The essence of social epistemology

Abstract

The relevance of the presented research is explained by the fact that in the conditions of the modern "knowledge society" a new interpretation of the classical epistemological subjects is required based on the formation of a new paradigm of knowledge. Social epistemology appears as a program of modern non-classical epistemology. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to study the essence of social epistemology. Analyzing the phenomenon of social epistemology, it was possible to reveal that social epistemology is a philosophical and interdisciplinary teaching about cognition aimed at studying knowledge in a sociocultural context. As a discipline, social epistemology, which arose in the second half of the 20th century, develops new approaches to the study of the phenomenon of knowledge. Nowadays, two competing approaches have emerged: classical, involving the study of social practices in terms of their impact on the process of acquiring true knowledge and non-classical, focusing on the study of social determination and the socialhistorical relativity of beliefs of any kind not paying attention to their truth and rationality. However, modern foreign and domestic researchers do not accept the dichotomy of "rational" - "social" and propose to overview the program of social epistemology and integrate these two aspects.