An individuals ultimate limit is when he/she can hear, see, and understand. In order to understand Sepehris episteme we ought to contemplate on his seeing, hearing, and understanding. Through the medium of his diverse awareness and robust sensibility, Sepehri has touched on the mystical space and has paved the mystical path. He is a mentor who beckons us to "A New Look". "Silence", "Simplicity", Peace with Life and Affection for the People", "Love", "Journey", and "Getting out of ones Self which in mystical terms is equal to annihilation. His thought borders on Krishna Murtys teachings, contemporary Indian mystic. They both invite the reader to see life and become one with it. Sepehri has broken free of all frontiers and has found himself immersed in the universe. He is a mystic who has traveled through his poems: a ritualistic journey. Sepehris main concern towards the end of his life was the ideal world, a world replete with intuition and free from the filth of the base world.

EPISTEMOLOGY or the theory of Knowledge is seeking the nature of knowledge and justifying the belief. The theory of knowledge is the central part of the philosophical studies; because if the philosophy is seeking the truth, the main question is how we can reach the truth and justify the believes. The present paper, therefore, aims to study the concept' of information from the viewpoint of EPISTEMOLOGY, and is to quest the reality of information, its features, and essential characteristics, as well as the models of its communication.

Three approaches of theism, atheism and agnosticism have been the focus of the philosophy of religion with a great deal of controversies. Adherents of each one try to overcome the opposing argument and to prove its own claim. One of the necessary predispositions for arbitration between these claims is determining the dominant pattern and evaluation criteria among which evidentialism, fideism, reformed EPISTEMOLOGY, and advisable and pragmatist approaches are considered as examples of these criteria. Virtueoriented EPISTEMOLOGY is a modern approach highlighting the function of rational virtues in epistemic value of the beliefs. According to this approach, it is known that the way of connecting belief to truth is the fact that it is originated from practicing rational virtues. Therefore, to evaluate epistemic value of every belief, the quality and quantity of the mentioned virtues in the operating epistemic process should be detected. Having an overall investigation on the prevalent types of arbitration between theism and atheism and also providing a short report on VIRTUE-ORIENTED EPISTEMOLOGY narrated by Zagzebski, the paper intends to show epistemic value of believing in God against the lack of it based on the mentioned approach.

Much recent discussion of the EPISTEMOLOGY of religious belief has focused on justification of belief in the existence of God. Religious belief, however, includes much more than belief in God. In this paper, it is argued that the justification of belief in God is best seen in the context of other interrelated religious beliefs and practices. Philosophers of religion argue about whether religious belief requires evidence and on the sorts of arguments that have been presented. In this paper, a dialectical approach to the justification of religious belief is suggested that draws upon Hegel, Peirce, and W. E. Hocking. Rational reflection on the nature of experience that provides the solution to the problems of skepticism and solipsism in the Hegelian tradition, a tradition self-consciously developed by both Peirce and Hocking. If reason itself is only manifest in social exchanges, then the rationality of religious belief cannot be a private affair restricted to the subject of experience; rather it is the process of communicative interactions in accord with the overlapping norms of those who participate in them. Finally, some implications of this approach for the problem of religious diversity are sketched.

In search for the roots and causes of Arab world undevelopment Al-Jaberi criticizes religious discourses and their philosophical elements and points to the age of establishment as the initiation and decline spot of Arabic-Islamic civilization. The age of establishment is a period in which Islamic wisdom was formed based on text of the Holy Quran in the framework of different Islamic philosophies (Religious Rational Concepts) along with unreligious philosophical systems (Foreign Rational Concepts). From the Al-Jaberi’s point of view epistemic internal systems based on religious rational concepts are the outcome of Sunni scholar’s scientific jihad and other epistemic external systems are represented by Shiites and/ or other denominations. From a geographical view he also describes a distinction between the Arabic west and east. He considers the initiatives of sheer Islamic reason and philosophy to root in the west of the Arabic-Islamic world and relates eclectic philosophies and foreign unreligious conceptual systems to Iran or east of the Arabic world. He claims that the answer to the question of Arabic decline is to get rid of ideologies and philosophies of the east of Arabic world and to join the sheer wisdom of the west Arab world especially that of the Ibn Rushd: 6th to 8th Hijra centuries. This paper criticizes the foretold dogma of argue against Shiite school of thought as part of the existent discourses in domain of Islamic world and rules out his refutation of Islamic scientific and philosophical realities.

Richard Rorty gives a descriptive-historical account of philosophical views. He criticizes fundamentalism and representationalism which, since Descartes, have dominated EPISTEMOLOGY. The fundamental assumption of philosophers is that philosophy has a prominent role in our understanding of the world, and that philosophical issues are permanent. This means that philosophy is regarded as the ground for our knowledge. Rorty is against that, and so he is in fact against EPISTEMOLOGY. Now, the question is whether Rorty is successful in freeing himself from representationalism. Rorty declares his pragmatism according to which knowledge requires dialogue and social action. He calls this view epistemological behaviorism. Charles Taylor describes Rorty’s view as a secular viewpoint which leads to unethical consequences. Taylor says that Rorty’s view is still under sovereignty of representationalism.

This article is a survey of Augustin’s system of thought in the field of EPISTEMOLOGY. In his point of view the possibility of gaining Knowledge by man in the field of EPISTEMOLOGY, is his main problem. The means of getting knowledge differs with regards to mans object of knowledge. Natural and substantial affairs are conceived by sense and reason. Our knowledge in this filed is a relative one. Another part of mans knowledge is derived from enlightenment. That enlightenment which is influenced on man by Divine light. Enlightenment causes man’s direct contact with the matters that are not gained through sense and reason. This kind of knowledge is individual despite of possibility of being certain and doubtless. Revelation completes another part of mans epistemologic system of thought. Man discovers the aims of God in creation through Him by revelation. This knowledge is absolutely authoritative and we accept it as a certain knowledge.

EPISTEMOLOGY is a science that discusses human knowledge, including its nature, possibility, ways, types, territory, etc. of knowledge. It is a field that philosophers, theologians, and religious scholars have taken more effective steps in deepening and developing it. Jewish thinkers have also paid special attention to this issue. Sadia bin yusuf al-fayoumi, nicknamed Sadia Gaon, the father of Jewish philosophy and the head of the Rabbinical religious school "Sura", is considered one of the most important theologians in the history of the tradition of Rabbinical Judaism. He is known as the first Jewish philosopher and exegete in the middle centuries due to his innovative and systematic ideas. He is the first person who, in addition to his detailed views on theology and cosmology, has also raised important opinions on EPISTEMOLOGY in two works ‘Kitab Al-Amanat Wa'l-'tiqadat (the Book of Beliefs and Opinions)’ and ‘Tafsir Sefer Yetsira (Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira)’. The two works suggest two different structures of EPISTEMOLOGY. Sadia points out that the human mind is able to explain reality in two ways: one is based on empirical rationalism and the other is based on divine illumination and self-revelation in the mind. In other words, the human mind can act in two modes like the act of dialogue (i. e. arguing and reasoning or being silent, meditating, listening, and seeing). Considering the unique role of knowledge arising from reflection and revelation, in reaching the complete truth, Sadia plans and examines it from various angles in his important works. Along with Al-Amanat Wa'l-'tiqadat, he makes a detailed discussion in the Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira about EPISTEMOLOGY. Its study helps a lot to understand his thought. Sadia's thinking in religions and beliefs has a controversial nature. In the Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira, he has relatively deep and esoteric thinking. This study, using the analytical comparative method, investigates the topics related to EPISTEMOLOGY raised in the two mentioned works of Sadia. In his works, knowledge has different meanings: in Al-Amanat Wa'l-'tiqadat, it is shown as the correspondence between external reality and its concept in the human mind, while in Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira, knowledge is related to the origin and nature of creation. In ‘the Book of Beliefs and Opinions’, Sadia, in a positive answer regarding the possibility of acquiring knowledge, considers his goal to be certain and removes all doubts. In this book, while proving the same validity of knowledge and results that can be achieved through revelation and rational reasoning, he cites verses from the Bible to prove the foundations of his epistemological teachings. He considers the factor of knowledge to be the intellectual power of the soul, which only God has rightly placed in the person's existence. Despite the fact that the cognitive process relies on sensory perception, the intellect includes a system of principles and generalities that exist independently of sensory data. The Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira considers the goal of the author of the book to be the representation (portrait) of how things come into being and find their existence so that the knower can understand them and the wise beings can learn them. Therefore, while confirming the possibility of acquiring knowledge, this work emphasizes the role of revelation in this connection. Al-Amanat Wa'l-'tiqadat presents the elements of the ‘cognition process’ in the form of a hierarchical model in three steps: 1) a complex and vague idea that is only a vague and confused idea of the nature of the research subject, 2) an analysis of this idea, and 3) accepting the ultimate truth by a belief freed from doubts. Here we witness a process of gradual internalization of knowledge that occurs in the mind, a process during which sensory perception turns into belief. In this process, reason gradually removes the factors that cause doubt and error, and then reaches the understanding of the truth by refining and classifying the mixed information of the external world. This is Saadia's model to reach the correct belief. The Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira does not include regular epistemological statements that describe the process of cognition in detail. But it associates three necessary factors (knowing, thinking, and believing) with the three corresponding faculties of the soul. He attributes knowledge to the power of collecting data (al-Qowwah al-Hashira) of the soul, which collects the discussed data and transmits them to the second power. The second power is the ‘discernment power’ (al-Qowwah al-Momaizah), which recognizes true and false data and verifies the facts by rejecting false data. Then, this power transfers the refined information to ‘Al-Qowwah al-Mu’taqidah’ which preserves it and becomes sure of its authenticity. In the Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira, along with the three general sources of knowledge, mentioned in Al-Amanat Wa'l-'tiqadat, the knowledge of ‘lightning-like’ (Kal-barq), i. e. illumination, plays a prominent role. In complete contrast to his negative assessment of lightning-like knowledge in Al-Amanat, in the Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira, he states that the principles of things appear in the mind like lightning, then they become clear and certain before his eyes. Of course, this duality goes back to different approaches of Sadia's EPISTEMOLOGY in these two works as well as the related fields. In Al-Amanat, the knowledge of ‘lightning-like’ refers to sensible reality per se. But in Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira, knowledge has the nature of representation. That is, the mind relies on itself in the complete absence of sensory data. Therefore, it seems that illumination is the only way to understand this ‘other reality’. In al-Amanat and beliefs, knowledge means the correspondence of external reality and its meaning in the human mind, while in the Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira, it is related to the ultimate roots of creation, without considering sensory perception. Wisdom is one of the most controversial epistemological words of Sadia. Saadia's definition of wisdom is based on various biblical passages, and thus it can be seen as the result of Saadia's exegetical activities rather than independent philosophical reflection. In Al-Amanat, al-Hikmat is defined as “kawn al-ashyaʾ ʿala ḥaqaʾiqiha al-maʿluma wa-laysa-l-ḥikma an takun al-ashyaʾ ʿala tamanni mutamanin wa-la shahwa mushtahin” and the Commentary on the Sefer Yetzira defines it as “al-ḥikma hiya tartib al-ashyaʾ maratibaha wa-taqdiruha maqadiraha”. In short, according to Sadia, it should be said that reality speaks in two languages. In other words, the human mind is able to understand and express reality in two ways: one is universal and unanimous, and ultimately based on sensory and intellectual perception, and the other is based on God's self-revelation through human intuition.

Verification of ideas in philosophy removes the seed of doubt and offers wider ways for the maturity of thought. The purpose of this research is to study EPISTEMOLOGY of the Gathas. This research is fundamental, in terms of its purpose, and has compiled library studies using "descriptive-analytical" method with a "qualitative" approach. According to the results of this research: there are two types of acquired and immediate knowledge in "Gathas". The tools of cognition are: sense, heart, nature and intellect; and cognition is obtained through prayer, belief and awareness, good thought, companionship with sages, "Asha" and Ahuraian education. Obstacles to cognition are wrong beliefs, wrong religion, wrong education and lack of consultation with good thoughts. Correspondence with reality is the criterion of the truth of cognition, and revelation and intellect are the criterion of justification and validity of all kinds of knowledge. Traces of pragmatism were also observed in the religious realism of the “Gathas”. Perhaps one of the reasons that Iranian scholars have payed attention to Islam, especially the Qur'an and the biography of the Prophetic family, is the teachings of Zoroaster.

Recently feminist EPISTEMOLOGY became a specific domain and in which are privileged certain research programs and some various orientations in them. M. Alcoff is a feminist epistemologist who has focused on continental philosophy, feminism, politics, race-theory, and sexuality. Considering relation between knowledge and its historical-social context is special remark of her works and researches. In many of her writings, specially, Real Knowing, she maintains, in contrast with poststructuralists and pragmatists, that “truth” is a concept non-separable of, referential to, and dependent on content. She also argues for “normative subjectivity” as a fundamental, context-dependent, and non-universal, idea. Completion of an ontological, coherent account of truth-theory is her ambitious claim. Phenomenology and hermeneutics make up her philosophic method for that ambition and her critique of traditional issues as well. It seems to her that phenomenology let us to see how every idea relates to some experience and hermeneutics teaches us to consider the influence of historical-cultural context in comprehending it.