different between speculative vs epistemological

English

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French speculatif or directly from Late Latin speculativus, from Latin speculor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sp?kjul??t?v/
• Hyphenation: spec?u?la?tive

Adjective

speculative (comparative more speculative, superlative most speculative)

1. Characterized by speculation; based on guessing, unfounded opinions, or extrapolation.

   • "Don't dare laugh at us!" smiled his sister. "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came […] and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins. Do you like the house?"
2. Pursued as a gamble, with possible large profits or losses; risky.
   • 2015, Paul Wilson, Alexis Sánchez sends Arsenal into final after gallant Reading go the distance (in The Guardian, 18 April 2015)[1]

     Little seemed on when Sánchez cut in from the left and sent a speculative low shot through a crowd of players, but though Federici had it covered he could not hold on to the ball and it squirmed over the line through his legs.

3. Pertaining to financial speculation; Involving or resulting from high-risk investments or trade.

Derived terms

• speculative damages
• speculative fiction
• speculatively
• speculativeness
• speculative philosophy
• speculative realism

Related terms

• speculate
• speculation
• speculativity

Translations

See also

• conjectural

Italian

Adjective

speculative

1. feminine plural of speculativo

Latin

Adjective

specul?t?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of specul?t?vus

English

Etymology

epistemology +? -ical

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??p?st?m??l?d???k?l/

Adjective

epistemological (comparative more epistemological, superlative most epistemological)

1. Of or pertaining to epistemology or theory of knowledge, as a field of study.
   • 1898, E. A. Read, "Review of Vergleich der dogmatischen Systeme von R. A. Lipsius und A. Ritschl," The American Journal of Theology, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 190,

     The epistemological position of Ritschl, in our author's exposition of it, is little more than idealistic rationalism.

   • 1991, Walt Wolfram, "The Linguistic Variable: Fact and Fantasy," American Speech, vol. 66, no. 1, p. 31,

     My conclusion dovetails with Fasold's conclusion, which is based on a quite different, more epistemological kind of argument.

2. Of or pertaining to knowing or cognizing, as a mental activity.
   • 1969, Sandra B. Rosenthal, "The 'World' of C. I. Lewis," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 29, no. 4, p. 590,

     The reality which thus emerges is the outcome of the epistemological process in which the mind conceptually structures a given content.

Usage notes

Many philosophers consider the standard sense of "epistemological" to be "of or pertaining to epistemology" and reserve the term "epistemic" for the sense "of or pertaining to knowing or cognizing."

Related terms

Translations