Knowledge

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. It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic. In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology; the philosopher Plato famously defined knowledge as "justified true belief", though this definition is now thought by some analytic philosophers to be problematic because of the Gettier problems, while others defend the platonic definition.

Types of Knowledge

Knowledge can be classified into different types based on various criteria. Some of the common classifications are:

• A Priori Knowledge: This is knowledge that is acquired independently of any particular experiences, such as mathematical and logical knowledge.

• Empirical Knowledge: This is knowledge based on experience or observation. This type of knowledge can be communicated from one person to another.

• Tacit Knowledge: This is knowledge that a person may not be aware of having and is therefore difficult to transfer to another person.

• Explicit Knowledge: This is knowledge that a person is consciously aware of and can communicate to others.

Knowledge Acquisition

Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.

See Also

• Epistemology
• Information
• Wisdom
• Understanding
• Learning

Knowledge Resources
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