Traditional Epistemologies

Epistemological studies have been carried out since ancient times. It was only in the modern period, however, that epistemology became a central theme of philosophy. The philosopher who first explained epistemology systematically was John Locke, whose An Essay Concerning Human Understanding became known as an epoch-making work.

The most important questions with regard to the cognition of an object have been those of the origin, the object, and the method of cognition, each of which has two opposing positions. In terms of the origin of cognition, two opposing schools of thought have arisen: empiricism, which asserted that cognition could only be obtained through one’s sensations, and rationalism, which asserted that cognition could be obtained only through one’s thinking about ideas, innate in the mind. With regard to the object of cognition, two views have come into opposition: realism, which asserted that the object of cognition existed independently from the human being, and subjective idealism, which asserted that the object of cognition was merely those ideas or representations present in the mind of the subject. Concerning the method of cognition: the transcendental method and the dialectical method were both proposed. ¹

Let me offer a brief review of some major historical developments in the realm of epistemology. As the conflict between empiricism and rationalism developed, empiricism finally fell into skepticism, and rationalism lapsed into dogmatism. Immanuel Kant made an effort to synthesize these two opposing positions by means of his critical method, or transcendental method. This was his theory of an “a priori synthetic judgment,” which holds that the object of cognition is synthesized by the subject.

Later, plagiarizing Hegel’s dialectic materialistically, Marx presented his materialist dialectic. Epistemology based on the materialist dialectic is Marxist epistemology, or dialectical epistemology. This is a “copy theory,” or “reflection theory,” which asserts that the content and form of cognition are no more than reflections on the mind of things in the external world.

I would like to clarify at this point that it is not my intention to introduce in any concrete or academic detail the contents of traditional epistemologies. This section is presented simply for the readers’ reference; I will introduce briefly the relevant problems in a traditional epistemology for the sole purpose of showing how the Unification epistemology is able to solve the unresolved problems of traditional epistemologies. Therefore, in terms of an understanding of the Unification epistemology itself, this section can be skipped.