Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
Where does knowledge come from?
Position‹3 of 4›

Knowledge is impossible

This position holds that genuine knowledge is impossible. It argues that both empiricism and rationalism are flawed — sense data is biased, rational proofs rest on unverified assumptions — and that, on a relativist view, what counts as knowledge is always bound to its conditions.

Supporting arguments · 2

  1. Knowledge is the product of material conditions
    We know what we know about the world because of where we live and the complex socioeconomic systems that act upon us at any given time. To reduce knowledge to the individual is reductive.
  2. Both sense data and geometric proofs are flawed ways of gaining knowlege
    The arguments against both rationalist and empiricist approaches to knowledge are legitimate.