Naturalized epistemology (September 2003):
Epistemology has to do with knowledge. Knowledge in philosophy is stronger than knowledge in every day life; there are many beliefs which fail to be knowledge even though they may seem pretty darned certain. Epistemologists concern themselves with a few central questions about knowledge including: What is knowledge? Is knowledge possible? How is knowledge possible? How can knowledge be attained?
Traditional epistemology is associated with Descartes (and his Meditations). According to Descartes (and Cartesians) epistemology is first philosophy, by which he means that before we have empirical knowledge, we have to have an idea what knowledge is and how it is possible. And this is something we can get through a rational approach, through thought. Basically, by sitting alone engaged in deep thought, philosophy can be developed. Epistemology is prior to knowledge, prior to science.
There's a trend in philosophy these days to not treat philosophy as separate from science. I guess this isn't really a new trend, as science used to be natural philosophy. But now it seems that many think of philosophy and science as continuous, with epistemology being part of (cognitive/neuro) science. This dramatic shift from traditional epistemology is naturalized epistemology and is associated with Quine. According to naturalized epistemology, empirical science (and something like the scientific method of inquiry) is needed to answer the questions of epistemology. Naturalized epistemology attempts to understand what knowledge is by understanding the process of knowing.