Epistemological psychology
The term episteme is related to the Greek word επιστήμη, which translates literally as "standing near or by that which causes" but is often simplified as "knowledge" or "science". By ignoring ego interests the core impetus or the essence of a deed, real or imagined, is recovered.
Modal logic
Epistemic modalities (from the Greek "episteme", knowledge), deal with the "certainty" of sentences. The □ operator is translated as "x knows that…", and the ◇ operator is translated as "For all x knows, it may be true that…" In ordinary speech both metaphysical and epistemic modalities are often expressed in similar words; the following contrasts may help: