ABSTRACT
Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge and how we can attain it. This chapter considers, rather sceptically but not pessimistically, the limitations of our knowledge about what goes on in translators’ heads, and of our methods of acquiring it. We can conceptualize the mind metaphorically as a black box, and explore various ways of approaching what happens inside it. But suppose the mind is more like a rainforest, intertwined with its own environment? Empirical knowledge evolves, largely by trial and error, via the interplay between concepts, hypotheses, models, experiments and data of many kinds. Yet there is always room for doubt, and thus for further questions.
