In the study of knowledge, Methodism refers to the epistemological approach where one asks "How do we know?" before "What do we know?" The term appears in Roderick Chisholm

Roderick Chisholm

Roderick M. Chisholm was an American philosopher known for his work on epistemology, metaphysics, free will, and the philosophy of perception. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University under Clarence Irving Lewis and Donald C. Williams, and taught at Brown University...

's "The Problem of the Criterion

Problem of the criterion

In the field of epistemology, the problem of the criterion is an issue regarding the starting point of knowledge. This is a separate and more fundamental issue than the regress argument found in discussions on justification of knowledge....

", and in the work of his student, Ernest Sosa

Ernest Sosa

Ernest Sosa is an American philosopher primarily interested in epistemology. He is currently Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He has been at Rutgers full-time since January, 2007; previously, he had been at Brown University since 1964...

 ("The Raft and the Pyramid: Coherence versus Foundations in the Theory of Knowledge"). Methodism is contrasted with particularism

Epistemological particularism

Epistemological particularism is the belief that one can know something without knowing how one knows that thing. By this understanding, one's knowledge is justified before one knows how such belief could be justified...

, which answers the latter question before the former.

Since the question "How do we know?" does not presuppose that we know, it is receptive to skepticism. In this way, Sosa claims, Hume

David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...

 no less than Descartes was an epistemological Methodist.