piaget | title = Structuralism | orig-year = 1968 | year = 1970 | page = 132}}.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal |Philosophy}}
* {{annotated link|[[Zeitgeist]]}}

==References==
{{Reflist |64em}}

{{Ancient Greek philosophical concepts}}
{{Michel Foucault}}
{{Philosophy topics}}
{{Virtues}}

[[Category:Concepts in ancient Greek epistemology]]
[[Category:Discourse analysis]]
[[Category:Knowledge]]
[[Category:Michel Foucault]]
[[Category:Philosophy of science]]
[[Category:Theories in ancient Greek philosophy]]