Difference between revisions of "Knowledge" - New World Encyclopedia

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'''Knowledge''' is evaluated and organized [[information]] with implications of being true, justified, or believed. Knowledge is often distinguished from opinion. Opinion implies one's perspective without a claim for general or universal validity. The term ''knowledge'' is also used to mean the confident [[understanding]] of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.  
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[[Image:KnowlTruth.png|frame|Knowledge is true and believed and...]]
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'''Knowledge''' is evaluated and organized [[information]] with implications of being true, justified, and believed. Knowledge is often distinguished from opinion. Opinion implies one's perspective without a claim for general or universal validity. The term ''knowledge'' is also used to mean the confident [[understanding]] of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.  
  
 
Knowledge can be studied from diverse disciplinary perspectives. [[Epistemology]], for example, is the philosophical study of the nature, origin, scope, method of and access to knowledge, [[sociology of knowledge]] studies social function and effects of knowledge, [[philosophy of religion]] generally includes defining the particular natures of religious knowledge, and [[knowledge management]] deals with principles and mechanisms of knowledge management as a part of [[information science]].
 
Knowledge can be studied from diverse disciplinary perspectives. [[Epistemology]], for example, is the philosophical study of the nature, origin, scope, method of and access to knowledge, [[sociology of knowledge]] studies social function and effects of knowledge, [[philosophy of religion]] generally includes defining the particular natures of religious knowledge, and [[knowledge management]] deals with principles and mechanisms of knowledge management as a part of [[information science]].
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#Deductive reasoning
 
#Deductive reasoning
  
== Communicating knowledge ==
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== Religious meaning of knowledge ==
  
[[Symbolic representation]]s 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 [[:wikt:ascription|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.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}
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In many expressions of [[Christianity]], such as [[Catholicism]] and [[Anglicanism]], knowledge is one of the [[seven gifts of the Holy Spirit]].<ref>{{cite web
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|url=http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s1c1a7.htm#1831
 +
|title=Part Three, No. 1831
 +
|work=Catechism of the Catholic Church
 +
|accessdate=2007-04-20}}</ref>
  
While many would agree that one of the most universal and significant tools for the transfer of knowledge would be the different systems of writing 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 “Phaerus” (Postman, Neil (1992) ''Technopoly'', Vintage, New York, pp 73). 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 form an external source and will no longer be forced to mentally retain large quantities of
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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".  
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, Allyb and Bacon, 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.
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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.
  
== Situated knowledge ==
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== Sociology of knowledge ==
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{{main articles|[[Sociology of knowledge]] and [[Sociology of scientific 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. {{Fact|date=September 2007}}
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The '''sociology of knowledge''' is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. (Compare [[history of ideas]].)
  
Some methods of generating knowledge, such as [[trial and error]], or learning from [[experience]], tend to create highly situational knowledge. 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.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}
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The term first came into widespread use in the 1920s, when a number of German-speaking [[sociology|sociologists]] wrote extensively on it, notably [[Max Scheler]], and [[Karl Mannheim]] with ''Ideology and Utopia''. With the dominance of [[functionalism (sociology)|functionalism]] through the middle years of the 20th century, the sociology of knowledge tended to remain on the periphery of mainstream sociological thought. It was largely reinvented and applied much more closely to everyday life in the 1960s, particularly by [[Peter L. Berger]] and [[Thomas Luckmann]] in ''[[The Social Construction of Reality]]'' (1966) and is still central for methods dealing with qualitative understanding of human society  (compare ''[[socially constructed reality]]'').
Situational knowledge is often embedded in language, culture, or traditions.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}
 
  
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 [[three dimensional space|3D]]. 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 (philosophy)|A priori and a posteriori]]''.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}
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Although very influential within modern sociology, the sociology of knowledge can claim its most significant impact on science more generally through its contribution to debate and understanding of the nature of science itself, most notably through the work of [[Thomas Kuhn]] in ''[[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]]'' (see also: [[paradigm]]).
 
 
== Partial knowledge ==
 
 
 
One discipline of [[epistemology]] focusses on partial 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.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}
 
  
 
== Knowledge management ==
 
== Knowledge management ==
 
{{main|Knowledge management}}
 
{{main|Knowledge management}}
  
Knowledge management is a [[management]] [[theory]] which emerged in the 1990s. 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. (ii) Nonaka's reformulation of [[Michael Polanyi|Polanyi's]] distinction between [[tacit knowledge|tacit]] and [[explicit knowledge]]. 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.
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'''Knowledge Management''' ('KM') comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute [[knowledge]]. It has been an established discipline since [[1995]] <ref>(Stankosky, 2005)</ref>  with a body of university courses and both professional and academic journals dedicated to it. Most large companies have resources dedicated to Knowledge Management, often as a part of '[[Information Technology]]' or '[[Human Resource Management]]' departments, and sometimes reporting directly to the head of the organisation. As effectively managing information is a must in any business,and knowledge and information are intertwined, Knowledge Management is a multi-billion dollar world wide market.
 
 
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 System]]s. More recent developments have focused on managing networks (the flow of knowledge rather than knowledge itself) and narrative forms of knowledge exchange.
 
 
 
== 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]].<ref>{{cite web
 
|url=http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s1c1a7.htm#1831
 
|title=Part Three, No. 1831
 
|work=Catechism of the Catholic Church
 
|accessdate=2007-04-20}}</ref>
 
 
 
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".  
 
  
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.
+
Knowledge Management programs are typically tied to organisational objectives and are intended to achieve specific outcomes, these can include, improved performance, competitive advantage innovation, lessons learnt transfer (for example between projects) and the general development of collaborative practices.  
  
 +
One aspect of Knowledge Management, [[knowledge transfer]], has always existed in one form or another. Examples include on-the-job peer discussions, formal apprenticeship, discussion forums, corporate libraries, professional training and mentoring programs. However, with computers becoming more widespread in the second half of the 20th century, specific adaptations of technology such as [[knowledge base|knowledge bases]], [[expert system|expert systems]], and [[repository|knowledge repositories]] have been introduced to further simplify the process.
  
 +
Knowledge Management programs attempt to manage the process of creation (or identification), accumulation and application of knowledge across an organisation. As such Knowledge Management is frequently linked to the idea of the [[learning organization|learning organisation]] although neither practice encompasses the other.  Knowledge Management may be distinguished from Organisational Learning by a greater focus on specific knowledge assets and the development and cultivation of the channels through which knowledge flows
  
== Sociology of knowledge ==
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Frequent Knowledge Management practices include:
{{main articles|[[Sociology of knowledge]] and [[Sociology of scientific knowledge]]}}
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*  ''enabling organisational practices'', such as [[Communities of Practice]] and corporate [[Network Information Service|Yellow Page directories]] for accessing key personnel and expertise
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*  ''enabling technologies'' such as knowledge bases and expert systems, help desks, corporate [[intranet]]s and [[extranet]]s, [[Content management|Content Management]], [[wikis]] and [[Document Management]]  
  
Aspects of knowledge exhibit a social character. For instance, knowledge is a form of [[social capital]]. Sociology of knowledge examines the way in which Society and knowledge interact.
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The emergence of Knowledge Management has also generated new roles and responsibilities in organisations, an early example of which was the [[Chief Knowledge Officer]]. In recent years, [[Personal knowledge management]] (PKM) practice has arisen in which individuals apply KM practice to themselves, their roles and their [[career development]].  
  
Through experience, observation, and inference, individuals and cultures gain knowledge. The spread of this knowledge is examined by [[diffusion (anthropology)|diffusion]]. [[Diffusion of innovations]] theory explores the factors that lead people to become aware, try, and adopt new ideas and practices — this can help to explain development of knowledge.
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Knowledge Management has also been linked to knowledge manipulation - the creation, dissemination and use of knowledge is instrumental (Land, Nolas, Amjad). Hence actual knowledge management may constitute a kind of malpractice in which what purports to be knowledge is created to achieve an effect, such as the false accounts presented by ENRON.
  
 
== Other definitions ==
 
== Other definitions ==
 +
 
*Knowledge is "information combined with experience, context, interpretation, and reflection. It is a high-value form of information that is ready to apply to decisions and actions." T. Davenport et al., 1998
 
*Knowledge is "information combined with experience, context, interpretation, and reflection. It is a high-value form of information that is ready to apply to decisions and actions." T. Davenport et al., 1998
  
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[[category:Philosophy]]
 
[[category:Philosophy]]
  
{{credits|Knowledge|61524535|Knowledge|176995052}}
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{{credits|Knowledge|61524535|Knowledge|176995052|Sociology_of_knowledge|176423031|Knowledge_Management|176795877}}

Revision as of 22:09, 11 December 2007


File:KnowlTruth.png
Knowledge is true and believed and...

Knowledge is evaluated and organized information with implications of being true, justified, and believed. Knowledge is often distinguished from opinion. Opinion implies one's perspective without a claim for general or universal validity. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.

Knowledge can be studied from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Epistemology, for example, is the philosophical study of the nature, origin, scope, method of and access to knowledge, sociology of knowledge studies social function and effects of knowledge, philosophy of religion generally includes defining the particular natures of religious knowledge, and knowledge management deals with principles and mechanisms of knowledge management as a part of information science.

Defining knowledge

See also: epistemology

We suppose ourselves to possess unqualified scientific knowledge of a thing, as opposed to knowing it in the accidental way in which the sophist knows, when we think that we know the cause on which the fact depends, as the cause of that fact and of no other, and, further, that the fact could not be other than it is. Now that scientific knowing is something of this sort is evident — witness both those who falsely claim it and those who actually possess it, since the former merely imagine themselves to be, while the latter are also actually, in the condition described. Consequently the proper object of unqualified scientific knowledge is something which cannot be other than it is. —Aristotle, Posterior Analytics (Book 1 Part 2)

The definition of knowledge is a matter of on-going debate among philosophers in the field of epistemology. 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. Some claim that these conditions are not sufficient, as Gettier case examples allegedly demonstrate. 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. 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.

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". [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".

Wittgenstein presented the idea of "family resenblance" in Philosophical Investigations using the example of a game. The term "game" is used in multiple ways but there is no single defining characteristics common to all games. Just like members of the same family resemble each other, all games are more or less similar. Likewise, knowledge can be defined by virtue of similarity of the usage of the term in diverse contexts.

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." (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

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.[3]

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".

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.

Sociology of knowledge

Main articles: Sociology of knowledge and Sociology of scientific knowledge

The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. (Compare history of ideas.)

The term first came into widespread use in the 1920s, when a number of German-speaking sociologists wrote extensively on it, notably Max Scheler, and Karl Mannheim with Ideology and Utopia. With the dominance of functionalism through the middle years of the 20th century, the sociology of knowledge tended to remain on the periphery of mainstream sociological thought. It was largely reinvented and applied much more closely to everyday life in the 1960s, particularly by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in The Social Construction of Reality (1966) and is still central for methods dealing with qualitative understanding of human society (compare socially constructed reality).

Although very influential within modern sociology, the sociology of knowledge can claim its most significant impact on science more generally through its contribution to debate and understanding of the nature of science itself, most notably through the work of Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (see also: paradigm).

Knowledge management

Main article: Knowledge management

Knowledge Management ('KM') comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge. It has been an established discipline since 1995 [4] with a body of university courses and both professional and academic journals dedicated to it. Most large companies have resources dedicated to Knowledge Management, often as a part of 'Information Technology' or 'Human Resource Management' departments, and sometimes reporting directly to the head of the organisation. As effectively managing information is a must in any business,and knowledge and information are intertwined, Knowledge Management is a multi-billion dollar world wide market.

Knowledge Management programs are typically tied to organisational objectives and are intended to achieve specific outcomes, these can include, improved performance, competitive advantage innovation, lessons learnt transfer (for example between projects) and the general development of collaborative practices.

One aspect of Knowledge Management, knowledge transfer, has always existed in one form or another. Examples include on-the-job peer discussions, formal apprenticeship, discussion forums, corporate libraries, professional training and mentoring programs. However, with computers becoming more widespread in the second half of the 20th century, specific adaptations of technology such as knowledge bases, expert systems, and knowledge repositories have been introduced to further simplify the process.

Knowledge Management programs attempt to manage the process of creation (or identification), accumulation and application of knowledge across an organisation. As such Knowledge Management is frequently linked to the idea of the learning organisation although neither practice encompasses the other. Knowledge Management may be distinguished from Organisational Learning by a greater focus on specific knowledge assets and the development and cultivation of the channels through which knowledge flows

Frequent Knowledge Management practices include:

  • enabling organisational practices, such as Communities of Practice and corporate Yellow Page directories for accessing key personnel and expertise
  • enabling technologies such as knowledge bases and expert systems, help desks, corporate intranets and extranets, Content Management, wikis and Document Management

The emergence of Knowledge Management has also generated new roles and responsibilities in organisations, an early example of which was the Chief Knowledge Officer. In recent years, Personal knowledge management (PKM) practice has arisen in which individuals apply KM practice to themselves, their roles and their career development.

Knowledge Management has also been linked to knowledge manipulation - the creation, dissemination and use of knowledge is instrumental (Land, Nolas, Amjad). Hence actual knowledge management may constitute a kind of malpractice in which what purports to be knowledge is created to achieve an effect, such as the false accounts presented by ENRON.

Other definitions

  • Knowledge is "information combined with experience, context, interpretation, and reflection. It is a high-value form of information that is ready to apply to decisions and actions." T. Davenport et al., 1998
  • "Explicit or codified knowledge refers to knowledge that is transmittable in formal, systematic language. On the other hand, tacit knowledge has a personal quality, which makes it hard to formalize and communicate." I. Nonaka, 1994.
  • "knowledge as the human expertise stored in a person’s mind, gained through experience, and interaction with the person’s environment." Sunasee and Sewery, 2002.
  • "Knowledge is a physical, mental or electronic record of relationships believed to exist between real or imaginary entities, forces and phenomena." Worthington, 2005.
  • "the insights, understandings, and practical know-how that we all possess – is a fundamental resource that allows us to function intelligently." Wiig, 1996.
  • "knowledge is information evaluated and organized by the human mind so that it can be used purposefully, e.g., conclusions or explanations." Rousa, 2002.

There are numerous type of knowledge divided according to its functions and its carrier systems (for example, management knowledge, manager knowledge).

See also

Notes

  1. In Plato's Theaetetus, Socrates and Theaetetus discuss three definitions of knowledge: knowledge as nothing but perception, knowledge as true judgment, and, finally, knowledge as a true judgment with an account. Each of these definitions is shown to be unsatisfactory.
  2. Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty, remark 42
  3. Part Three, No. 1831. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
  4. (Stankosky, 2005)

References
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External links

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