{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: Genera and species vs. laws of nature two epistemic frameworks and their respective ideal worlds.
{Author}: Balaban O;
{Journal}: Stud Hist Philos Sci
{Volume}: 81
{Issue}: 0
{Year}: Jun 2020
{Factor}: 1.379
{DOI}: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.01.007
{Abstract}: This paper seeks to exhibit and explain, by way of comparison, two ideal kinds of knowledge: knowledge based on classifications according to genera and species, as in Aristotelianism and common sense, and scientific knowledge based on the application of laws of nature. I will proceed by attempting (1) to determine the role that presuppositions play in knowledge in general by means of the distinction between content and form; (2) to describe and explain the main features of both ideal forms of knowledge; and, finally, (3) to analyze the relation between these two forms of knowledge as it is presented in Eddington's celebrated discussion of the "two tables". I will be critical of the widespread view that modern science is the correct form of knowledge, and that common sense is merely an illusion.