Abstract

Ruitenberg and Phillips maintain that the conventional meanings of ‘epistemology’ have been misused and that this obscures the discussion. They accept that talking about ‘knowledge’ itself is part of a particular social practice (in the natural as well as the social sciences) and that the epistemic agent is always connected with others. This review questions whether the embeddedness of a particular social practice should not be conceived more radically, i.e. by considering the implications of playing the game of ‘epistemology’ conceived as embracing and accepting that human reality is much more complex and should be studied as such in educational research at large. Taking this seriously demands situating what is offered at the level of a dialogue between all those involved; it necessitates that we give way to meta-criteria, conceding that ‘we are playing the same game’, and situating what is offered in such a way that combines elements from ‘the view from nowhere’ with a thoroughly characterized ‘local’ discussion. This moreover points to ‘knowing how to go on’, which is different from what one normally understands by ‘knowledge’