Epistemology

==Etymology==
The [[etymology]] of the word ''epistemology'' is derived from the ancient Greek [[Episteme|''epistēmē'']], meaning "knowledge, understanding, skill, scientific knowledge",<ref name="OxfordEpisteme2014"/>{{Refn|group=note|name=HintikaEpistemeTechne|In Hintikka 1974, Chap. 2, episteme is said to be very close in meaning to the word tekhne, 'skill'.<ref name="Hintikka1974"/>}} and the English suffix ''-ology'', meaning "the study or discipline of (what is indicated by the first element)".<ref name="OxfordEpistemology2014"/> The word ''epistemology'' first appeared in 1847, in a review in New York's ''Eclectic Magazine'' :

{{Blockquote|text=The title of one of the principal works of Fichte is 'Wissenschaftslehre,' which, after the analogy of ''technology'' ... we render ''epistemology''.<ref name="Anonymous1847" />}}

The word was first used to present a philosophy in English by Scottish philosopher [[James Frederick Ferrier]] in 1854. It was the title of the first section of his ''Institutes of Metaphysics'':<ref>Woleński, Jan. (2004) "The History of Epistemology." In ''Handbook of Epistemology''. Ed. I. Niiniluoto, Matti Sintonen, & Jan Woleński. Springer, p.3</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=This section of the science is properly termed the Epistemology—the doctrine or theory of knowing, just as [[ontology]] is the science of being.... It answers the general question, 'What is knowing and the known?'—or more shortly, 'What is knowledge?'<ref name="Ferrier1854"/>}}