A JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN DEFENSE OF EPISTEMIC PLURALISM

Abstract

Epistemic pluralism emphasizes different interpretations and understanding of the human experience of reality. From the stories of the “Fall” ofAdam and Eve and the multiplication of human languages at the Tower of Babel in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, one can deduce two forms of epistemic pluralism. The first form of epistemic pluralism which can be inferred from the “Fall” of Adam and Eve is the derivation of two or more interpretations and understanding of a state-of-affair from the same worldview or paradigm (the eating of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden): God said if you eat of it you will die, and the serpent said if you eat of It, you will not die but that you will be like God knowing good and evil. The second form of epistemic pluralism which can be deduced from the multiplication of the human language at the Tower of Babel is two or more radically different interpretations and understanding of a state-of-affair from radically different worldviews or paradigms. This gave birth to the different worldviews or paradigms of different cultures. The former (from the “Fall”) can be synthesized towards arriving at an epistemic objectivity, while the later (from the multiplication of the human languages at the Tower of Babel) may be difficult if not impossible to synthesize, thus leading to epistemic relativity. Using the critical and expository methods, this paper argues in defense of epistemic pluralism and the need to understand reality from the diverse interpretations and understanding of reality of different worldviews and paradigms.