Epistemology
The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge.
Epistemology asks: What can we know? How do we know it? What counts as justified belief?
Different worldviews have radically different epistemologies: - **Empiricism** (Materialism): Knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience and scientific observation. - **Rationalism** (Deism): Reason alone can establish foundational truths. - **Revelation** (Orthodoxy, Islam): Divine disclosure is a legitimate and necessary source of knowledge. - **Meditative Insight** (Buddhism, Vedānta): Direct experiential awareness transcends discursive reasoning.
Debby's quiz and debate structure surfaces these epistemological commitments, because they determine how each worldview justifies its claims.