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George North
Paper 2
Richard J. Elliott, Professor Emeritus
EDFR 6420--Philosophy of American Education
October 28, 1997

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with questions of theory of

knowledge--the material we teach and the methods we use to be true. In this sense

in education in general and teaching in particular we have to guard against biased

material being defended as true and claims of method be reliable when proven

doubtful. Therefore, in solving these problems, the question is asked: Do we

(teachers) need a general concept of truth? In a specific way if there is a general

concept of truth does it fall on methodological processes or substantiative truth

statements?

Rhetoric and epistemology come from the Greek words rhetorike, episfeme and

logos. We teachers use rhetoric and epistemology as tools of "the trade."We have the

dual problem of being effective and persuasive, while at the same time questioning:

how we know what we know to be true?

Few would argue that teaching what is known to be false (the earth is flat) is

unacceptable. But, I doubt we can find general agreement on the extent to which

knowledge is exact and certain--what is true. I conclude that the vast majority of what is

presenting in classrooms everywhere cannot be proven to be true. This does not

relieve our obligation to search for truth, nor does it allow teaching know falsehoods. It

does mean that I agree with John Dewey. Knowledge about the structure of thought,