User:Phlsph7/Epistemology - Related fields

Related fields
Epistemology is closely connected to psychology and, historically, research into these fields often happened in unison. Both disciplines study beliefs and the mental processes responsible for their formation and changes. One important contrast is that psychology describes what beliefs people have and how they acquire, thereby providing an explanation for why someone has a specific belief. The focus of epistemology is on evaluating beliefs, leading to a judgment about whether a belief is justified or rational in a specific instance. Epistemology has a similar intimate connection to cognitive science, which understands mental events as processes that transform information. Artificial intelligence relies on the insights of epistemology and cognitive science to implement concrete solutions to problems associated with knowledge representation and automatic reasoning.

Logic is the study of correct reasoning. For epistemology, it is of central relevance to inferential knowledge, which arise when one reasons from one known fact to another. This is the case, for example, if a person does not know directly that $$572+382=954$$ but comes to infer it based on their knowledge that $$2+2=4$$, $$8+7=15$$, and $$5+3=8$$. One requirement for inferential knowledge is that the method of reasoning used to arrive at the conclusion is correct.

Both decision theory and epistemology explore the foundations of rational thought. Decision theorists examine the reasoning involved in decision-making and the standards of good decisions. They identify beliefs as a central aspect of decision-making and distinguish between stronger and weaker beliefs to account for uncertainty.

Various topics in education Another related field is learning theory, which examines how people acquire new knowledge and skills.

overview
 * psy
 * cognitive science & ai
 * decision theory
 * edu/pedagogy/learning theory
 * anthro
 * socio
 * logic