Phrase guide

epistemological turn

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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1

noun

Meaning 1

In the history of Western philosophy, the shift in philosophical attention from the classical and medieval focus on themes of metaphysics to a primary focus on themes and issues relating to human knowledge, usually considered to have occurred during the period from Descartes (1596-1650) through Kant (1724-1804).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, philosophy, sciences

Examples

  • 1980, Robert Greene, "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature" (review of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by Richard Rorty), MLN, vol. 95, no. 5, p. 1387, He spends several of the book's eight chapters giving an account of "the epistemological turn" of modern philosophy, dealing primarily with the thought of Descartes, Locke, and Kant.

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