What is Knowledge?

[JimMorrison]

what exactly knowledge? is knowledge any belief? for example if i believe that there is a box full of shoes under my bed is that considered knowledge or just a belief?


maybe knowledge is when everyone agrees on something together and is widely accepted. but this knowledge can always change since at one time everyone believed the earth to be flat. since it was disproved now that is not considered knowledge.


what does everyone else think knowledge is, after all knowledge is power?

 

[SFG75]

what exactly knowledge?

Something that is varifiable, and is based on the rational mind of man.

is knowledge any belief? for example if i believe that there is a box full of shoes under my bed is that considered knowledge or just a belief?

It's belief if you don't check for it and just think it's there. It's knowledge when you yourself rationally decide to go and check it out.

maybe knowledge is when everyone agrees on something together and is widely accepted. but this knowledge can always change since at one time everyone believed the earth to be flat.

One of the many reasons why Washington Irving should've been shot.......creating a story that is widely accepted by others. In all seriousness, knowledge is and always will be, incomplete. It is only incomplete due to man's limited capacity to find things out in a faster manner. The only remedy for it is time and new findings. As old knowledge is found to be inaccurate, new knowledge will abound to replace it. Knowledge itself isn't the problem, it's our limited minds that haven't reached the entire breadth of what knowledge encompasses.

 

[Libre]

Knowledge is Power.
Time is Money.
Power = Work/Time
By simple substitution we get:

Knowledge = Work/Money
Solving for Money, we get:

Money = Work/Knowledge

Thus, the science of mathematics proves that Money approaches infinity as Knowledge approaches zero, regardless of the value of Work.

This effectively proves that the less you know, the more you make.

Now that I've had my fun, knowlege is a little like great art. It's very hard to define but you know it when you see it. Some people just seem to know stuff - I don't care if it's verifiable or not. When they say something, you take it to the bank because they don't BS you. People like that don't rattle of any old thing they may have heard on Oprah or at the water cooler or even read in an authoritative source (althogh that helps). But even more importantly, they've thought it through critically and found it to be true and only then do they aver. I listen carefully to people like that because it is they who have KNOWLEDGE.

 

[Kookamoor]

I've discussed this many times in an academic context. My conclusions are:

Data --> Information --> Knowledge

That is, one begins with data. Through interpreting this data we get information. From this information we may build a hypothesis (or a belief). This belief can be tested to provide more information. Knowledge comes from combining many sources of information with existing knowledge.

For example, in the case of the shoes:

Data:

Closet = no shoes
On chair = no shoes
Under desk = no shoes

Information: The shoes are not in the closet, on the chair or under the desk. They could be under the bed or in the living room.

Information from other sources: I remember taking my shoes off in my bedroom last night

(hypothesis: the shoes are under the bed)

(test hypothesis: look under the bed)

Knowledge: The shoes are under the bed.

 

[Libre]

I think that knowledge, as the word is being used here, implies more than an awareness of the immediate environment - such as where one's shoes are. It implies an awareness of facts OUTSIDE one's limit of direct observation - such as knowing where George Washington's shoes currently are.
I like the analysis of data-->information-->knowldege, though.

 

[Kookamoor]

It implies an awareness of facts OUTSIDE one's limit of direct observation.

Good point. The shoes example is perhaps a little simplistic. It involves using a number of different sources of information and combining them in a cognitive manner.

 

[Libre]

I find that I think about this topic quite often. All day long, all LIFE long, I hear people AVER, and wonder what makes them so sure.
To AVER. It means to make a statement and present it as fact. *THIS IS TRUTH!*
I might say "It's going to rain tomorrow". I might make the statement because I heard the weatherman say so (which they almost never do - they deal in probabilities). But in fact, I would be AVERING something that I have no real proof or knowledge of.
To AVER. That is a risky thing to do, in my book. Why risky? Because when you AVER you are putting your reputation on the line - at least with me. In an earlier post in this thread, I stated that knowledgeable people don't AVER just any old thing - only what they KNOW to be true.

When somebody's statements are consistantly provable and correct, that it me, is what makes them knowledgeable.

 

[jaybe]

Most of us here in England know...

It's the name of the test for London taxi drivers.

 

[Ayan]

Knowledge is Power.
Time is Money.
Power = Work/Time
By simple substitution we get:

Knowledge = Work/Money
Solving for Money, we get:

Money = Work/Knowledge

Thus, the science of mathematics proves that Money approaches infinity as Knowledge approaches zero, regardless of the value of Work.

This effectively proves that the less you know, the more you make.

lol!! on the the question at hand....

knowledge is everything, yet it is nothing.... it is ever evolving, yet ever decaying.... knowledge can be as simple as taking a breath, or as complicated as the air speed/velocity of an African and a European swallow carrying a coconut [(um... don't ask <.<)] simply put, knowledge is completely abstract, it is what we make of it.

 

[Libre]

I am also reminded of 2 verses we used to recite:
Why Study?
The more you study the more you know;
The more you know the more you forget;
The more you forget the less you know;
The less you know the less you forget;
The less you forget the more you know;
The more you know the more you forget.
Why Study?

Also-

A Specialist is someone that knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.