Verbiage: epistemically or epistemelogically?

[Math Is Hard]

I borrowed some notes from a class mate because I had to miss a phil class, and I noticed that she had written that such and such argument is "epistemically" irrelevant.
I went to look this up in the dictionary and found no such word, but I did find the word "epistemologically". I assume this is the one I want. I am using it in the context of... "hoping that God exists is epistemologically irrelevant to the argument of whether or not God exists."
What do you think? Am I using this correctly? What I want to say is that it is of no use for getting at the truth of a matter. Thanks.

p.s. no, I am not an atheist - for anybody out there who might be worried I have had a sudden change of heart.

 

[Philocrat]

I borrowed some notes from a class mate because I had to miss a phil class, and I noticed that she had written that such and such argument is "epistemically" irrelevant.
I went to look this up in the dictionary and found no such word, but I did find the word "epistemologically". I assume this is the one I want. I am using it in the context of... "hoping that God exists is epistemologically irrelevant to the argument of whether or not God exists."
What do you think? Am I using this correctly? What I want to say is that it is of no use for getting at the truth of a matter. Thanks.

p.s. no, I am not an atheist - for anybody out there who might be worried I have had a sudden change of heart.

Philosophers love CRTICAL DISTINCTION and RIGOUR in anyone analysis, and I do as well. But I will personally say that you can loosely use both interchangibly, even though epistemic concerns anything to do with knowledge in general, and epistemological to do with the theory and the fundamental question: "HOW DO YOU KNOW?" I leave the rest to your imagination!

 

[honestrosewater]

http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=epistemic is a word- (I like Merriam-Webster; American Heritage gives the same definition). To see which of epistemically or epistemologically is correct, I would put the approximate definition of their roots into the sentence, getting something like:

"hoping that God exists is , according to the study of knowledge, irrelevant to the argument of whether or not God exists."

"hoping that God exists is , as far as knowledge is concerned, irrelevant to the argument of whether or not God exists."

I see "epistemically" used much more often than "epistemologically". Neither m-w.com, dictionary.com, or Roget’s list synonyms for "epistemic", "epistemology" or their adverb forms. However, Wordnet.com defines "epistemic" as "of or relating to epistemology; "epistemic modal".

 

[Math Is Hard]

Thanks so much! My dictionary must be getting outdated!

 

[hitssquad]

m-w.com

My dictionary must be getting outdated

M-w.com has a handy toolbar you can download for free for your browser. Here is its epistemically definition:

--
of or relating to knowledge or knowing : COGNITIVE
--


The M-W Unabridged definition is more expansive:

--
: of, having the character of, or relating to episteme, knowledge, or knowing as a type of experience : purely intellectual or cognitive; also : SUBJECTIVE <the epistemic conditions in our present state of knowledge> <the epistemic as contrasted with the phenomenological sense>
--

 

[Math Is Hard]

Thanks, Hitsquad. I am for the most part violently opposed to downloadable toolbars, but I may give that a look-see.

 

[honestrosewater]

Thanks, Hitsquad. I am for the most part violently opposed to downloadable toolbars, but I may give that a look-see.

Firefox comes with it- and many more (scroll to Add New Search Engines). Firefox rocks! Spread the word!

 

[hitssquad]

Alternatives to dictionary toolbars

If you don't like toolbars, you can also simply go to m-w.com (and after you go there the first time, you can click and drag the URL to your links bar so you never have to type it in again) and enter your look-up word. That's what I did before they came out with the toolbar. However, what I usually use these days is the M-W Unabridged on my hard drive. It takes up 89MB on my drive and cost me ~$50 (from amazon.com). I have it automatically load on system start-up, and when I need to look something up I click or ALT-Tab over to the dictionary, do my look-up business, and then ALT-Tab back to what I was doing just previously. Two advantages to having a dictionary on your hard drive is 1) you have no network delays, and 2) you can have access to it even when you don't have access to a network at all.

Another advantage (with the electronic M-W Unabridged) is that you can bookmark your looked-up words. I have hundreds of words bookmarked and I periodically review them. And yet another advantage is that you can do advanced searches, such as those listed http://www.merriam-webster.com/premium/institutions.htm, and even combine multiple advanced searches with boolian operators. There is even a browse function.