Personification of knowledge (Greek Επιστημη, Episteme) in Celsus Library in Ephesus, Turkey. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Distinguished from Techne, the word ἐπιστήμη is Greek for Knowledge or Science, coming from the verb Ephesus ( Hittite Apasa; Ancient Greek; Turkish Efes) was a city of ancient Anatolia.

Knowledge is defined (Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English Experience as a general concept comprises Knowledge of or skill in or Observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or Education encompasses both the Teaching and Learning of Knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief". There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.

Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning. Cognition is a concept used in different ways by different disciplines but is generally accepted to mean the process of awareness or thought Reasoning is the cognitive process of looking for Reasons for beliefs conclusions actions or feelings The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose if appropriate. Understanding (also called intellection) is a psychological Process related to an abstract or physical object such as Person, situation or

Defining knowledge (philosophy)

See also: epistemology

The definition of knowledge is a matter of on-going debate among philosophers in the field of epistemology. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The Posterior Analytics is a text from Aristotle 's Organon that deals with demonstration, Definition, and Scientific knowledge Debate ( American English) or debating ( British English) is a formal method of interactive and position representational Argument. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge The classical definition, described but not ultimately endorsed by, Plato^[1], has it that in order for there to be knowledge at least three criteria must be fulfilled; that in order to count as knowledge, a statement must be justified, true, and believed. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Theory of justification is a part of Epistemology that attempts to understand the justification of Propositions and Beliefs Epistemologists are concerned The meaning of the word truth extends from Honesty, Good faith, and Sincerity in general to agreement with Fact or Reality Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true Some claim that these conditions are not sufficient, as Gettier case examples allegedly demonstrate. The Gettier problem is considered a problem in modern Epistemology issuing from counter-examples to the definition of knowledge as justified true belief (JTB There are a number of alternatives proposed, including Robert Nozick's arguments for a requirement that knowledge 'tracks the truth' and Simon Blackburn's additional requirement that we do not want to say that those who meet any of these conditions 'through a defect, flaw, or failure' have knowledge. Robert Nozick ( November 16, 1938  &ndash January 23, 2002) was an American Philosopher and Pellegrino University Simon Blackburn (born 1944 is a British academic Philosopher known for his efforts to popularise Philosophy. Richard Kirkham suggests that our definition of knowledge requires that the believer's evidence is such that it logically necessitates the truth of the belief. Richard Ladd Kirkham, American Philosopher, was born 18 June 1955. Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference.

In contrast to this approach, Wittgenstein observed, following Moore's paradox, that one can say "He believes it, but it isn't so", but not "He knows it, but it isn't so". G E Moore remarked once in a lecture on the absurdity involved in saying something like "It's raining outside but I don't believe that it is ^[2] He goes on to argue that these do not correspond to distinct mental states, but rather to distinct ways of talking about conviction. What is different here is not the mental state of the speaker, but the activity in which they are engaged. For example, on this account, to know that the kettle is boiling is not to be in a particular state of mind, but to perform a particular task with the statement that the kettle is boiling. Wittgenstein sought to bypass the difficulty of definition by looking to the way "knowledge" is used in natural languages. He saw knowledge as a case of a family resemblance. This article is about the philosophical term proposed by Ludwig Wittgenstein not about the common observation that offspring resemble parents and one another

Reliable Knowledge

In An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method (1934), Morris R. Cohen and Ernest Nagel reviewed the pursuit of truth as determined by logical considerations. They reviewed ways of eliminating doubt and arriving at stable beliefs or reliable knowledge, such as

• The method of authority
• The method of intuition
• The methods of experimental inquiry:
  • Types of invariant relations
  • The experimental method in general
  • The method of agreement
  • The method of difference
  • The joint method of agreement and difference
  • The method of concomitant variation
  • The doctrine of the uniformity of nature
  • The plurality of causes

Their final conclusion was, "Scientific method we declare as the most assured technique man has yet devised for controlling the flux of things and establishing stable beliefs. "

In an essay entitled "Inductive Method and Scientific Discovery," Marcello Pera said, "In the first place, the scientific method is a procedure, a general strategy that indicates an ordered sequence of moves (or steps) which the scientist has to make (or go through) in order to reach the goal of his research. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena " (In On Scientific Discovery, edited by Grmek, Cohen, and Cimino [1977], published in the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science Series. ) The scientific method is not a method directly applied, but rather a guide to the mental activity stages of originating, refining, extending, and applying knowledge. It is subject neutral and flexible in use; it is thus suitable for all domains.

Statements about truth must be viewed skeptically. Rather than state something as "true," the following phrase should be used: "On the evidence available today the balance of probability favors the view that. . . " (V. Gordon Childe, Man Makes Himself, 1936)

The literature contains hundreds of formulas for the scientific method. They are basically the same but differ in length and terminology. In an article "Suggestions for Teaching the Scientific Method" published in the March 1961 issue of American Biology Teacher, Dr. Kenneth B. M. Crooks suggested this one:

1. Curiosity
2. Is there a problem?
3. Get the evidence
4. Attributes needed
5. Weigh all evidence
6. Make the educated guess (hypothesis)
7. Challenge the hypothesis
8. Get a conclusion
9. Suspend judgment
10. Deductive reasoning

Communicating knowledge

Symbolic representations can be used to indicate meaning and can be thought of as a dynamic process. Hence the transfer of the symbolic representation can be viewed as one ascription process whereby knowledge can be transferred. Other forms of communication include imitation, narrative exchange along with a range of other methods. There is no complete theory of knowledge transfer or communication.

While many would agree that one of the most universal and significant tools for the transfer of knowledge is writing (of many kinds), argument over the usefulness of the written word exists however, with some scholars skeptical of its impact on societies. In his novel Technopoly Neil Postman demonstrates the argument against the use of writing through an excerpt from Plato's work Phaedrus (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp 73). Phaedrus (c 15 BC – c AD 50) Roman Fabulist, was probably a Thracian slave born in Pydna of Macedonia (Roman province In this excerpt the scholar Socrates recounts the story of Thamus, the Egyptian king and Theuth the inventor of the written word. In this story, Theuth presents his new invention "writing" to King Thamus, telling Thamus that his new invention "will improve both the wisdom and memory of the Egyptians" (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp 74). King Thamus is skeptical of this new invention and rejects it as a tool of recollection rather than retained knowledge. He argues that the written word will infect the Egyptian people with fake knowledge as they will be able to attain facts and stories from an external source and will no longer be forced to mentally retain large quantities of knowledge themselves (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York ,pp 74).

Andrew Robinson also highlights, in his work The Origins of Writing, the possibility for writing to be used to spread false information and there for the ability of the written word to decrease social knowledge (Robinson, Andrew (2003) The Origins of Writing in Crowley and Heyer (eds) Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society, Boston pp 34). People are often internalizing new information which they perceive to be knowledge but are in reality fill their minds with false knowledge.

Situated knowledge

Situated knowledge is knowledge specific to a particular situation. Imagine two very similar breeds of mushroom, which grow on either side of a mountain, one nutritious, one poisonous. Relying on knowledge from one side of an ecological boundary, after crossing to the other, may lead to starving rather than eating perfectly healthy food near at hand, or to poisoning oneself by mistake.

Some methods of generating knowledge, such as trial and error, or learning from experience, tend to create highly situational knowledge. Trial and error, or trial by error, is a general method of Problem solving for obtaining Knowledge, both Propositional knowledge and Know-how Experience as a general concept comprises Knowledge of or skill in or Observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or One of the main benefits of the scientific method is that the theories it generates are much less situational than knowledge gained by other methods. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena Situational knowledge is often embedded in language, culture, or traditions.

Knowledge generated through experience is called knowledge "a posteriori", meaning afterwards. The pure existence of a term like "a posteriori" means this also has a counterpart. In this case that is knowledge "a priori", meaning before. The knowledge prior to any experience means that there are certain "assumptions" that one takes for granted. For example if one is being told about a chair it is clear to him that the chair is in space, that it is 3D. A chair is a kind of Furniture for Sitting, consisting of a back and sometimes arm rests commonly for use by one person Space is the extent within which Matter is physically extended and objects and Events have positions relative to one another Three-dimensional space is a geometric model of the physical Universe in which we live This knowledge is not knowledge that one can "forget", even someone suffering from amnesia experiences the world in 3D. See also: A priori and a posteriori. "A priori" redirects here For other uses see A priori.

Partial knowledge

One discipline of epistemology focuses on partial knowledge. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge In most realistic cases, it is not possible to have an exhaustive understanding of an information domain, so then we have to live with the fact that our knowledge is always not complete, that is, partial. Most real problems have to be solved by taking advantage of a partial understanding of the problem context and problem data. That is very different from the typical simple math problems that we solve at school, where all data are given and we have a perfect understanding of formulas necessary to solve them.

Knowledge management

Main article: Knowledge management

Knowledge management is a management theory which emerged in the 1990s. Knowledge Management (KM Management (covering theory practice and scope of management and Manager' (covering the people who manage might help clarify and systematise The word theory has many distinct meanings in different fields of Knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. It seeks to understand the way in which knowledge is created, used and shared within organizations. A significant part of Knowledge Management theory and practice aligns two models: (i) the DIKW model, which places data, information, knowledge and wisdom into an increasingly useful pyramid. DIKW is the proposed structuring of d ata i nformation k nowledge and w isdom in an information hierarchy where each layer adds certain attributes Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity (ii) Nonaka's reformulation of Polanyi's distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge. Michael Polanyi (born Polányi Mihály) ( March 11, 1891, Budapest – February 22, 1976) was a Hungarian – The concept of tacit knowing comes from scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi. Explicit knowledge is Knowledge that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in certain media. Both of these models are increasingly under challenge with different schools of thought emerging which are more fully described and referenced in the main article.

An objective of mainstream knowledge management is to ensure that the right information is delivered to the right person just in time, in order to take the most appropriate decision. In that sense, knowledge management is not interested in managing knowledge per se, but to relate knowledge and its usage. This leads to Organizational Memory Systems. An Organizational Memory System ( OMS) or Organizational Memory Information System ( OMIS) "functions to provide a means by which knowledge from the More recent developments have focused on managing networks (the flow of knowledge rather than knowledge itself) and narrative forms of knowledge exchange.

Philosophers versus Biologists: — "Knowledge" of two types

This article deals chiefly with "knowledge" in its traditional form as viewed by philosophers, but it may be helpful to be aware of a broader usage which has been developing within biology/psychology—discussed elsewhere as meta-epistemology, or genetic epistemology, and to some extent related to "theory of cognitive development". Meta-epistemology is a Metaphilosophical study of the subject matter methods and aims of Epistemology and of approaches to understanding and structuring Genetic epistemology is a study of the origins (genesis of knowledge ( Epistemology) which was established by Jean Piaget. The Theory of Cognitive Development (one of the most historically influential theories was developed by Jean Piaget, a Swiss Philosopher (1896–1980     [Note that "Epistemology" is the study of knowledge and how it is acquired. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge ]

Until recent times, at least in the Western tradition, it was simply taken for granted that knowledge was something possessed by humans—or God alone—and probably adult humans at that. Sometimes the notion might stretch to (ii) Society-as-such, as in (e. g. ) "the knowledge possessed by the Coptic culture" (as opposed to its individual members), but that was not assured either. Nor was it usual to consider unconscious knowledge in any systematic way until this approach was popularized by Freud. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded ^[3]

Other biological domains where "knowledge" might be said to reside, include: (iii) the immune system, and (iv) in the DNA of the genetic code. See the list of four "epistemological domains":   Popper, (1975)^[4]; and Traill (2008 [1]: Table S, page 31)—also references by both to Niels Jerne. Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902  &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor Niels Kaj Jerne, FRS ( December 23, 1911 &ndash October 7, 1994) was a Danish ( English -born Immunologist

Such considerations seem to call for a separate definition of "knowledge" to cover these more-general systems:

Defining knowledge (biology)

Knowledge is not just information. Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings It must be usefully available to the system, though that system need not be conscious. Thus the criteria seem to be:

• The system should apparently be dynamic and self-organizing (unlike a mere book on its own).
• The knowledge must constitute some sort of representation of "the outside world"^[5], or ways of dealing with it (directly or indirectly).
• There must be some way for the system to access this information quickly enough for it to be useful.

Religious meaning of knowledge

In many expressions of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Anglicanism, knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings As a Christian Ecclesiastical term Catholic —from the Greek adjective, meaning "general" or "universal"—is described Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs The Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are gifts which Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Lutherans believe the Holy Spirit gives to people to ^[6]

In Islam, the prophet Muhammad has described himself and his vicergeant Ali as the sources of knowledge: "I am the City of Knowledge and Ali is its Gate". IMPORTANT PLEASE READ ##### For all questions relating to the addition of (pbuh peace be upon him or other honorifics ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (a=علي بن أﺑﻲ طالب|t=ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib 13th Rajab, 24 BH – 21st Ramaḍān, 40 AH

Hindu Scriptures present two kinds of knowledge, Paroksha Gnyana and Aporoksha Gnyana. Paroksha Gnyana is secondhand knowledge: knowledge obtained from books, hearsay, etc. Aporoksha Gnyana is the knowledge borne of direct experience, i. e. , knowledge that one discovers for oneself.

The Old Testament's Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil contained the knowledge that separated Man from God: "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil…" (Genesis 3:22)

In Gnosticism divine knowledge or gnosis is hoped to be attained and escape from the demiurge's physical world. In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. In the Book of Genesis, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (and occasionally translated as the Tree of Conscience,) was a Tree in the middle of the Gnosticism (γνώσις gnōsis, Knowledge) refers to a diverse Syncretistic Religious movement consisting of various Belief systems Gnosis (from one of the Greek words for Knowledge, γνώσις is the spiritual knowledge of a Saint or mystically enlightened human being Demiurge (the Latinized form of Greek demiourgos, δημιουργός, literally "public or skilled worker" from demos And in Thelema knowledge and conversation with one's Holy Guardian Angel is the purpose of life, which is similar to Gnosis or enlightenment in other mystery religions. Thelema is a philosophy of life based on the rule or law "Do what thou wilt

See also

• Analytic proposition/Synthetic proposition
• A priori/A posteriori
• Belief
• Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities
• DIKW
• Epistemic logic
• Epistemology
• Figurative system of human knowledge
• Institutional knowledge
• Intelligence
• Intuition as an unconscious form of knowledge. The analytic-synthetic distinction is a conceptual distinction used primarily in Philosophy to distinguish propositions into two types analytic propositions and The analytic-synthetic distinction is a conceptual distinction used primarily in Philosophy to distinguish propositions into two types analytic propositions and "A priori" redirects here For other uses see A priori. Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities is a major international statement on Open access / access to knowledge. DIKW is the proposed structuring of d ata i nformation k nowledge and w isdom in an information hierarchy where each layer adds certain attributes Epistemic logic is a subfield of Modal logic that is concerned with reasoning about Knowledge. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge The "figurative system of human knowledge", sometimes known as the tree of Diderot and d'Alembert, was a tree developed to represent the structure of Knowledge " Insititutional Memory " is episode 153 of The West Wing, the penultimate episode of the series Intelligence (also called intellect) is an Umbrella term used to describe a property of the Mind that encompasses many related abilities such as the capacities Many observers throughout history have argued that there are influences on Consciousness from other parts of the Mind.
• Knowledge capture
• Knowledge discovery
• Knowledge engineering
• Knowledge management
• Knowledge networking
• Knowledge relativity
• Knowledge representation
• Learning
• Metaknowledge
• Philosophical skepticism
• Procedural knowledge
• Propædia (outline of human knowledge)
• Propositional knowledge
• Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
• Tacit knowledge
• Theory of Knowledge
• Truth
• Knowledge is Power
• Objectivist epistemology

References

External links

• World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium - An initiative to bridge the gap between the natural and the human/social sciences.
• Theory of Knowledge: The Gettier problem
• Knowledge@Wharton - aimed to offer free access to course materials for students, teachers, and self-learners
• INSEAD Knowledge - showcases INSEAD's business research with articles and podcasts.
• Cybernetics & Human Knowing - A Journal of Second-Order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis & Cyber-Semiotics
• The Incommensurability of Scientific and Poetic Knowledge
• Knowledge for Development Program - World Bank Institute