The epistemic community

Early epistemology assumed that the observer (a) was independent of and dis tinct from the object being observed and (b) could validate objective reali ty in a language system called the laws of science. The authors offer somet hing different. In arguing that knowledge is responsive to the culture in w hich it is embedded, they take a perspectival approach, gathering localized intentionality, context, social practices, and linguistic meaning (called ground) into the project of inquiry (called figure). Knowledge building, in other words, depends on the background and interests of the epistemic comm unity that is generating knowledge.