The Epistemic Community

Early epistemology assumed that the observer (a) was independent of and distinct from the object being observed and (b) could validate objective reality in a language system called the laws of science. The authors offer something different. In arguing that knowledge is responsive to the culture in which it is embedded, they take a perspectival approach, gathering localized intentionality, context, social practices, and linguistic meaning (called ground) into the project of inquiry (called figure). Knowledge building, in other words, depends on the background and interests of the epistemic community that is generating knowledge.