Knowledge

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Isaac Newton

Key ideas

The ideas such as knowledge, culture, ethics do not make much sense and remain arbitrary unless they are directly connected to the 'universe story' with its nonhumans, its evolution, etc. Cf. the idea of knowledge as a connection and expression of life in Barnett.

Barnett, Ronald, and Søren Smedegaard Bengtsen. Knowledge and the University: Reclaiming Life. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020.

On the need for a radical transformation in knowledge systems:

Fazey, Ioan, Niko Schäpke, Guido Caniglia, Anthony Hodgson, Ian Kendrick, Christopher Lyon, Glenn Page, et al. “Transforming Knowledge Systems for Life on Earth: Visions of Future Systems and How to Get There.” Energy Research & Social Science 70 (2020): 101724. https://doi.org/10/gh8nwf.

On participation in knowledge production:

Brereton, Professor Pat, Dr Olga Grant, Dr Diarmuid Torney, and Teresa Gallagher. “Better Together: Knowledge Co-Production for a Sustainable Society.” Discussion paper. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2021.

Knowledge and Future

In science, the word knowledge indicates the knowledge of the future. Knowledge equals the ability to make predictions. On this view, historians are not scientists because their predictions are about the past.

Vedral, Vlatko. Decoding Reality: The Universe as Quantum Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Knowledge Types and Aspects

This is a master index files for the knowledge-related aspects of research.

Agents of Knowing

Chamovitz, Daniel. What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses. Victoria, AU: Scribe Publications, 2012.

Wohleben, Peter. Inner Life of Animals: Surprising Observations of a Hidden World. Translated by Jane Billinghurst. 2016. Reprint, Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2018.

Culture

On human biases and the use of language consider the language in Gormenghast

Professional Cultures and Biases

This happens in art worlds and in all Professions

Ethics

Imagination

Limitations

All knowledge is limited.

energy is required to hold knowledge, also space, matter, work, etc.
probing for information modifies the object of study
searching for information with a topic in mind distorts what one finds
patterns that have no meaning in some settings might be meaningful in other circumstances
periods of information gathering and interpretation are limited but the processes are ongoing or at least longer-lasting
knowledge occupies a place in the world, displacing/modifying the object of study

References

Burgin, Mark. Theory of Knowledge: Structures and Processes. World Scientific Series in Information Studies. New Jersey: World Scientific, 2017.

Subnotes

Backlinks