I thought we'd venture East for the subject of this newsletter (which is rather Western-washed in its focuses, I'll admit) and look at epistemology within Indian schools of philosophy.
In Indian philosophies, such as the Hindu Nyaya and Carvaka schools, and the Jain and buddhist philosophical schools, Pramana (Sanskrit: प्रमाण, Pramāṇa) literally means "proof" and "means of knowledge" and describes the valid or reliable means by which humans can acquire accurate, true, and correct knowledge.
The number of pramanas differs between systems, but many ancient and medieval Indian texts identify six pramanas as correct means of accurate knowledge and to truths:
(1) perception (Sanskrit pratyakṣa)
(2) inference (anumāna)
(3) "word", meaning the testimony of past or present reliable experts (Śabda)
(4) comparison and analogy (upamāna)
(5) postulation derivation from circumstances (arthāpatti)
(6) non-perception, negative/cognitive proof (anupalabdhi)
Each of these are further categorised in terms of conditionality, completeness, confidence and possibility of error, by each school of Indian philosophies, which is a lot to go into in this newsletter, but if you'd like to read more about each of them, you can do so here.
The various schools of Indian philosophies vary on how many of these six are epistemically reliable and valid means to knowledge. For example, the Carvaka school of the Śramaṇa tradition holds that only one (perception) is a reliable source of knowledge, Buddhism holds two (perception, inference) are valid means, Jainism holds three (perception, inference and testimony), while Mimamsa and Advaita Vedanta schools of Hinduism hold all six are useful and can be reliable means to knowledge. What do you think?
When writing epistemologically or about the philosophy behind where your knowledge comes from, consider adopting an Eastern lens as well. Western epistemology is well-documented, studied, and written about in GAMSAT essays, so it might be refreshing to show off some knowledge of Eastern philosophy if you're up for it!