Epistemological Challenges of Human Sciences and Development

In this paper the major determinants of development of different branches of sciences and Humanities in Europe as a result of transition from the Middle Ages into Renaissance for demystification and secularization of sciences to be used for human welfare and freedom of thought are briefly discussed. Also, as the result of Western secularization of sciences and humanities some major epistemological conceptual changes are proposed for development by some philosophers. The results of these conceptual changes are briefly discussed with reference to proposals brought up by one Canadian and one Iranian philosophers. As a result of the development of new branches of sciences during secularization period several industrial revolutions brought some positive social changes and welfare in people’s daily life. Since the new branches of sciences and humanities during secularization period were based on experimental evidence, some epistemological and methodological changes have been made in different fields of sciences in order to bring welfare and positive changes in people’s daily life. Besides several industrial revolutions during the process of secularization, there have been two major epistemological revolutions in areas of human sciences with emphasis on the function of language learning in our human cognitive development since the second half of the 20th century. The first cognitive revolution was critical of behavioral approaches in linguistics and psychology which was basically rooted in the analysis of behavior. With respect to methodological and philosophical approaches, the first cognitive revolution was based on symbolic logic and analytical philosophy but the second cognitive revolution was critical of symbolic logic and analytic philosophy. It was claimed that language is basically an embodied epistemological system for major cognitive activities. Therefore, language as a major cognitive system to be learned was meant to be used for cognitive activities and freedom of expression.