Theory of Knowledge

Michael Polanyi’s theory of knowledge, Habermas and interdisciplinary research

by Nigel Newton

Review and consideration of Michael Polanyi's theory of knowledge. His relevance to contemporary research in the... more Review and consideration of Michael Polanyi's theory of knowledge. His relevance to contemporary research in the social sciences is discussed. The article also re-evaluates the importance of fiduciary commitment.

Knowledge Management Discipline: Test for an Undergraduate Program in Turkey

by Mustafa Sagsan

Mustafa Sagsan

This study aims to explain the theoretical aspect of KM in order to construct a new undergraduate
program.... more This study aims to explain the theoretical aspect of KM in order to construct a new undergraduate
program. Knowledge management as a discipline plays a crucial role at the undergraduate level in universities.
Firstly, it is needed to create a common terminology from which the scholars can establish programs. Secondly, a
set of sciences are needed. These two stages will allow us to redefine the knowledge management discipline
from an interdisciplinary perspective that is based on four fundamental paradigms: (1) technological, (2) socio
technical, (3) inter / intra organizational and (4) humanist paradigm. This will allow us to have an opportunity to
improve the common terms, which we can establish the knowledge management undergraduate programs from.
In addition, the practical perspective of this study will be tested in Turkish universities, which have knowledge
management undergraduate programs, which will enable us to suggest a new sample for how knowledge
management undergraduate degree programs should successfully be constructed in Turkey.

The Knowing Body: Nishida's Philosophy of Active Intuition (Kōiteki chokkan)

by Matteo Cestari

Published in "The Eastern Buddhist", Vol. XXXI, No. 2, 1998, pp. 179-208.

Movere sensum disciplinaliter. Zoomorphic symbolism and theory of knowledge in Eriugena, Periphyseon, IV 751c-752c

by Stefano Perfetti

in M.C. Pacheco-J. Meirinhos (eds.), Intellect et imagination dans la Philosophie Médiévale / Intellect and Imagination in Medieval Philosophy / Intelecto e imaginaçao na Filosofia Medieval [Actes du XIe Congrès International de la SIEPM, Porto du 26 au 31 août 2002], Brepols, Turnhout 2006, vol. II, pp. 841-853.

De la neotología y la gnoseología: abandono y recuperación de la teoría del conocimiento

by Alberto Hidalgo Tuñón

Knowledge is Perception: In defence of Theaetetus

by Catherine Rowett

published in Wolfgang Detel, Alexander Becker, Peter Scholtz (edd) Ideal and culture of knowledge in Plato (Akten der 4. Tagung der Karl-und-Gertrud-Abel-Stiftung vom 1.-3. September 2000 in Frankfurt) Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2003, pp133-158 (ISBN 3-515-08337-5)

Context is all (Margaret Atwood). Is there no such thing as truth?

by Anupriy Kanti

Final essay done for 'Theory of Knowledge' as a part of requirement for International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

Knowledge, economy, technology and society: The politics of discourse

by David Rooney

The WSIS is centrally interested in knowledge and has defined for itself a mission that is broadly humanitarian. Its... more The WSIS is centrally interested in knowledge and has defined for itself a mission that is broadly humanitarian. Its development ‘talk’ is, rightly, replete with notions of equity, preserving culture, justice, human rights and so on. In incorporating such issues into knowledge society and economy discussions, WSIS has adopted a different posture towards knowledge than is seen in dominant discourses. This study analyses the dominant knowledge discourse using a large corpus of knowledge-related policy documents, discourse theory and an interrelational understanding of knowledge. I show that it is important to understand this dominant knowledge discourse because of its capacity to limit thought and action in relation to its central topic, knowledge. The results of this study demonstrate that the dominant knowledge discourse is technocratic, frequently insensitive to the humane mission at the core of the WSIS, and is based on a partial understanding of what knowledge is and how knowledge systems work. Moreover, I show that knowledge is inherently political, that the dominant knowledge discourse is politically oriented towards the concerns of business and technology, but that an emancipatory politics of knowledge is possible.

A Sociolinguistic Approach to Applied Epistemology: Examining Technocratic Values in Global “Knowledge” Policy

by David Rooney

This special issue presents an excellent opportunity to study applied epistemology in public policy. This is an... more This special issue presents an excellent opportunity to study applied epistemology in public policy. This is an important task because the arena of public policy is the social domain in which macro conditions for ‘knowledge work’ and ‘knowledge industries’ are defined and created. We argue that knowledge-related public policy has become overly concerned with creating the politico-economic parameters for the commodification of knowledge. Our policy scope is broader than that of Fuller (1988), who emphasizes the need for a social epistemology of science policy. We extend our focus to a range of policy documents that include communications, science, education and innovation policy (collectively called knowledge-related public policy in acknowledgement of the fact that there is no defined policy silo called ‘knowledge policy’), all of which are central to policy concerned with the ‘knowledge economy’ (Rooney and Mandeville, 1998). However, what we will show here is that, as Fuller (1995) argues, ‘knowledge societies’ are not industrial societies permeated by knowledge, but that knowledge societies are permeated by industrial values. Our analysis is informed by an autopoietic perspective. Methodologically, we approach it from a sociolinguistic position that acknowledges the centrality of language to human societies (Graham, 2000). Here, what we call ‘knowledge’ is posited as a social and cognitive relationship between persons operating on and within multiple social and non-social (or, crudely, ‘physical’) environments. Moreover, knowing, we argue, is a sociolinguistically constituted process. Further, we emphasize that the evaluative dimension of language is most salient for analysing contemporary policy discourses about the commercialization of epistemology (Graham, in press). Finally, we provide a discourse analysis of a sample of exemplary texts drawn from a 1.3 million-word corpus of knowledge-related public policy documents that we compiled from local, state, national and supranational legislatures throughout the industrialized world. Our analysis exemplifies a propensity in policy for resorting to technocratic, instrumentalist and anti-intellectual views of knowledge in policy. We argue that what underpins these patterns is a commodity-based conceptualization of knowledge, which is underpinned by an axiology of narrowly economic imperatives at odds with the very nature of knowledge. The commodity view of knowledge, therefore, is flawed in its ignorance of the social systemic properties of knowing’.

Public policy in knowledge-based economies: Foundations and frameworks

by David Rooney

The Knowing Nation: A Framework For Public Policy in a Knowledge Economy

by David Rooney

As the global economy becomes more knowledge intensive and the wealth of nations more dependent on their knowledge... more As the global economy becomes more knowledge intensive and the wealth of nations more dependent on their knowledge assets being harnessed, it is essential for policy makers to have frameworks for the development and utilisation of national knowledge assets. This article argues that a policy framework can be developed through which policy initiatives in a range of policy areas can be filtered in order to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy. We have developed an approach that has previously been applied to managing intellectual capital in firms and adapted it to the public policy arena. In doing so we question policy orthodoxies such as the assumption that free trade automatically facilitates international knowledge flows, that participation in a global knowledge economy necessarily challenges national sovereignty, and that online delivery of education is necessarily a progressive strategy.

Cohering The Parts: the search for a teleological direction in the coherence theory of truth

by Xavier Meulders

draft only

Science is often considered as a set of propositions referring to an objective world existing independently of the... more Science is often considered as a set of propositions referring to an objective world existing independently of the human mind. Due to their very being, propositions are either true or false. This ultimately means that theories in which science is equated with a certain whole of propositions, must rely on a correspondence theory of truth. But when we try to incorporate the role of human knowledge into the scientific process, we discover that the correspondence theory simply breaks down. This leaves us with a coherence theory of truth, in which it are not propositions but judgements that form the most fundamental elements of a scientific theory. When examining the nature of judgement, we come to the conclusion that the notion of truth used in a coherence theory is fundamentally different from the one used in a correspondence theory. It is a primitive notion that cannot be defined or analysed, since the coherence theory has ‘bracketed’ the validity of the world of objective axioms and propositions. But examples of it can be given, such as the law of non-contradiction which brings our whole edifice of judgements into a coherent, non-contradictory whole. Nevertheless, the truth-standards of a coherence theory are not merely formal. They are in fact driven by a certain ‘telos’ toward an ever clearer disclosure of the world as it is in itself. But then it might be interesting to examine the very origin of this ‘telos’ or ‘drive’. Husserlian phenomenology, for instance, has searched for this drive in the notions of ‘transcendental subjectivity’ and ‘the lifeworld’. But even these notions are not self-sufficient in the sense that they can provide an adequate explanation of the directedness of our intentional life. And this ultimately leads us to the inevitable realm of the philosophy of God.

Más allá de Aristóteles: un análisis metafísico del entendimiento

by David Torrijos-Castrillejo

“Más allá de Aristóteles: un análisis metafísico del entendimiento,” in: Alfonso Pérez de Laborda (ed.), El Dios de Aristóteles. νόησις νόησεως, Madrid: Ediciones de la Facultad de Teología san Dámaso, 2009, pp. 345-366.

http://www.amazon.es/dios-aristoteles-Alfonso-Perez-Laborda/dp/8496318753/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1326355947&sr=8-20

In this paper, I try to show how the intellect and the reality go together by a metaphysical analysis of the... more In this paper, I try to show how the intellect and the reality go together by a metaphysical analysis of the intellectual potency. According to the classical think, there is a true ‘idealist’ way to considerate the intellect. In the divine intellect there is —ontologically— all being that is present —logically— in God’s mind.

La conciencia en Millán-Puelles, "La estructura de la subjetividad"

by David Torrijos-Castrillejo

A review of Spanish philosopher Antonio Millán-Puelles' book “La estructura de la subjetividad”. He shows that the... more A review of Spanish philosopher Antonio Millán-Puelles' book “La estructura de la subjetividad”. He shows that the human consciousness is a consciousness sited in a finite being and no Idealism is allowed (nor transcendental Idealism).

Estas páginas resumen la primera parte de la obra del filósofo español del s. XX, Antonio Millán-Puelles, "La estructura de la subjetividad". Éste lleva a cabo un estudio de la capacidad cognoscitiva humana desde un punto de vista metafísico. Pone de manifiesto la radical finitud de la conciencia, que no puede comprenderse bajo ninguna forma de idealismo (tampoco trascendental). La conciencia humana es siempre una conciencia dada en un ser finito (y corpóreo) y esto hace que posea una serie de características peculiares; en concreto, la imposibilidad de un autoconocimiento directo.
Al final se añade un excursus que habla sobre la concepción del concepto de ente y los grados de abstracción.

Kant, Brentano and Stumpf on Psychology and Anti-Psychologism

by Guillaume Fréchette

Draft only,  to appear as « Kant, Brentano and Stumpf on Psychology and Anti-Psychologism », in Kant and Philosophy in a Cosmopolitical Sense, S. Bacin, A. Ferrarin, C. La Rocca and M. Ruffing (eds.), Berlin-New York, De Gruyter, 2012.

Vygotsky and the Dialectical Appropriation of Reality by Scientific Knowledge

by Newton Duarte

"When Do I Get My Money?" A Probabilistic Theory Of Knowledge. PhD thesis 2011

by Jonny Blamey

PhD thesis KCL 2011. Examiners Jon Williamson and Luc Bovens, final supervisor David Papineau.

The important claim in this thesis is that it is rational to vary your degree of belief relative to what is at stake.... more The important claim in this thesis is that it is rational to vary your degree of belief relative to what is at stake. This allows a probabilistic theory of knowledge that can answer scepticism and avoid Gettier problems. It provides a decision theory that explains the Allais paradox, the Ellsberg paradox and gives an empirically adequate account of decisions under risk, whilst providing a probability measure that conforms to the Kolmogorov axioms. The probabilistic theory of knowledge thus vindicates the intuition that the same evidence can yeild knowledge at low stakes but not at high stakes.
At the heart of the theory is the Stake Size variation principle. This is a development of Ramseys theory of probability. The Stake Size Variation Principle give a measure of evidential support that is commensurable with measures for good. This allows a two dimensional account of evidential strength in terms of the point probability and the evidential value. The evidential value then determines how resilient the point probability is in the face of changes in stake size, as well as changes in evidence. The SSVP thus equates knowledge with value via the expectation principle.
There are two main arguments for the SSVP.
Firstly there is the contextualist argument that the scope of alternatives that need to be eliminated by the evidence can expand with an expansion of the stakes. In otherwords, it is wise to consider more possibilities when the stakes are high before settling in certainty.
Secondly there is the information theoretic argument based on the work of Kelly Jnr, which shows the inevitability of a downward drift and eventual ruin if one bets at the objective probability. This is due to the logarhythmic nature of growth.
The thesis concludes with a discussion of inductive certainty, showing how the SSVP can give an adequate account of how inductive certainty is possible.     

Transferring tacit knowledge in extended enterprises

by William P. Hall

2007: Nousala, S., Hall, W.P., John, S. Transferring tacit knowledge in extended enterprises. IKE'07- The 2007 International Conference on Information and Knowledge Engineering, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 25-28, 2007.

Organizations need to build and use knowledge to remain viable in the face of competition and change. Due to the... more Organizations need to build and use knowledge to remain viable in the face of competition and change. Due to the limits of organization and the bounded rationality of individuals working within the organizations it is impossible to make all of the required knowledge accessible in explicit and readily retrievable formats. Much of the knowledge an organization needs is held tacitly by members of the organization. This "personal knowledge" is normally inaccessible to other members because they have no way to know that it exists. Communities of practice help to mobilize personal knowledge. In this paper we present and discuss the emergence of communities of practice, some tools, concepts and an ontology we have prototyped to facilitate the development of these communities. Such communities provide avenues for sharing and transferring normally hidden knowledge.

What do they know?

by Jonny Blamey

Conocimiento y justificación epistémica

by Lorenzo Peña