The most unusual word of the day: Epistemological
There is nothing to be surprised about with the word âepistemological,â but you donât usually hear it from the mouth of a Turkish politician.
Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄlu uttered the scholarly-sounding word during his speech at the ruling Justice and Development Partyâs (AKP) congress on Aug. 27, where he was elected the partyâs new chair as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan prepared to ascend to the presidential seat.
âThis new cultural awakening is a universal call to civilization to all humanity, in an era when humankind faces existential and epistemological problems regarding its core values,â the academic-turned-politician DavutoÄlu said.
From Adnan Menderes to Süleyman Demirel, right-wing politicians throughout Turkish history have been proud to stress that they use âthe peopleâs languageâ while challenging their âelitist,â sometimes left-wing, but almost always secular political opponents in the past. Profanities frequently fly in Turkish Parliament, but words like epistemological are almost unheard of.
After DavutoÄlu, who became a full-time professor in 1999, uttered the word today, âepistemologicalâ became one of the most searched words on Google.
A combination of the Greek words for knowledge and study, epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge.
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