Epistemology and Humanism: Two Sides of a Coin?

Abstract

This paper explores the nexus between epistemology and humanism. It explicates the terms epistemology and humanism with a view to ascertain the epistemological foundations of humanism as well as the humanistic presuppositions of epistemology. It is the thesis of this paper that epistemology and humanism are two complementary disciplines in the pursuit of truth for human survival and advancement. It is argued that the quality of our life is determined by the quality of our awareness (knowledge) on the state of affairs. Hence, it submits that humanism as an enterprise must be assessed within the epistemic framework of developing criteria and methodologies in order to determine man's circumference of awareness. In addition, it holds that epistemological discourse must be situated within the purview of what is humanly possible.