Abstract
Since Locke, empiricism has sought to deduce the knowledge of the world in one way or the other from sense experience. The aim of this episiemology has been twofold; to justify and deduce the truth of nature from sensory evidence and to define those truths in terms of observation and logico mathematical auxiliaries. The chief aim of which is to attain absolute certainly in our knowledge of the world. However, Ouine observes that this attempt of normative or traditional epistemology to provide a foundation of science has failed because all efforts of the empiricist philosophers have been productive. Quine concludes on this basis that traditional epistemology can never produce knowledge or criterion of knowing. He therefore calls for the abandonment of traditional epistemology on the basis that it produce knowledge. This paper examines his arguments for the claim that traditional epistemology is unproductive and can never produce knowledge. The paper reveals that the call is untenable as his leap from It has not to ' 'it cannot is unjustifiable. The paper reveals further that it is the aim of traditional epistemology to justify science from sense experience and so far it is in the business of doing this, one can say it is productive. DOI : 10.7176/JPCR/40-03
Highlights
Epistemology before Quine has been looking for foundation on which to build the edifice of knowledge
Traditional epistemology is concerned with the search for the foundation and justification of scientific knowledge, Quine rejects this concern as the task of epistemology (Quine 1985; 18, 19)
This paper has examined Quine's claim that traditional epistemology should be abandoned on the basis that it is unproductive because it has not produced knowledge and cannot produce one
Summary
Epistemology before Quine has been looking for foundation on which to build the edifice of knowledge. A theory of knowledge that will establish the rationale for indubitable or infallible propositions of sense and prescribe conditions for deducing propositions of science from indubitable propositions of sense. These goals of epistemology - radical empiricism as Quine calls them. (Quine 1985; 1) have not been possible despite the effort of philosophers since John Locke (John Locke's essay) and till recently before Quine (Rudolf catnap's auflau) (Quine; 1985; 1). Since this attempt has not yielded result,. Quine's reason is that it is unproductive that is, it has not produced knowledge and cannot produce a viable theory of knowledge
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