Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The problem of knowledge in contemporary thought is unusually complex. This dissertation seeks to isolate but one of the fundamental questions of epistemology and investigate it in the literature of Britain and America since 1920. The problem is: the nature of the given in the knowledge situation. After nothing certain historical roots of the theory, four contemporary theories of the given are examined. Their implications are brought out, and critical evaluations are made. The literature on the problem as a whole is relatively meager. One book by R.D. Mack deals with the given in Bradley, Whitehead, and Dewey. Many thinkers consider the problem seriously in developing their epistemologies and several important articles about it have appeared in the journals. Some have denied the uniqueness of the question by saying that everything is given. [TRUNCATED]