EPISODE

episode, an incident occurring in the history of a nation, an institution or an individual, especially with the significance of being an interruption of an ordered course of events, an irrelevance. the word is derived from a word ([greek: epeisodos]) with a technical meaning in the ancient greek tragedy. it is defined by aristotle (_poetics_, 12) as [greek: meros holon tragodias to metaxy holon chorikon melon], all the scenes, that is, which fall between the choric songs. [greek: eisodos], or entrance, is generally applied to the entrance of the chorus, but the reference may be to that of the actors at the close of the choric songs. in the early greek tragedy the parts which were spoken by the actors were considered of subsidiary importance to those sung by the chorus, and it is from this aspect that the meaning of the word, as something which breaks off the course of events, is derived (see a.e. haigh, _the tragic drama of the greeks_, 1896, at p. 353). epistaxis (gr. [greek: epi], upon, and [greek: stazein], to drop), the medical term for bleeding from the nose, whether resulting from local injury or some constitutional condition. in persistent cases of nose-bleeding, various measures are adopted, such as holding the arms over the head, the application of ice, or of such astringents as zinc or alum, or plugging the nostrils. epistemology (gr. [greek: episteme], knowledge, and [greek: logos], theory, account; germ. _erkenntnistheorie_), in philosophy, a term applied, probably first by j.f. ferrier, to that department of thought whose subject matter is the nature and origin of knowledge. it is thus contrasted with metaphysics, which considers the nature of reality, and with psychology, which deals with the objective part of cognition, and, as prof. james ward said, "is essentially genetic in its method" (_mind_, april 1883, pp. 166-167). epistemology is concerned rather with the possibility of knowledge in the abstract (_sub specie aeternitatis_, ward, ibid.). in the evolution of thought epistemological inquiry succeeded the speculations of the early thinkers, who concerned themselves primarily with attempts to explain existence. the differences of opinion which arose on this problem naturally led to the inquiry as to whether any universally valid statement was possible. the sophists and the sceptics, plato and aristotle, the stoics and the epicureans took up the question, and from the time of locke and kant it has been prominent in modern philosophy. it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to draw a hard and fast line between epistemology and other branches of philosophy. if, for example, philosophy is divided into the theory of knowing and the theory of being, it is impossible entirely to separate the latter (ontology) from the analysis of knowledge (epistemology), so close is the connexion between the two. again, the relation between logic in its widest sense and the theory of knowledge is extremely close. some thinkers have identified the two, while others regard epistemology as a subdivision of logic; others demarcate their relative spheres by confining logic to the science of the laws of thought, i.e. to formal logic. an attempt has been made by some philosophers to substitute "gnosiology" (gr. [greek: gnosis]) for "epistemology" as a special term for that part of epistemology which is confined to "systematic analysis of the conceptions employed by ordinary and scientific thought in interpreting the world, and including an investigation of the art of knowledge, or the nature of knowledge as such." "epistemology" would thus be reserved for the broad questions of "the origin, nature and limits of knowledge" (baldwin's _dict. of philos._ i. pp. 333 and 414). the term gnosiology has not, however, come into general use. (see philosophy.)