Knowledge: Sources, Forms, and Scientific Methods
Knowledge
What is Knowledge?
Knowledge is contact with reality to distinguish, understand, and relate information. It involves making something conscious or known, systematizing it wisely, accounting for it before others, and critically questioning what one believes.
Knowledge is a grasp of reality fixed in a subject, expressed, communicated to other subjects, systematized, and incorporated into a tradition.
Sources of Knowledge
The two main sources of knowledge are sensibility (experience) and reason. Sensibility provides the basics about understandable things, while reason produces different kinds of knowledge, generally linked to some experience.
Forms of Knowledge
Knowledge can be classified in different ways. Considering the object of knowledge, we can distinguish the following:
- Common or ordinary knowledge
- Scientific knowledge
- Technical expertise
- Philosophical knowledge
- Artistic knowledge
- Religious knowledge
Common or Ordinary Knowledge
Common knowledge is based on everyday life experiences (e.g., “iron is harder than lead”). While undoubtedly knowledge, it may not explain the underlying reasons. This type of knowledge lacks systematic organization and is often mixed with prejudices.
Scientific Knowledge
Scientific knowledge involves the systematic organization of knowledge and explains why facts are as they are.
Technical Knowledge
Technical know-how consists of performing certain activities, pursuing contrast and world domination. Today, this is called technology.
Philosophical Knowledge
Philosophical knowledge involves using reason to argue critically and rigorously.
Artistic Knowledge
Artistic knowledge is linked to narrative, literature, film, poetry, and art. Each art form expresses the experience of life in its own way, offering different ways of knowing reality.
Religious Knowledge
Religious knowledge concerns the sacred or divine.
Scientific Knowledge
Evolution of the Term “Science”
In the Greek world, science was episteme (a superior, more elaborate kind of knowledge). Plato contrasted it with opinion, which was knowledge of the sensible, empirical world. Aristotle conceived of science as universal and necessary knowledge produced by deduction from principles, unaffected by contingency.
Both science and philosophy were considered types of knowledge with claims to universality, necessity, immutability, and eternity. The modern notion of science emerged during the Renaissance with the Scientific Revolution. Scientific knowledge differentiated from philosophical knowledge through experimental experience and the application of mathematics to the study of reality. Experiments, defined as planned activities using mathematical formulas, became central. The object of scientific knowledge is to determine what things are, how they behave, and to construct, control, and display aspects of experience to gain understanding.
Is Philosophy a Science?
Aristotle considered philosophy a rigorous scientific knowledge that could provide the fundamental structure of reality. However, the modern notion of science emphasizes experimentally verifiable or falsifiable statements. Philosophical statements don’t always meet this criterion. Therefore, philosophy is not a science in the modern sense, and ‘knowledge’ and ‘science’ are not synonymous.
Types of Science
Throughout history, various classifications of science have been proposed. A field is generally considered a science when it defines its object of study and, importantly, its own method. Some believe that the defining characteristic of science is its ordered method, oriented towards achieving a specific end.
Classification of Science
- Formal Sciences: Logic/Mathematics (arithmetic, set theory, geometry, algebra)
- Natural Sciences: Physical sciences (physics, chemistry, astronomy, physical geography); Biological sciences (biology, physiology, anatomy, genetics, zoology)
- Social Sciences: Sociology, psychology, economics, political science, human geography, anthropology, history (art, science, politics), sociobiology
Methods of Scientific Knowledge
Methods of Formal Sciences
Formal sciences are concerned not with empirical facts but with reasoning. The two primary modes of demonstration are deduction and induction. Deduction is a reasoning process that derives a necessary and logical conclusion from given propositions (premises). The ideal scientific methodology constitutes a formal axiomatic system:
- Axioms: Fundamental, unprovable principles within the system.
- Formation and Transformation Rules: Allow deriving new valid statements to extend the system.
- Theorems: Statements derived deductively from axioms or other proven theorems.
Methods of Natural Sciences
Natural sciences have used inductive proof. The complete method of natural science is called the hypothetical-deductive method.
Inductive Proof
Inductive reasoning draws a general conclusion from a series of individual cases known through experience. Complete induction involves knowledge of every single case within a domain, while incomplete induction relies on a series of individual tests that don’t cover all possible cases.
Hypothetical-Deductive Method (Galileo)
This method is structured on three levels:
- Protocol Statements: Express empirically observed and communicable phenomena.
- Laws: Universal statements expressing the regular and unvarying behavior or relationships of phenomena.
- Theories: Universal statements from which all laws of a particular science can be inferred.
The steps of this method are:
- Observation and/or experimentation
- Elaboration of explanatory hypotheses
- Mathematical formulation of hypotheses
- Testing and contrasting of consequences: verification, corroboration, or falsification
- Acceptance of the hypothesis as law (if corroborated)