Mortimer Adler Again
From The Fo ur Dimensions of Philosophy: " A sound approach to the examination of knowledge should acknowledge the existence of some knowledge to be examined. Knowing wh at can be kn own is prior to asking how we know wh at we kn ow. Using the word "epistemology" for the theory of knowledge-especially for inquiries concerning the "origin, certainty, and extent" of our knowledge-I have two things to say about this part of the philosophical enterprise. First, it should be reflexive; that is, it should examine the knowledge that we do have; it should be a knowing about our knowing. Second, being reflexive, epistemology should be posterior to metaphysics, the philosophy of nature, ethics and political theory-these and all other branches of first order philosophical knowledge; in other words, our knowing what can be known should take precedence over our knowing about our knowing. Both of these procedural points were violated in the movement that began with...