Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Epistemology, characterized broadly, is an account of knowledge. Within the discipline of philosophy, epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge and justification. Epistemologists have distinguished some species of knowledge, including: propositional knowledge (that something is so), nonpropositional knowledge of something (for instance, knowledge by acquaintance, or by direct awareness), empirical (a posteriori) propositional knowledge, nonempirical (a priori) propositional knowledge, and knowledge of how to do something. Recent epistemology has included controversies over distinctions between such species, for example, over the relations between some of these species and the viability of some of these species. This article gives a brief account of some of the best work in contemporary epistemology by leading epistemologists. It shows that this diversity in work hides a deeper rational unity.