Epistemology over the Ages

2005-09-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

Bacon on Knowledge
The Reclassification of KnowledgeIn Book II of De Dignitate (his expanded version of the Advancement) Bacon outlines his scheme for a new division of human knowledge into three primary categories: History, Poesy, and Philosophy (which he associates respectively with the three fundamental “faculties” of mind – memory, imagination, and reason). Although the exact motive behind this reclassification remains unclear, one of its main consequences seems unmistakable: it effectively promotes philosophy – and especially Baconian science – above the other two branches of knowledge, in essence defining history as the mere accumulation of brute facts, while reducing art and imaginative literature to the even more marginal status of “feigned history.”Evidently Bacon believed that in order for a genuine advancement of learning to occur, the prestige of philosophy (and particularly natural philosophy) had to be elevated, while that of history and literature (in a word, humanism) needed to be reduced. Bacon’s scheme effectively accomplishes this by making history (the domain of fact, i.e., of everything that has happened) a virtual sub-species of philosophy (the domain of realistic possibility, i.e., of everything that can theoretically or actually occur). Meanwhile, poesy (the domain of everything that is imaginable or conceivable) is set off to the side as a mere illustrative vehicle. In essence, it becomes simply a means of recreating actual scenes or events from the past (as in history plays or heroic poetry) or of allegorizing or dramatizing new ideas or future possibilities (as in Bacon’s own interesting example of “parabolic poesy,” the New Atlantis.) What do you think
posted by Brian Evans at 11:36 PM 0 comments

Spinoza on Knowledge
Three Kinds of KnowledgeWith this distinction between adequate and inadequate perception in place, Spinoza introduces a set of further distinctions. He begins with inadequate perception, which he now calls knowledge of the first kind, and divides it into two parts. The first consists of knowledge from random experience (experientia vaga). This is knowledge “from singular things which have been represented to us through the senses in a way which is mutilated, confused, and without order for the intellect”(P40S2). The second consists of knowledge from signs (ex signis), “for example, from the fact that, having heard or read certain words, we recollect things, and form certain ideas of them, like those through which we imagine the things”(P40S2). What links both of these forms of knowledge is that they lack a rational order. It is obvious that knowledge from random experience follows the order of the affections of the human body, but so does knowledge from signs. A Roman who hears the word ‘pomum’, for instance, will think of an apple, not because there is any rational connection between the word and the object, but only because they have been associated in his or her experience.When we reach what Spinoza calls the second kind of knowledge, reason (ratio), we have ascended from an inadequate to an adequate perception of things. This type of knowledge is gained “from the fact that we have common notions and adequate ideas of the properties of things” (P40S2). What Spinoza has in mind here is what was just indicated, viz., the formation of adequate ideas of the common properties of things and the movement by way of deductive inference to the formation of adequate ideas of other common properties. Unlike in the case of knowledge of the first kind, this order of ideas is rational.We might think that in attaining this second kind of knowledge we have attained all that is available to us. However, Spinoza adds a third type, which he regards as superior. He calls this intuitive knowledge (scientia intuitiva) and tells us that it “proceeds from an adequate idea of the formal essence of certain attributes of God to the adequate knowledge of the [formal] essence of things”(P40S2). Unfortunately, Spinoza is once again obscure at a crucial junction, and it is difficult to know what he has in mind here. He seems to be envisioning a type of knowledge that gives insight into the essence of some singular thing together with an understanding of how that essence follows of necessity from the essence of God. Furthermore, the characterization of this kind of knowledge as intuitive indicates that the connection between the individual essence and the essence of God is grasped in a single act of apprehension and is not arrived at by any kind of deductive process. How this is possible is never explained.Problems of obscurity aside, we can still see something of the ideal at which Spinoza is aiming. Inadequate ideas are incomplete. Through them we perceive things without perceiving the causes that determine them to be, and it is for this reason that we imagine them to be contingent. What Spinoza is offering with the third kind of knowledge is a way of correcting this. It is important to note, however, that he is not proposing that we can have this knowledge with respect to the durational existence of any particular item. As we have already seen, this would require having ideas of all of the temporal causes of a thing, which are infinite. Rather, he is proposing that we can have it with respect to the essence of a singular thing as it follows from the essence of God. To have this kind of knowledge is to understand the thing as necessary rather than contingent. It is, to use Spinoza’s famous phrase, to regard it sub quadam specie aeternitatis, under a certain aspect of eternity.
posted by Brian Evans at 11:19 PM 0 comments
Friday, May 06, 2005

John Locke on Knowledge
KnowledgeKnowledge is publicly verifiable, measurable, plain, demonstrable facts - not imagination (Cranston, p. 17) the best instance of knowing is intuiting - by intuiting is meant a power which the mind possesses of apprehending truth (Aaron, p. 221)Knowledge, like good character, is a set of mental habits rather than a body of belief(Deighton, p. 21)Knowledge is limited to imperfections of ideas we have; we can have probable knowledge even when we can't have certain knowledge (Cranston, p.22)Knowledge is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas (Hutchins, p. 347) - may be four sorts: identity or diversity, relation, co-existence and real existenceKnowing is an infallible intuition; opening is coming to a conclusion after weighing the evidence, but without certainty (Aaron, p 248). Mistakes and lies would be a lack of evidence and defiance of evidence.Aaron, R. (1971). John Locke. Oxford: The Oxford University PressCranston, M. (1969). John Locke (rev. ed. Green and Co., Ltd. London: Longmans,Deighton, L.C. (Ed.) (1971). The encyclopedia of education, volume 6. New York: The Macmillan Company and the Free Press.Hutchins, R.M. (Ed.) (1971). Great books of the western world: Volume 35 - Locke,
posted by Brian Evans at 6:29 PM 0 comments

Habemas - Knolwedge Constituents
KNOWLEDGE CONSTITUENT INTERESTS – HABERMASTechnical Instrumental - (Causal explanation) Work, Natural SciencePractical Practical - (understanding) Language, InterpretiveEmancipatory Emancipatory - (Reflective) Power, CriticalTechnical knowledgerequires a disinterested attitude useful but not only form of knowledge.Industry – material.Practical knowledgeServes a practical interest of understanding and clarifying the conditions for meaningful communication and dialogue. Providing a form of interpretive understanding which can inform and guide practical judgement.By adopting an epistemology for the process of self understanding that excludes critical questions the content of such understanding, the interpretive approach cannot assess the extent to which any existing forms of communication may be systematically distorted by prevailing social, cultural or political conditions.Emancipatory knowledgeGoing beyond subjective meanings in order to acquire an emancipatory knowledge of the framework within which knowledge is constructed.POLESIS and PRAXISImportant conceptual distinctions are not those between knowledge and action, theory and practice, or ‘knowing-how’ and ‘knowing that’. Rather they are distinctions between different kinds of action (polesis and praxis, ethically enlightened action and technically effective-action), and the forms of knowledge appropriate to them. (techne and phronesis, technical knowledge and practical knowledge).W. Carr What is educational Practice? Journal of Philosophy of Education Vol 21 No2 1987Praxis is a form of reflexive action which can transform the theory which guides it.Proisis is a form of non reflective ‘know how’ because it does not itself change its guiding techne.
posted by Brian Evans at 1:21 PM 0 comments
Thursday, May 05, 2005

The Transmission of Knowledge
There is a deeply engrained belief in our society that education is chiefly about the transmission of pre-existing knowledge and the certification of those who have acquired it. As for the nature of knowledge itself, it is generally considered to consist of an authorative, immutable body of facts which have a validity that is independent of how they were arrived at or of the purposes and values of those who use them. From such a perspective, research occurs only on the periphery of ordinary peoples lives. It is carried out by experts in ways and for reasons about which they are ignorant and over which they have little or no control; by the same token, it has almost nothing to do with their own daily activities and, hence, it is unlikely to figure in their views about what should be taught and learned in schools.This view is contradicted by our own experience. Almost every day we learn about some area of knowledge where what was formerly held to be true is now recognised to have been wrong. Knowledge changes and so is clearly not immutable. Facts we learnt at school and college that where considered by the teacher to be vitally important for our future success where forgotten almost as quickly as they were learnt, yet our lives have not been impoverished as a result. If we judge by what is remembered of what was transmitted, then, education based on the "transmissionary " principle does not seem to be particularly effective.There is an alternative to this static view of knowledge which considers fluidity of knowledge during problem solving. Rather than being static and objectified, therefore, it is in a constant state of transformation as it passes from one generation to another and is applied to different issues of changed context . In education knowledge is constantly being constructed and reconstructed by all those involved in the collaborative attempt to develop understanding.FM
posted by Brian Evans at 4:27 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Deleuze
He believed that we should cherish and accept the instability of the physical world and flow through the actualizations of virtuality instead of seeking to limit them. To limit and regulate them is to limit and regulate life and process.For Deleuze it was the One-all which can be thought of as the totality of everything. This totality extends to the end of our physical universe and its conditions of possibility. Such a basic premise seems to harken to Plato and his theory of the realm of ideas and the difference between the intelligible and the sensible. Rightly so, as Deleuze feels he is overturning Platonism. In doing this he seeks to privilege the physical corporeal world by destabilizing the 'idea' of ideals. We get from Plato the impression that these ideals have some sort of stable ontological status (they're real, and they don't change). Furthermore, when they come down to physical reality they are never instantiated quite right. Deleuze saw this as a weak formulation of the real world of the virtual (his realm of ideas). For him any actualization (real physical observable world stuff) is a nexus of virtualities which are necessarily interacting imperfectly. This imperfection implies problems or areas in which the next actualization can let another virtuality intersect the previous virtualities.He believed that we should cherish and accept the instability of the physical world and flow through the actualizations of virtuality instead of seeking to limit them. To limit and regulate them is to limit and regulate life and process.These metaphysical commitments lead Deleuze to elaborate throughout his career an original philosophy rooted in internal difference. He constructs in his works a "non-Hegelianism" by seeking to explain ontological change in terms of immanent difference. Rather than rely upon a change of unified beings imposing wills on each other, forming coherence by reaction (as Deleuze might consider Hegel to do through his dialectic, see for instance the master-slave relationship), Deleuze scours philosophical predecessors for concepts that differentiate between external and internal causation and privilege internal causation, or power that is not divorced from its implementation. To return to Deleuze's larger project, this "productivist monism" as we might call it, reflects his understanding of thought itself. Rather than focus on the idea as an alienation of lived activity, or a transcendence from lived activity, Deleuze considers the "concept" to be a point of indeterminacy between given things, the ruptures between beings that allow their change and causal interpenetration. Deleuze thus relates his theory of mind and politics to the metaphysics described earlier. The concept functions as a creation of new bonds between things, based upon bridging their virtual indeterminacies. Hence we may call Deleuze's philosophy, along with those of his predecessors Spinoza and Nietzsche, one of pure affirmation: at no instant is a "negation" in the Hegelian sense occurring, at no instant is there truly any negative transcendence or transcendence through "abstraction" occurring in the world, not even in human thought.Viewed 26.04.05http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze#The_major_ideas_of_Deleuzian_Philosophy
posted by Brian Evans at 8:17 PM 0 comments

Keyword Links
Glossary LinksHere are a few sites related to the disoursehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology#Definition_of_knowledge
posted by Brian Evans at 7:39 PM

Ephemeral Knowledge - Chris MacCrae

Knowledge is not an object, it is ephemeral, emergent, very relationship & context dependent. To get someone to share their 'knowledge' you need to have their trust and they must be motivated to spill the beans. Knowledge is not something that has a separate existence - you cannot grab or contain knowledge - it requires dialog, community, time, testing & verification to develop and evolve.
posted by Brian Evans at 9:56 AM

Rene De Carte - Mediation 3
Rene de Carte Meditation 3Claimed that matters grounded in clarity and distinctiveness are defeasible and thus not (yet) sufficiently warranted to knowledge. During moments of clear attention we are incapable of doubt. It is only by turning our attention away that meta cognitive doubt creeps in. As such the certainty of the cognito only endures as long as the performance. (Med 3 AT 7:6) Knowledge claims are subject to doubts to which claims about the existence of our own cogitation is immune.So far as internalist-relevant evidence is concerned, all that sensory experience avails us of is a glimpse of our own minds, a glimpse that largely misrepresents the real properties of external things.
posted by Brian Evans at 9:54 AM
Jean-Francois Lyotard 1979 A Report on Knowledge
Jean-Francois Lyotard 1979The Postmodern condition A report on KnowledgeThe status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postmodern age. the nature of knowledge can not remain unchanged by the technological transformations that have and are taking place in areas of language: phonology, linguistics, communication, cybernetics, algerbra and informatics, computers, computer languages, translations, information storage ,data bases, telematics, expert systems and artificial intelligence.The digital revolution places higher status on explicit knowledge, which can be partly translated and transmitted, than on tacit kolwedge which by its ephemeral nature is elusive.Lyotard wrote that ”knowledge ceases to be an end to itself if, it loses its value”“It is widely accepted that knowledge has become the principle force of production over the last few decades”“That scientific and technical knowledge is cumulative is never questioned”.“The question of knowledge is a question of government”The methodological representation adopted by a society affects the development of ‘knowledge‘ within that society.Jean-Francois Lyotard 1979 A Report on Knowledge
posted by Brian Evans at 9:51 AM

The Flow of Knowledge - M Delanda
Manuel Delanda on Knolwedge‘One hundred years ago, Western societies underwent a second Industrial Revolution, based on the the interaction of several technologies: electricity, the internal combustion engine, oil, steel and plastics. Although knowledge and information as inputs to production processes had already played a role in the first Industrial Revolution, it was the coming of electricity, and the creation of the first industrial research laboratories (such as the General Electric laboratory) that propelled knowledge to its position as the most important input to production. Information, of course, also plays key roles in other economic areas such as marketing and investment, and indeed, to the extent that a particular economy is truly driven by supply and demand, the information transmitted by prices has always played a central role. But regardless of the fact that knowledge has always been a key factor in the working of economies, electricity and the other innovations of the early twenty century greatly intensified its importance. And, of course, the explosive growth of computer networks in the last three decades is bound to intensify the flow of knowledge even more and this intensification will undoubtedly transform the nature of the economy in the next century’Manuel Delanda
posted by Brian Evans at 9:42 AM

Polesi, Praxis, Phronesis and Techne
Polesi, Praxis, Phronesis and TechneImportant conceptual distinctions are not those between knowledge and action, theory and practice, or ‘knowing-how’ and ‘knowing that’. Rather they are distinctions between different kinds of action (polesis and praxis, ethically enlightened action and technically effective-action), and the forms of knowledge appropriate to them. (techne and phronesis, technical knowledge and practical knowledge).W. Carr What is educational Practice? Journal of Philosophy of Education Vol 21 No2 1987Praxis is a form of reflexive action which can transform the theory which guides it.Proisis is a form of non reflective ‘know how’ because it does not itself change its guiding techne.
posted by Brian Evans at 9:38 AM Monday, April 25, 2005

Knowledge the Gatekeeper to Wisdom
Enter Vortex, turn left.“The path is clear and given, when a certain knowledge opens up the way in advance, the decision is already made, it might as well be said that there is no decision to make; irresponsibly, and in good conscience, one simply applies or implements a program.” Derrida 1992 p 41 knowledge by acquaintance / knowledge by descriptionRussell's distinction between ways of knowing. Only the objects of immediate experience are known by acquaintance, through our direct awareness of them. Other things are known only by description, through the mediation of our apprehension of true propositions about them. For example:"I have a headache now." may be known by acquaintance, but"Aspirin will relieve a headache." can be known only by description.Despite its apparently narrow extent, knowledge by acquaintance is supposed to provide the foundation for knowledge by description.Recommended Reading:Bertrand Russell, Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits(Routledge, 1994; Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford, 1998); and John G. Slater, Bertrand Russell (St. Augustine, 1994)
posted by Brian Evans at 4:41 PM
Introduction to my research
The FLUIDITY of KNOWLEDGE

I will now consider the fluidity of knowledge in relation to the generally accepted static definition of knowledge. My rejections of definitions of knowledge that infer immobility lead me to consider knowledge to be fluid and not static; it is not a tangible object and therefore cannot be stored and transferred in its pure state from one human to another.How can I know that what has been said or written is true and if I do take information at face value and impute to it the qualities of knowledge, upon what assumption am I so doing? Does verification and acceptance by one or a million and one people of a kernel of knowledge affect the existence of knowledge? In other words does acceptance by quantity alter the nature of knowledge? If this is the case this implies that a semblance of a group of selected individuals, respected in their field, actually change the constitution of a particular artefact of knowledge? Confusion exists regarding the point where information becomes knowledge or knowledge becomes information. A select collection of information can be referred to as a law as in the case of Isaac Newton’s laws of gravity, but at what point does a collection of information become a law? Gravity existed before the laws of Isaac Newton and will exist after the present laws of gravity have been found to be superficial. As was the case with the laws of light which can now be measured in far more depth than was the case in the days of Newton who relied upon; his own intellectual qualities, his eye and a wooden stick. Cumulative knowledge is a static linear concept; it is a simplification of the universes to satisfy human esteem as human kind attempts to understand our existence and our relationship to the universes. Whether knowledge is a human condition or exists without humans is outside the scope of this paper. If the truth lies beyond the capabilities of our minds then perhaps that is the best place for it. My research will explore the interactions between mind, physics and action. It will explore these while considering the socio cultural transactions of existing information bases within the confines of an educational setting. This part of my research may appear conventional yet the development of real time digital communication has added a technological element to the field that did not exist thirty years ago, it is this element.Knowledge is presently considered to be a vital factor of production and a desirable asset. This millennium is chaperoning us from the information age into the knowledge society. Human kind has a tendency to accept that knowledge is a cumulative process and the destiny of human kind is to build and add to the knowledge base of previous generations. History often shows the futility of this quest (Feyerabend 1975). Social aspects of the participants together with the environment and the objects there affect knowledge creation. The unconventional focus of my research is the ephemeral emphasis that I place upon knowledge which in itself raises old age questions. If knowledge has its own virtual life force that enables it to have fluidity and universal influence, how can a person create knowledge? What is the criteria that determines whether knowledge is being discovered, called upon, supported or created?
posted by Brian Evans at 4:27 PM

Metaphors
Come on Baby Light my Fire
Information and Squirrel
Babes in the woods
Fluffy Clouds
The Lion sleeps tonight.
SubductionWater to Cloud,
Granite to Dust

Come on baby light my fire

No physical object on earth remains constant for eternity, thus it is in a state of change and can therefore provide a resource for knowledge. Knowledge does not need to entirely leave the object and will leave its mark, the potential for spark. The flame of knowledge feeds on information and data from all sources. It is many things to many people and impossible to replicate. It starts to degrade as soon as the elements required are not sufficient to maintain its presence. The heat generated reminds us all that knowledge has been or is present, the degree of heat representing the intensity or passage of time. As with a flash of lightening, a blinding sun or slow smouldering log, knowledge will make its presence felt.

Information and Squirrel

Squirrels have an ability to find, carry, manipulate and store nuts. During the cold bleak winter months they retrieve the labours of their busy activity to sustain their existence. The knowledge and the squirrel are at one when the squirrel performs its skilful and timely acts. From my perspective the store of nuts represents information and not knowledge. The nuts will be used to sustain the squirrel’s life force but do not create the life force, they are raw materials that will be used to sustain life and energy that in turn can be used to collect more nuts. Knowledge is of a higher order than information, to confuse the two can lead to misconceptions. Without initiative, environmental context and action the squirrel and the nuts will degrade, the size of the store and the quality of the contents are immaterial. Knowledge gravitates towards movement and variables as it becomes stifled by inactivity and suffocated when static.Babes in the woodsAs humans become unconscious when starved of oxygen, knowledge suffers when its fuel sources are restricted, but what it is able to do is transform and shed its skin in the form of information, leaving an audit trail of glowing ‘reference nuggets’ for future reference. Reference nuggets be they information and or data can be accessed during the process of knowledge creation at lightening speeds, possible even faster, as knowledge can transcend time and distance in an instance.

Fluffy Clouds

We all accept that we can see clouds in the sky, they change shape before our eyes and the shapes they make as the move and mutate are individually interpreted by the eyes that see them. We call them clouds but we are aware that there are different types of clouds, different formations, colours, types. Some are low some appear solid or even look heavy some are wispy some vast sizes others small white and fluffy, they can be ‘angry’, beautiful, or even boring, some people may not notice them or be interested in them but there is general agreement that they exist. One cloud will present itself in different forms to those in different locations and times, a pilot, a walker, three forty five in the afternoon or three fifty five, north side of a hill, south side the same hill. I would like you to take a moment to think of knowledge in the same way. Are humans aware when knowledge is present? Does the activity of knowledge stimulate our inner senses? Are we aware that it is happening when it happens or do we subconsciously defend our desire to be in control or our adherence to frameworks and assimilate the experience over a longer time period? As I write I am starting to consider the concept of collecting knowledge and building knowledge bases, acquiring knowledge while considering the assumptions that underpin a belief that knowledge is cumulative. All of these aspects assume that knowledge is a thing that can be collected and stored, and retrieved in its original state at the time of capture.

The Lion sleeps tonight.

Visions of stuffed animals in Victorian museums are flashing before my eyes,Magnificent specimens, manipulated by skilled taxidermists, displaying their original fur, teeth and claws, meticulously maintained in their wonderful showcases for all to observe. But the sparkle has gone from their eyes, probably because their eyes were the first items to be removed. As regards the once proud lion ,I would be confident to stand on its tail to develop knowledge as to whether this lion is fierce or not. Let us move from the museum to the zoo where we may find a stored living specimen. What is the difference between the lions that England exports to Africa apart from their health and un blemished condition? We need to appreciate these differences between entrapped, caged stored items and entities compared to items and entities that exist in their natural environment. These differences will not always be negative, indeed the healthy condition of the lions bred in England provides physical evidence. But what of the psychological condition of the lion and the effect upon its intrinsic desires and its ability to respond and act in a natural state? My point here is that attempts to capture knowledge will experience gains and losses. Not until we can provide an environment that allows for the natural fluidity of knowledge as it passes over and through information and data will it be possible to imitate the value added relationship that knowledge data and information

Subduction

As atmospheric forces lift the constructs of the sea to form clouds, leaving sediments on earth that in turn become part of the constructs of stones, rocks and landscapes only to recycled back to dust, sand and sediment. Knowledge conforms to this cycle as it transcends the dimensions of space and time. As Subduction takes the sea bed down to the earths’ mantle only to be spewed back to the surface and solidify as impressive volcanic granite formations, not unlike the cumulative backbone of human knowledge which is constantly being deconstructed and regurgitated to represent the truths of the present, The granite gradually turns to China clay as knowledge dissolves and becomes the data of tomorrow. As volcanic lather contains fossils of ancient sea life, information of the day contains the lifeless fossils of ancient knowledge.Water to cloud, Granite to dust.The sea of information churns the data of yesterday as it meets the firmament of today to create the present mist of knowledge for the clouds of tomorrow. The atmospheric forces combine to raise the constructs of water to form diverse clouds, leaving sediments on earth that in turn become part of the construction of stones, rocks and landscapes only to be recycled back to dust, sand and sediment. Knowledge respects this cycle as it transcends the dimensions of space and time. Impressive volcanic granite formations, gradually turning to China Clay a soft white dust that can be disturbed by rabbits breath. The same fate befalls the cumulative backbone of human knowledge as fresh minds and forgotten memories aid the transformation from the knowledge of yesterday to the data of tomorrow.

The Eye of the Hurricane

Spinning and Threading and Splicing its way to the vortex, data spins and links to other data, when the conditions are so, it binds to create information. Information follows the same procedure with the vigour of meaning. The process continues and creates the condition for information strands to be linked in a such a way that creates the beginning of knowledge. As an integral part of the knowledge creation process understanding binds and reinforces the knowledge generated giving knowledge the opportunity to hold open the shutters of ignorance to invite and suggest uses for the knowledge. In this way the subject can enter the vortex to transmute data and information into intelligent action. B. Evans 2005

Metaphors and scientific writing
Eisener 1991 pp227

The enlightened eye:

Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practicesNew York Macmillan“What is ironic is that the professional socialisation of educational researchers, the use of metaphor is regarded as a sign of imprecision; yet, for making public the ineffable, nothing is more precise than the artistic use of language. Metaphoric precision is the central vehicle for revealing the qualitative aspects of life.”First, is the grammatical split between subject and object, a wholly unnoticed metaphor for the separation between “real” subjects and objects. The metaphor is particularly powerful because it is part of our language structure. Second, empiricism views language as a tool. The empiricist world is fixed and available for viewing through the instrumentality of language, downplaying that what we speak about is partly a function of how we speak. Third, empiricism uses a management metaphor. Data are “managed,” variables are “manipulated,” research is “designed,” time is “flow-charted” “tables” are produced,” and “models” (like toothpaste and cars are “tested.” The three metaphors work together to reify a radical separation between subject and object and to create a static world, fixed in time and space.
L.Richardson 1991 pp8-9 from Telling tales in sport
posted by Brian Evans at 4:02 PM

Bacon on Knowledge
Spinoza on Knowledge
John Locke on Knowledge
Habemas - Knolwedge Constituents
The Transmission of Knowledge
Deleuze
Keyword Links
Chris MacCrae - Ephemeral Knowledge
Rene De Carte - Mediation 3

About Me
Name:Brian Evans
Location:Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
I gained my first degree in Management Information Systems at Aston University School of Management and went on to qualify as a Chartered Management Accountant. During the eighties I worked for the Ministry of Defence as the management accountant of the nuclear resistant ‘Ptarmigan’ telecommunications system. In the nineties I worked as a consultant and training officer within the retail industry in London. At the start of the new millennium I undertook a master degree in electronic commerce at Harrow School of Computer Science, Westminster University, this was followed by a Post Graduate Certificate of Education in Information Communication Technology for secondary education. I am presently head of business studies at a tutorial college and a post graduate student following a PhD programme in knowledge management at the Telematics centre within the School for Life Long Learning at the University of Exeter.

http//:www.ebbtech.org.uk

Fluidity of Knowledge

Epistemology over the Ages