Knowledge
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is the result obtained from the progressive and gradual process of apprehension of the world. This implies a general knowledge that is specified in a knowledge of people, objects or ideas, among others.
In general terms, knowledge represents the relationship between a knowing subject (which is capable of understanding) and a knowable object (which can be known). Epistemology studies the essence of knowledge in scientific terms, while epistemology studies knowledge in general.
According to the means by which it is apprehended, that is, through experience or reason, knowledge is classified into two large groups:
Empirical knowledge
Empirical knowledge is that which is obtained through experience. It implies the use of the senses as a way of accessing the object that one wants to know.
Rational knowledge
Rational knowledge is that which is obtained through reason. It implies a cognitive process mediated by mental processes.
Philosophical knowledge
It is a type of critical, metaphysical, unconditioned, universal and metaphysical knowledge. Philosophical knowledge
Philosophical knowledge contains the series of conclusions that human beings are capable of reaching through philosophical reasoning, that is, through reflective, critical, and deductive methods that philosophy proposes.
Philosophical knowledge is different from scientific or theological knowledge, both in its procedure and in its purposes, since it does not apply the experimental scientific method like the first, nor does it focus on demonstrating the existence or nature of God, like the second.
Scientific knowledge
It is a type of verifiable, methodological, objective and selective knowledge.
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Technical knowledge
It is a type of knowledge that uses tools to solve problems.
Knowledge as a relationship between subject and object
Knowledge represents a relationship between a subject that seeks to know and an object that one wishes to know. The possibility of giving knowledge arises from the contact between one and the other.
However, this relationship is problematic. Some philosophers maintain that there is a determination of the subject by the object. Others, on the other hand, think that it is the subject that determines the object. The former are grouped under the heading of “objectivists” and the latter as “subjectivists”.
Objectivism
Objectivism holds that it is the object that determines the subject. In this way, the subject is affected by how the object is shown or presented to him and everything he can say about it arises from the object itself. An example of this is Platonism.
Subjectivism
Subjectivism maintains that it is the subject that determines the object. In this way, the object is affected by the conditions of possibility of knowledge that the subject brings with himself. An example of this is Kantianism.
There is another way of thinking about the problem, which is related to the ontological character of the object, that is, the nature of being of the object. If you think that objects have an ideal, mental being, you think about the problem from idealism. On the other hand, if you think that the objects are independent of thought, you think about the problem from realism.
Scientific knowledge
Scientific knowledge is a particular type of knowledge, based on the systematic and methodical observation of phenomena, which seeks to explain the phenomena in an objective, coherent and precise manner. To do this, it uses the scientific method, a series of procedures through which it seeks to guarantee the rigor of the observations made and ensure the validity of the conclusions reached.
Scientific knowledge includes both laws and theories.
- Laws
They are observed patterns in phenomena. For example, Isaac Newton’s laws of motion describe what happens when an object is at rest or in motion (first law), the force required to move an object at rest or stop a moving object (second law), and what happens when two objects collide (third law).
- The theories
They are systematic explanations of phenomena. Newton’s three laws of motion are part of a theory of moving objects and are the basis of classical mechanics.
How is knowledge acquired?
Five ways of accessing knowledge are recognized:
- Intuition
Being faced with an unprecedented situation, knowledge can be obtained through instinct or empirical and immediate understanding, without a rational process mediating it, nor can it be explained or verbalized.
- Experience
Once a situation has been lived, it is already known and the experience resulting from what happened is possessed, applicable then to future situations.
- Tradition
People pass on to future generations part of the knowledge they have gained in their lives, so that the latter do not have to go through the same thing and can benefit from something without having to experience it.
- Authority
Much knowledge is accepted based on its source, and incorporated because faith in the rigor or truth of the person who transmits it is a sufficient guarantee.
- Scientific experimentation
The interpretation of experiments and evidence resulting from the application of the scientific method, allow to discern the legitimate knowledge from the false, and thus acquire knowledge from those obtained by third parties, simply by reviewing their notes or publications.
