1. An essay on epistemology 2. An essay on whistle blowing

1. 1
Epistemology
Epistemology, Greek episteme, meaning "knowledge, understanding", and logos, meaning
"study of” is a term first used by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier to describe
the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and is also referred
to as "theory of knowledge". Put concisely, it is the study of knowledge and justified belief. It
questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which knowledge
pertinent to any given subject or entity can be acquired. Much of the debate in this field has
focused on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to
connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification. The term was probably first
introduced in Ferrier's Institutes of Metaphysic: The Theory of Knowing and Being (1854).
Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness or understanding of someone or something, such as
facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education
by perceiving, discovering, or learning.
When we look at the history of epistemology, we can discern a clear trend, in spite of the
confusion of many seemingly contradictory positions. The first theories of knowledge stressed
its absolute, permanent character, whereas the later theories put the emphasis on its relativity
or situation-dependence, its continuous development or evolution, and its active interference
with the world and its subjects and objects. Empiricism, which sees knowledge as the product
of sensory perception, and rationalism which sees it as the product of rational reflection.
Pragmatic; Parts of it can be found in early twentieth century approaches, such as logical
positivism, conventionalism, and the "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum mechanics.
There are four sources for our knowledge:
1. Memory: we know that many things occurred in the past because we remember them
happening.
2. Sense perception: we know things because we have experienced them through our senses-
sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch-or a combination of these.
3. Introspection: roughly defined as "looking inward," introspection is our knowledge about
what is going on in our minds or consciousness, our awareness that we are remembering,
sensing, etc., our awareness of what we are remembering, sensing, etc., our feelings, etc

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4. Reason: our ability to reason provides us with a final source of knowledge. There are truths
of reason (such as logical and mathematical) that only reason can provide us. Reason comes to
know by defining terms, working out the analysis of these definitions, and applying the rules
of logic.
Epistemology is important because it is fundamental to how we think. Without some means of
understanding how we acquire knowledge, how we rely upon our senses, and how we develop
concepts in our minds, we have no coherent path for our thinking. A sound epistemology is
necessary for the existence of sound thinking and reasoning, this is why so much philosophical
literature can involve seemingly arcane discussions about the nature of knowledge.
We have come very far indeed from Plato's immutable and absolute Ideas, residing in an
abstract realm far from concrete objects or subjects, or from the naive realism of the reflection-
correspondence theory, where knowledge is merely an image of external objects and their
relations. At this stage, the temptation would be strong to lapse into a purely anarchistic or
relativistic attitude, stating that 'anything goes', and that it would be impossible to formulate
any reliable and general criteria to distinguish 'good' or adequate pieces of knowledge from bad
or inadequate ones.

3. 3
Bibliography
 Class materials
 The great conversation, a historical introduction to philosophy (5th Ed.). Boston:
McGraw-Hill
 Others:
Website Web Link
1. Heylighen, F.
(2000):“Epistem
ology,
Introduction", in:
F. Heylighen, C.
Joslyn and V.
Turchin
(editors):
Principia
Cybernetica Web
(Principia
Cybernetica,
Brussels), (2002)
 http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/epistemi.html
2. Steup, Matthias,
"Epistemology",
The Stanford
Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
(Spring 2010
Edition), Edward
N. Zalta (ed.)
 http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2010/entries
/epistemology/
3. Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
4. about.com  http://www.about.com/religion
5. Freedom's
Philosopher
 http://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2014/1
2/the-philosophy-of-torture.html
6. Academia.edu  https://www.academia.edu/

4. 4
Whistle-blowing
Whistle-blowing is a disclosure by organization members of illegal, immoral or unethical
practices under the control of their employer, to persons or organizations that may affect action.
Immoral practices can be violation of law, violation of public interest such as fraud, corruption
etc.
A case in which a member or employee of an organization such as a business, corporation, or
branch of government or the military, an engineer working for an individual client or
organization, goes beyond normal reporting channels and takes directly to the public a warning
or complaint about misconduct, or health or environmental hazards.
Whistleblowers can be employees, suppliers, contractors, clients or any individual who
somehow becomes aware of illegal activities taking place in a business either through
witnessing the behavior or being told about it.
Types of Whistle Blowing
Internal whistle-blowing: it is blowing the whistle inside the organization. For example
designated officer, workers or bosses in the same organizations.
External whistle-blowing: blowing the whistle to law enforcement agencies or to teams
worried with the matters for example Lawyers, Mass media, law enforcement.
Benefits of Whistle Blowing
Rises security of the organization: is when you feel that the person with ethical principles is
watching others in your organization.
Highlights organization’s code of ethics: Every organization must have their codes of ethics
and behavior to have a better observing of employees acts.
Advance the management: Make sure any management that consider about moral standard will
be always successful.

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Enhance employees' ethical behaviors: The employees will be aware that there is someone
watching him/her .So, he will be carful before doing something wrong.
Barriers to whistle-blowing
Fear to retaliation: Unluckily, the mainstream of whistle blowers they don’t do what they want
to do. The basic goal of whistle blowing is to help the community. Most of them will be attack
whom especially in low level in the organization whom blow their whistle for the high level
people.
Lawful liability: sense of responsibility is very heavy.
Denial of employees: No one like someone to watch him/her when he/she doing something.
Reasons for whistle-blowing
Unlawful behavior: There are many forms of behaviors and illegal actions so in this case must to
blow the whistle because it will lead to very bad result .for example, someone will lose his /her life
or lose his/her job.
Un-procedural behavior: Behavior may be un-technical since it interrupts clearly communicated
actions in the form of rules and policies that leading the operations of the organization.
Immoral behavior: Its mean the behavior will be illegal because he/she not going or following the
world behavior guidelines for example: Safety, respecting, honest, responsibility .Illegal behavior
may hurt the others feelings .In this kind of situation you must not blow your whistle.
Whistle blowing and Ethics
The whistle blowing happened because all the people observed the importance of ethics
principles and morals. Everything will be right in our life if we consider about the ethical side
of it. Whistle-blowing is sometimes like when someone climbing a mountain with a heavy load

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on one's back. Success at such effort can only be possible from knowing where one is
going and how to get there. It is not simple or easy to blow the whistle because it will lead
to sensitive result.
Whistleblowers not only provide the initial stimulus for improving organization efficiency and
effectiveness, but also they are often the source of solutions to other problems.

7. 7
Bibliography
 Class materials
 Others:
Website Web Link
1. Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
2. Slideshare  http://www.slideshare.net/
3. Whistleblowe
rs Illinois
 http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/whistleblower/
4. University of
Lethbridge ---
Department of
Philosophy
Philosophy
3406B: Busin
ess Ethics
(Lecture)
 http://classes.uleth.ca/200303/phil3406b/Whistl
eblowing.html
5. Freedom's
Philosopher
 http://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2014/
12/the-philosophy-of-torture.html
6. Academia.edu  https://www.academia.edu/