Epistemology and People Who Are Deaf: Deaf Worldviews, Views of the Deaf World, or My Parents Are Hearing

Epistemology is examined from two different perspectives within the framework of a broader evolutionary epistemology. Within this framework, reality is not absolute, and truth is a relative concept. People construct individual or personal epistemologies through their experiences, and develop or receive group or socially constructed epistemologies through their interactions with others with shared or similar experiences. There is a common perception that Deaf culture and Deaf epistemologies have been transmitted primarily by Deaf children and Deaf adults who have Deaf parents and who have grown up in a linguistically rich signing environment. The author posits that the far more numerous deaf children of hearing parents may be an even greater force in transmitting some of the strongest views of Deaf epistemology.