Introduction

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part discusses the problem for investigation is that of the existence and nature of the foundations of knowledge. Throughout its history the philosophical theory of knowledge has been more or less closely bound up with the idea that knowledge as a whole is a hierarchical system. The ultimate, terminal elements of knowledge are singular propositions about immediate experience from which all other substantial knowledge of matters of fact is derived by induction. The idea of epistemological order is an almost inevitable corollary of a philosophical theory of knowledge. The point is made by the view that the task of a theory of knowledge is to give a rational reconstruction of the claims to knowledge that are commonly made. Rational reconstructions of knowledge should not exploit the fact that their task is logically critical rather than psychologically descriptive by complete indifference to psychological realism.