Knowledge

By khan

Key words; Meaning and concept of knowledge, Importance of Knowledge, Types of Knowledge, Characteristics of knowledge, Priori knowledge, Posteriori Knowledge, what is Knowledge

Knowledge

1. Meaning and concept of knowledge

2. Importance of knowledge

3. Characteristics of knowledge

4. Types of Knowledge

5. Sources of knowledge

 Meaning and concept of knowledge

Knowledge is all about facts information and skills acquired by a person through experience or systematic education system.it is the skill of;

• Theoretical or practical understanding of a specific subject
• awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation

Plato defined knowledge as

 Justified true belief

Let us compare knowledge with wisdom. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts and information about a subject, while Wisdom is a process of synthesis of knowledge and inductive and deductive skills and develops insights on his experiences and experiences of others. Wisdom increases one’s relationships with others in society and brings new meaning of life. Education is a means of discovering new knowledge and things which we do not know, therefore it increases our knowledge.

According to imam Ghazali, knowledge can bring us closer to God as well as enhance worldly respect and position. Knowledge, according to him is not relative but has an entity in itself. It can raise the status of the individual, create self-respect and take him to the highest position in the society.

Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness, or understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning. Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

So, knowledge is a meaningful structure of facts and information about a specific subject or thing and its relationships. Thus we can define knowledge as

• the facts of knowing
• information or what is already discovered
• the whole of parts and what can be learned or found out more

In modern era Term knowledge is a more enhance view point, it is the collection of information and facts and analysis and synthesis of these facts and information which lead to wisdom, therefore it can be concluded that knowledge and wisdom are interrelated to each other. We can further define knowledge as

• assured belief
• information
• enlightenment
• Practical skill and acquaintance.

The term ‘concept of knowledge’ used by teachers and educators refers to the information and facts that teacher teach and students are expected to learn in given subject and in a given time.

Old concept of knowledge is related to the facts, concepts, theories, and principles that are taught but not related to the skills such as reading, writing or research that students learn in academic courses.

New concept of knowledge is more enhanced view, it include learning of facts, concepts, theories, reading, writing, research and the wisdom that it bring in a person.

 Importance of Knowledge

• Knowledge is the most powerful and important part of life of mankind
• Knowledge has given man unlimited powers. Today with knowledge, man dominated the see, the sky, the space, the illness etc. it is the knowledge which make human being super and intelligent being on this planet 
• Knowledge has helped humans to preserve knowledge and transfer it to next generation due to that our civilization made progress with time.
• Knowledge accounts for the success of the people. The more knowledgeable you are, the more advantage you will have over other people in society.
• This Power of knowledge should not be used for the purpose of destruction purpose but it should be for benefits of mankind

 Characteristics of knowledge

•   Knowledge is like wealth, the more ones gets, the more he craves
• Knowledge expand with time it never decays
• Knowledge once gained, it spread its lights beyond its own immediate boundaries to all
• Information is one source or part of knowledge

Facts, Information and values are the basis of the structures of knowledge.

• Knowledge is boundless
• Knowledge imparted itself to others like a light

Types of Knowledge

In order to impart knowledge, it is important that we know about different types of Knowledge and sources of knowledge that exists in education. Knowledge is an awareness or familiarity gained by experience of fact or situation or by learning it from others. Knowledge can be theoretical or practical. All our knowledge is founded on the experiences of our elders which they gain during hundreds of centuries.
There are debates and disagreement over the different types of knowledge that exist today, this is because the concept of knowledge is purely philosophical and everyone and nation has a different opinion about knowledge; what is knowledge and what is not.

Here some initial types of knowledge that are based on experience

Priori knowledge:

A priori knowledge, in Western philosophy since the time of Immanuel Kant, knowledge that is independent of all particular experiences, as opposed to a posteriori knowledge, which derives from experience (Britannica).

• The literal meaning of a priori is from before or from earlier; A priori is the knowledge that is attained through understanding of how certain things work
• This type of knowledge comes from theoretical reasoning rather than actual observation or personal experience.

.Definition of a priori

Existing in the mind, independent of observation or personal experience

Relating to what may be known through an understanding of how certain things work, rather than by observation or experience e.g. the proposition that all bachelors are unmarried is a priori.

Posteriori Knowledge

A posteriori knowledge, knowledge derived from experience, as opposed to a priori knowledge (Britannica).

A posteriori literally mean from what comes later or comes after

• It is the knowledge which is gained through observation and experience
• A posteriori knowledge depends on experimental evidence
• It is empirical knowledge
• Truths of physics, chemistry, and biology are examples of a posteriori knowledge.
• This kind of knowledge is gained through experience using logic

In philosophy term, a posteriori is interchangeably use for empirical knowledge which is based on observation