The study or inquiry into the origin, possibility, and constitution of knowledge. Its central questions are: what does it mean to know something and by what means are we able to have knowledge? In asking these questions it also brings into play issues to do with doubt, scepticism, and truth, because implicit in the question of what it means to know something is the issue of whether one’s knowledge can ever be complete. epochē In Classical Greek philosophy it refers to the suspension of judgement or scepticism so that an argument may be heard in full before a decision concerning its merit is taken. German phenomenology Husserl, Edmund uses this term (although it is usually rendered in English as ‘bracketing’) to describe a methodological procedure of setting aside one’s personal knowledge about the world so as to see more clearly its conceptual core. The aim is to achieve a pure perception of phenomena, cleansed of presuppositions and prejudices.