Alethiology
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged into epistemology. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2007. |
Alethiology (or Alethology) literally means 'the study of truth', but can more accurately be translated as 'the study of the nature of truth'. It could be argued that this is synonymous with epistemology, the study of knowledge, and that dividing the two is mere semantics, but there is a definite distinction between the two. Epistemology is the study of knowledge and its acquisition. Alethiology is more specifically concerned with the nature of truth. What is truth, rather than what facts are true or how they become known.
The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition describes the discipline as "…an uncommon expression for the doctrine of truth, used by Sir William Hamilton in his philosophic writings when treating of the rules for the discrimination of truth and error."[1]