Abstract:

Some 20^th century Chinese philosophers were unsatisfied with the theory of knowledge in modem Western philosophy which restricted epistemology solely to the examination Of knowledge. They argued that epistemology should also take care of metaphysical wisdom. This can be taken as a metaphysical approach to expand epistemology. Since the mid 20^th century, therehas been an important line of thought in Western philosophy which argues that inadequacy of traditional epistemology lies in the fact that it focuses only on knowing that and is blind to knowing how. Thus some philosophers have explored a pragmatic approach to expand epistemology by putting on the agenda an analysis of knowing how. There are substantive interconnections between the two approaches; for example, with respect to the problem of the articulation of human cognition, the pragmatic approach turns out to be complementary to the metaphysical approach.

Key words: metaphysical approach, pragmatic approach, knowledge, wisdom, tacit knowledge