--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: What is necessary is that epistemology…" description: "\"“What is necessary is that epistemology, instead of being the pre-condition for ontology, should grow in it and with it, being at the same time a means..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f82/etienne-gilson-21565_philosophy_what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-i_1726226.jpg" --- # What is necessary is that epistemology, instead of being… ![“What is necessary is that epistemology, instead of being the pre-condition for ontology, should grow in it and with it, being at the same time a means and an object of explanation, helping to uphold, and itself upheld by, ontology, as the parts of any true philosophy mutually will sustain each…” quote by Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f82/etienne-gilson-21565_philosophy_what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-i_1726226.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f82/etienne-gilson-21565_philosophy_what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-i_1726226.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f82/etienne-gilson-21565_philosophy_what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-i_1726226.jpg) > ““What is necessary is that epistemology, instead of being the pre-condition for ontology, should grow in it and with it, being at the same time a means and an object of explanation, helping to uphold, and itself upheld by, ontology, as the parts of any true philosophy mutually will sustain each other.”” [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Epistemology should develop within ontology, mutually supporting each other. **In simple terms:** Knowledge and being grow together. Key Takeaway Integrate theory with practice. Themes philosophy interdependence knowledge Mood analytical thoughtful Type theoretical academic When to use this quote - academic research - theoretical frameworks - interdisciplinary studies Key Concepts ontology epistemology mutual support Questions to Reflect On - How does your field integrate theory and practice? - Can mutual support be measured? A Different Perspective Complex ideas can be abstract and hard to apply. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Epistemology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/epistemology/) [Epistemology Instead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/epistemology-instead-1386927/) [Necessary Epistemology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/necessary-epistemology-1386924/) [Ontology Grow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ontology-grow-1386926/) [Philosophy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy/) [Philosophy Mutually](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy-mutually-1386925/) ## Related quotes > [If man has learned to see and know what really is, he will act in accordance with truth, Epistemology is in itself ethics, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-marcuse/if-man-has-learned-to-see-and-know-what-really-is-he-will-act-in/) [Herbert Marcuse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-marcuse/) > [“Why is it so difficult for us to think in relative terms? Well, for the good reason that human nature loves absoluteness, and erroneously…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/felix-alba-juez/why-is-it-so-difficult-for-us-to-think-in-relative-terms-well-for-the/) [Felix Alba-Juez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/felix-alba-juez/) > [“I do not think there is a demonstrative proof (like Euclid) of Christianity, nor of the existence of matter, nor of the good will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis-2/i-do-not-think-there-is-a-demonstrative-proof-like-euclid-of/) [C.S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis-2/) > [There should be no element of slavery in learning. Enforced exercise does no harm to the body, but enforced learning will not stay in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/plato/there-should-be-no-element-of-slavery-in-learning-enforced-exercise/) [Plato](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/plato/) > [“the main problem of any epistemology is in fact to understand how the mind succeeds in constructing necessary relationships, which appear to be independent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ulrich-m-ller/the-main-problem-of-any-epistemology-is-in-fact-to-understand-how-the/) [Ulrich Müller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ulrich-m-ller/) > [“What is gained by the transcendence of the object is the identifiability of the object in a plurality of acts and the identifiability of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/max-scheler/what-is-gained-by-the-transcendence-of-the-object-is-the/) [Max Scheler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/max-scheler/) > [“Huxley grasped, as Orwell did not, that it is not necessary to conceal anything from a public insensible to contradiction and narcotized by technological…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-postman/huxley-grasped-as-orwell-did-not-that-it-is-not-necessary-to-conceal/) [Neil Postman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-postman/) > [Philosophers need not much use the word 'intuition' or the concept of intuition, except when they happen to be working on the epistemology of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-sosa/philosophers-need-not-much-use-the-word-intuition-or-the-concept-of/) [Ernest Sosa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-sosa/) > [One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-feyerabend/one-might-get-the-impression-that-i-recommend-a-new-methodology-which/) [Paul Feyerabend](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-feyerabend/) > [The principal agent is the object itself and not the instruction given by the teacher. It is the child who uses the objects; it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maria-montessori/the-principal-agent-is-the-object-itself-and-not-the-instruction/) [Maria Montessori](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maria-montessori/) > [“Thought and science are therefore raising problems which their terms of study can never answer, many of which are doubtless problems only for thought.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/thought-and-science-are-therefore-raising-problems-which-their-terms/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [What we're starting to see is a quantum biology, it being applied in biology and cosmology and a host of other sciences, because it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-mitchell/what-we-re-starting-to-see-is-a-quantum-biology-it-being-applied-in/) [Edgar Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-mitchell/) > [It is the faithfulness of God that allows epistemology to model ontology.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-polkinghorne/it-is-the-faithfulness-of-god-that-allows-epistemology-to-model/) [John Polkinghorne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-polkinghorne/) > [“First stage is knowing the truth, second is not knowing the truth, third is realizing the paradox.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-k-brown/first-stage-is-knowing-the-truth-second-is-not-knowing-the-truth/) [John K. Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-k-brown/) ## More by Étienne Gilson > [History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/history-is-the-only-laboratory-we-have-in-which-to-test-the/) [Etienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“Modern man, brought up on Kantian idealism, regards nature as being no more than an outcome of the laws of the mind. Losing all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/modern-man-brought-up-on-kantian-idealism-regards-nature-as-being-no/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“The Middle Ages were long preoccupied with the nature of the concept, or of the notion which the intellect abstracts from the object; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/the-middle-ages-were-long-preoccupied-with-the-nature-of-the-concept/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [Humans feel at home in a world of things, whose essences and laws it can grasp and define in terms of concepts; but shy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/humans-feel-at-home-in-a-world-of-things-whose-essences-and-laws-it/) [Etienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [Radiance belongs to being considered precisely as beautiful: it is, in being, that which catches the eye, or the ear, or the mind, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/radiance-belongs-to-being-considered-precisely-as-beautiful-it-is-in/) [Etienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“When man subverted order he did a great deal more than merely fall away from the rationality of his nature, diminish his own humanity,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/when-man-subverted-order-he-did-a-great-deal-more-than-merely-fall/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“Just as it is by His goodness that God gives being to beings, so also it is by His goodness that He makes causes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/just-as-it-is-by-his-goodness-that-god-gives-being-to-beings-so-also/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [To minds tormented by the divine thirst, it is useless to offer the most certain knowledge of the laws of numbers and the arrangement…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/to-minds-tormented-by-the-divine-thirst-it-is-useless-to-offer-the/) [Etienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“As long as one makes some kind of conscious state, whether a “passive sensation” or an “apprehended”, come before reality, one will remain more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/as-long-as-one-makes-some-kind-of-conscious-state-whether-a-passive/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [Man is not a mind that thinks, but a being who knows other beings as true, who loves them as good and who enjoys…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/man-is-not-a-mind-that-thinks-but-a-being-who-knows-other-beings-as/) [Etienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [If our previous analyses are correct, they all point to the same conclusion, that metaphysical adventures are doomed to fail when their authors substitute…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/if-our-previous-analyses-are-correct-they-all-point-to-the-same/) [Etienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“But if one decides to start with Descartes and finish with Aristotle, and to employ an idealist method while shamelessly making use of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/but-if-one-decides-to-start-with-descartes-and-finish-with-aristotle/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“Pure sensism leads inevitably to universal doubt; if reality is in the end reducible to sensible appearance, then, since this is in a state…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/pure-sensism-leads-inevitably-to-universal-doubt-if-reality-is-in-the/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“If pure philosophy took any of its ideas from Christian revelation, if anything in the Bible and the Gospel has passed into metaphysics, if,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/if-pure-philosophy-took-any-of-its-ideas-from-christian-revelation-if/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) > [“He(E.A.Poe) cannot be blamed for not saying clearly what beauty is. The greatest philosophers in the world acknowledge in the end that the best…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/he-e-a-poe-cannot-be-blamed-for-not-saying-clearly-what-beauty-is-the/) [Étienne Gilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) [Explore all 29 Étienne Gilson quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/) ## More Epistemology quotes > [If man has learned to see and know what really is, he will act in accordance with truth, Epistemology is in itself ethics, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-marcuse/if-man-has-learned-to-see-and-know-what-really-is-he-will-act-in/) [Herbert Marcuse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-marcuse/) > [“Why is it so difficult for us to think in relative terms? 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Česky: „Od určité míry svobody je dorozumění nemožné.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sebasti-n-wortys/english-from-a-certain-degree-of-freedom-understanding-is-impossible/) [Sebastián Wortys](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sebasti-n-wortys/) > [What we're starting to see is a quantum biology, it being applied in biology and cosmology and a host of other sciences, because it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-mitchell/what-we-re-starting-to-see-is-a-quantum-biology-it-being-applied-in/) [Edgar Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-mitchell/) > [“Thought and science are therefore raising problems which their terms of study can never answer, many of which are doubtless problems only for thought.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/thought-and-science-are-therefore-raising-problems-which-their-terms/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [The principal agent is the object itself and not the instruction given by the teacher. It is the child who uses the objects; it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maria-montessori/the-principal-agent-is-the-object-itself-and-not-the-instruction/) [Maria Montessori](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maria-montessori/) > [One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-feyerabend/one-might-get-the-impression-that-i-recommend-a-new-methodology-which/) [Paul Feyerabend](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-feyerabend/) > [Philosophers need not much use the word 'intuition' or the concept of intuition, except when they happen to be working on the epistemology of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-sosa/philosophers-need-not-much-use-the-word-intuition-or-the-concept-of/) [Ernest Sosa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-sosa/) > [“Huxley grasped, as Orwell did not, that it is not necessary to conceal anything from a public insensible to contradiction and narcotized by technological…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-postman/huxley-grasped-as-orwell-did-not-that-it-is-not-necessary-to-conceal/) [Neil Postman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-postman/) > [“What is gained by the transcendence of the object is the identifiability of the object in a plurality of acts and the identifiability of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/max-scheler/what-is-gained-by-the-transcendence-of-the-object-is-the/) [Max Scheler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/max-scheler/) > [“the main problem of any epistemology is in fact to understand how the mind succeeds in constructing necessary relationships, which appear to be independent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ulrich-m-ller/the-main-problem-of-any-epistemology-is-in-fact-to-understand-how-the/) [Ulrich Müller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ulrich-m-ller/) > [There should be no element of slavery in learning. Enforced exercise does no harm to the body, but enforced learning will not stay in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/plato/there-should-be-no-element-of-slavery-in-learning-enforced-exercise/) [Plato](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/plato/) > [“I do not think there is a demonstrative proof (like Euclid) of Christianity, nor of the existence of matter, nor of the good will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis-2/i-do-not-think-there-is-a-demonstrative-proof-like-euclid-of/) [C.S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis-2/) > [“First stage is knowing the truth, second is not knowing the truth, third is realizing the paradox.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-k-brown/first-stage-is-knowing-the-truth-second-is-not-knowing-the-truth/) [John K. Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-k-brown/) [Browse all 167 Epistemology quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/epistemology/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What is necessary is that epistemology, instead of being the pre-condition for ontology, should grow in it and with it, being at the same time a means and an object of explanation, helping to uphold, and itself upheld by, ontology, as the parts of any true philosophy mutually will sustain each other.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Étienne Gilson" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-instead-of-being-the-pre/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Epistemology" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-instead-of-being-the-pre/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f82/etienne-gilson-21565_philosophy_what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-i_1726226.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f82/etienne-gilson-21565_philosophy_what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-i_1726226.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f82/etienne-gilson-21565_philosophy_what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-i_1726226.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What is necessary is that epistemology, instead of being the pre-condition for ontology, should grow in it…” — Étienne Gilson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Étienne Gilson", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/etienne-gilson/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“What is necessary is that epistemology,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-instead-of-being-the-pre/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/etienne-gilson/what-is-necessary-is-that-epistemology-instead-of-being-the-pre/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```