The article expounds the history of emergence of the Sector of Theory of Knowledge in the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now RAS). The main stages of its activity are traced, the results are evaluated and prospects for further work are outlined. The author outlines the diversity of researches conducted by the staff of the sector (E.V. Ilyenkov, G.S. Batishchev, N.N. Trubnikov, E.P. Nikitin, V.S. Shvyrev, M.A. Rozov and others), reveals their specifics (from the problems of dialectical logic and justification of different levels of methodology of scientific knowledge to the criticism of scientism and the problem of human existence time.) It is shown that The Sector of the Theory of Knowledge was some kind of the "forge of philosophical personnel", the intellectual traditions of modern Russian epistemology were laid inside it, professional philosophers came out of it, who nowadays develop theoretical and cognitive problems in various Universities and research institutions not only in Russia, but also in neighboring countries (Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, etc.). The author pays special attention to the results of forty years activity, shows that the works of the sector have not lost relevance today, outlines the continuity of the philosophy of knowledge and consciousness developed in the sector and of contemporary world epistemological problematics.