Knowledge and Reasoning
Discover the foundations of knowledge and reasoning, including ontology and epistemology. Learn how deduction guarantees certainty, induction generalizes from observations, and abduction generates new hypotheses in logical inquiry.
Why do we want to know the world?
There are levels to knowing. At the most primitive level, we need to know what’s out there, which is the study of ontology. For that, we describe things as they are through matter-of-fact propositional statements such as “X is Y.” However, this can’t be the only level of knowing because most individuals can’t remain perpetually satisfied believing what they know about the world to be doubtlessly true. So, it becomes important to also investigate the best ways of knowing or knowing how to get to know our ontological truths. This is the realm of second-order thinking, and epistemology is the branch of philosophy dedicated to examining the very nature of belief, knowledge, and the justifications of beliefs as knowledge.
Moreover, deduction and induction are two widely known and established methods of reasoning within epistemology. ...