Finding a path from idealized epistemology to our non-ideal epistemological landscape

Abstract

Before you is one path that I have found to lead us from an idealized epistemology back to our current non-ideal epistemological landscape. I have chosen the metaphor of a path to point out that our theoretical paths are constantly changing and being made and remade by the people who walk them. Just as the path made by one lone traveler can disappear quickly, paths that are used by many can stay entrenched in our collective imagination without any other reason than that they are clear, and they have been widely used. The path that I have found is not new, and I am most certainly not the first to walk it; there are many footprints throughout it made by figures like Ludwig Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, Linda Martín Alcoff, José Medina, Kristie Dotson, Charles Mills and many more. With this being said, as we metaphorically walk along this path, what I want you to notice is how slippery it is at the beginning and how progressively we find our footing by the end.