• ep-uh-STEE-mik • adjective
: of or relating to knowledge or knowing : cognitive
: epistemic, cognitiv, referitor la cunoaştere, la ştiinţă.
Epistemic has shifted from the worlds of philosophy, linguistics, and rhetoric to the practical realms of business and marketing; for example, a 2007 Letter to Shareholders from the asset management firm Legg Mason referred to investors who have a high epistemic threshold and do exhaustive analysis to create near certainty, or at least very high conviction, about their investments. Wherever it is used, epistemic traces back to the knowledge of the Greeks. It comes from epistēmē, Greek for knowledge. That Greek word is from the verb epistanai, meaning to know or understand, a word formed from the prefix epi- (meaning upon or attached to) and histanai (meaning to cause to stand). The study of the nature and grounds of knowledge is called epistemology, and one who engages in such study is an epistemologist.
