“Episteme” is a philosophical term derived from the ancient Greek word ἐπιστήμη (epistēmē), which may refer to knowledge, science or understanding. It comes from the verb ἐπίστασθαι, which means "know, understand or be familiar." Further, this word will be abbreviated to the letter E.
According to plato
Plato contrasts the episteme with the concept of “dox,” which denotes a common belief or opinion. The episteme also differs from the word "technet", which translates as "craft" or "applied practice." The word "epistemology" comes from the epistemology. In simple words, an episteme is a kind of hyperbolization of the concept of "paradigm."
Po Foucault
The French philosopher Michel Foucault used the term épistémè with a special meaning in his work, The Order of Things, to refer to a historical - but not temporary - a priori judgment that substantiates knowledge and its discourses and, thus, is a condition for their emergence in a certain era.
Foucault’s statement about épistémè, as Jean Piaget notes, was similar to the concept of Thomas Cun’s paradigm. Nevertheless, there are crucial differences.
Kuhn's paradigm
While Kuhn's paradigm is a comprehensive "collection" of beliefs and assumptions that lead to the organization of scientific worldviews and practices, the Foucault episteme is not limited to science. It includes a wider range of reasoning (all science itself falls under the system of the era).
Kuhn's paradigm shift is the result of a series of conscious decisions made by scientists to solve a forgotten set of issues. The Foucault epistem, on the other hand, is a kind of “epistemological unconscious” era. The essence of knowledge about a particular episteme is based on a set of initial, fundamental assumptions that are so fundamental to E. that they are empirically “invisible” to its components (such as people, organizations or systems). That is, they cannot be recognized by an ordinary person. According to M. Foucault, the formation of the epistemic of classical rationality is a complex and multifaceted process.
Moreover, Kuhn's concept is consistent with what Foucault calls the topic or theory of science. But Foucault analyzed how opposing theories and themes can coexist in science. Kuhn is not looking for conditions to counter discourses in science, but is simply looking for an invariant dominant paradigm that drives scientific research. The episteme is above any discourses and paradigms and, in essence, defines them.
The limits of discourse
Foucault is trying to demonstrate the constitutive limits of discourse and, in particular, the rules that ensure its productivity. Foucault argued that, although ideology can penetrate science and shape it, it should not.
The representations of Kuhn and Foucault may have been influenced by the notion of the French philosopher of science Gaston Bachlard of the "epistemological gap", as, indeed, are some of Althusser's ideas.
Epistem and Dox
Starting with Plato, the idea of an epistem was compared with the idea of Doxa. This contrast was one of the key means by which Plato created his powerful criticism of rhetoric. For Plato, the episteme was an expression or statement expressing the essence of any teaching, that is, it was, as it were, its core. Doxa had a much narrower meaning.
A world committed to the ideal of the episteme is a world of clear and firm truth, absolute confidence and stable knowledge. The only opportunity for rhetoric in such a world is to, so to speak, "make the truth more effective." It is assumed that between the discovery of truth and its spread there is a certain abyss.
It can be argued that we would not even be people without our possession of the episteme. The problem is rather that on behalf of the episteme we affirm: the knowledge that we possess is the only true one. So we are forced to say by the currently accepted E. It is important for our self-identification as people, as well as "technete". Indeed, our ability to combine both of these concepts distinguishes us from other creatures and from people who lived in the past, as well as from various types of artificial intelligence. Animals have technete, and machines have epistemes, but only we humans have both.
Archeology of knowledge by Michel Foucault
Foucault's archaeological method attempts to uncover positive unconscious knowledge. The term, to which the article is devoted, to put it more broadly, refers to a set of “formation rules” that make up diverse and heterogeneous discourses of a given period and elude the consciousness of the supporters of these various discourses. This is the basis of all knowledge and generally accepted opinion. Positive unconscious knowledge is also reflected in the term “episteme”. This is a condition for the possibility of discourse in a given period, an a priori set of formation rules that allow discourses and points of view to be born.
Critical ethos
Foucault's advocacy of a critical ethos through our historical ontology is based on Kant's desire and his interest in exploring the limits of our mind. However, the problem of Foucault is not to understand what epistemological limits we must observe in order not to exceed them. Rather, his concern for limitations is connected with the analysis of what is given to us as universal, necessary, compulsory knowledge. After all, in fact, the concept of compulsory and necessary knowledge varies from era to era, depending on E.
The critical project of Foucault, as he himself explains, is not transcendental in the Kantian sense, but is exclusively historical, genealogical and archaeological in nature. Thinking over his methodological approaches, as well as how his goals differ from Kant's, Foucault claims that his version of criticism does not seek to make metaphysics a science.
Principles and Rules
In his works, the philosopher Michel Foucault outlines what his archeology seeks to reveal. These are historical principles or a priori rules. Given this historization a priori, knowledge requirements are partial, historically limited. Therefore, they are always open for revision. Of the many discursive events that the philosopher analyzes, the archeology of knowledge studies historical patterns and concepts of truth. Such is the essence of the episteme in philosophy.
The task of genealogy, at least one of them, is to trace the various unforeseen circumstances that shaped us as people and our ideas about the world. On the whole, the critical philosophical spirit of Foucault seeks to give a wide and new impetus to the freedom of thought. And he succeeds very well, because he is considered one of the main philosophers of postmodernism. Episteme is the most important term in the philosophy of postmodernism. Understanding it is very interesting and informative, but it is quite difficult to understand.