The word "epistemology" derives from the Greek word episteme meaning "knowledge" and logos, meaning "explanation". Literally the term means "the explanation of knowledge". Essentially the word means "the stud of the nature of knowledge". (The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd Ed, 273). At the risk of oversimplification two categories of knowledge have been assessed in the history of Philosophy since the 17th and 18th centuries. During these periods the European Rationalists argued that knowledge is apriori, or before experience. After that period of time, the British Empiricists argued that knowledge is aposteriori, or after experience. The European Rationalists included Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz while the British Empiricists included Locke, Berkeley and Hume. Immanuel Kant reconciled the two schools with his version of German Idealism.
Aposteriori knowledge is that knowledge which depends upon sensory experience while apriori knowledge is that knowledge which is innate, or prior to experience. Apriori knowledge is that knowledge, which the individual innately possesses, such as mathematical knowledge, or knowledge of logic, while aposteriori is knowledge of extant physical, observable objects. The Rationalists are generally characterized by a belief in the rationality of the universe and in the ability of human reason to grasp the universe. Behind the complex machinery of nature is a rational mind and through the right use of reason this rational mind can be known. While the rationalists attempted to develop a philosophical system according to the so-called self evident truths of the human mind, the empiricists stressed the part played by experience in obtaining knowledge. The empiricists argued that we have no ideas at all other than those derived from experiences that come to us by our senses.
In brief and at the risk of oversimplification, the rationalists had their beginnings in the philosophy of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, while the empiricists had their beginnings in the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. In subsequent material we will examine more closely the works of these individuals.
