The Problem of the Universal in Epistemology

The subject of the study is the concept of the universal in the epistemological aspect. It is shown that any knowledge is based on an absolute background – "implicit ignorance" – defined as an a priori form of cognition common to all people of all cultures and peoples. By virtue of its generality for all people in all situations the absolute background is undetectable and untransferable into explicit knowledge. At the same time the background knowledge of a particular culture with the historical change of cultures begins to be reflected transferred into explicit knowledge including philosophical. Both individual human beings and entire cultures have implicit (tacit) knowledge. Implicit (tacit) knowledge is part of the structure of everyday life, the life world. However along with implicit knowledge there is also a cognitive background in the structure of everyday life – something that is so close and familiar that it is not apparent. The cognitive background cannot be called knowledge due to its fundamental non-reflexivity and taken-for-granted nature. At different times the cognitive background varies for different cultures. The article suggests that there is also an "absolute background" – something that is so common to all people of all cultures and all peoples that it is not possible to identify, problematize, compare with a different state of affairs. The concepts of everyday life, the life world (E. Husserl), the mesocosmos (G. Vollmer) are considered. The importance of the linguistic turn in philosophy for the awareness of philosophical problems related to everyday life and background knowledge of cultures is emphasized. The concept of "absolute background" has methodological significance for epistemology. It is shown how this concept allows answering questions about whether something is universal.