Knowledge
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For other uses, see Knowledge (disambiguation).
Knowledge is an awareness of facts, a
familiarity with individuals and situations, or a
practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called
propositional knowledge, is often characterized
as true belief that is distinct from opinion or
guesswork by virtue of justification. While there
is wide agreement among philosophers that
propositional knowledge is a form of true belief,
many controversies focus on justification. This
includes questions like how to understand
justification, whether it is needed at all, and
whether something else besides it is needed.
These controversies intensified in the latter half
of the 20th century due to a series of thought
experiments called Gettier cases that provoked
alternative definitions.
The owl of Athena, a symbol of
knowledge in the Western world
Knowledge can be produced in many ways.
The main source of empirical knowledge is
perception, which involves the usage of the
senses to learn about the external world.
Introspection allows people to learn about their
internal mental states and processes. Other
sources of knowledge include memory, rational
intuition, inference, and testimony.[a] According
to foundationalism, some of these sources are
basic in that they can justify beliefs, without
depending on other mental states.
Coherentists reject this claim and contend that
a sufficient degree of coherence among all the
mental states of the believer is necessary for
knowledge. According to infinitism, an infinite
chain of beliefs is needed.
The main discipline investigating knowledge is
epistemology, which studies what people
know, how they come to know it, and what it
means to know something. It discusses the
value of knowledge and the thesis of
philosophical skepticism, which questions the
possibility of knowledge. Knowledge is relevant
to many fields like the sciences, which aim to
acquire knowledge using the scientific method
based on repeatable experimentation,
observation, and measurement. Various
religions hold that humans should seek
knowledge and that God or the divine is the
source of knowledge. The anthropology of
knowledge studies how knowledge is acquired,
stored, retrieved, and communicated in
different cultures. The sociology of knowledge
examines under what sociohistorical
circumstances knowledge arises, and what
sociological consequences it has. The history
of knowledge investigates how knowledge in
different fields has developed, and evolved, in
the course of history.
Definitions
Types
Sources
Limits
Structure
Value
Science
History
In various disciplines
See also
References
External links
Last edited 2 days ago by Phlsph7
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