Theory of Knowledge

The following sections are included:

• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author

There is an abundance of different books and papers treating various problems and studying different issues of knowledge (cf., for example, (Aune, 1967; Polanyi, 1974; Cleveland, 1985; Chisholm, 1989; Bloor, 1991; Burgin, 1997; Boisot, 1998; Choo, 1998; Rao, 1998; Pollock and Cruz, 1999; Bernecker and Dretske, 2000; Bean and Green, 2001; Popper, 2002; Goldman, 2004; Dalkir, 2005; Leydesdorff, 2006; Magnani, 2007; Nguen, 2008; Fantl and McGrath, 2009; Zhuge, 2012)). A lot of ideas, models, and several theories have been suggested in this area. The whole area of knowledge related activities consists of three parts:

• Knowledge studies (theoretical and experimental).
• Knowledge engineering.
• Knowledge utilization and management.

The following sections are included:

• The differentiation and classification of knowledge
• Existential characteristics of knowledge
• Descriptive properties of knowledge and corresponding typology
  • Dimensions and other characteristics of knowledge
  • Correctness, relevance, and consistency of knowledge
  • Confidence in and certainty of knowledge
  • Complexity and clarity of knowledge
  • Significance of knowledge
  • Efficiency of knowledge
  • Reliability of knowledge
  • Abstractness and generality of knowledge
  • Completeness of knowledge versus precision of knowledge
  • Meaning of knowledge
  • Other descriptive properties of knowledge
• Metaknowledge andmetadata

Traditionally, separation of knowledge from beliefs is treated as the foremost problems in epistemology. This separation is performed by truth-evaluation of beliefs — those beliefs that were considered true and for which this evaluation was justified were called knowledge. Although contemporary theories of knowledge have elaborated more sophisticated criteria, all of them include some kind of evaluation (Pollock and Cruz, 1999)…

Here we consider the microlevel or quantum level of knowledge with three main goals:

• construction of an adequate mathematical model of knowledge units;
• explication of elementary knowledge units;
• exploration and description of elementary knowledge unit integration into complex knowledge systems

This study provides means for discerning data and knowledge and finding links between them, as well as for improving efficiency of information processing by computers.

Although philosophers paid a lot of attention to knowledge of people developing logic as a tool for knowledge acquisition (cognition) and justification, the structures used in logic for these objectives were rather limited. So, the real interest to problems of knowledge structures and functioning emerged when people tried to make their computers intelligent. When researchers started to teach computers to solve problems people can solve, they found that while computers can solve some problems (mostly calculations with numbers) even better than people could do, many problems that were easy for people were not doable for computers. To overcome these limitations of computers, researchers created a scientific direction called artificial intelligence (AI)…

In the context of global knowledge, that is, on the knowledge megalevel, there are two approaches to knowledge structuration:

• System structuration organizes knowledge in the form of interacting knowledge systems.
• Typological structuration groups knowledge with respect to different types

For instance, scientific and mathematical knowledge are structured as systems of interacting theories. At the same time, typological structuration organizes knowledge systems according to their types. For instance, as it is done in Chapter 2, three basic types of knowledge are discerned: descriptive, representational, and operational knowledge. Each type forms a subsystem or component of an advanced scientific or mathematical theory.

In the previous chapters, we studied knowledge properties, their evaluation and verification, as well as knowledge structures on different levels. The goal of this chapter is to describe activities and processes going on in the knowledge universe, which consists of a diversity of knowledge systems and items together with their representations and carriers. We consider such processes and activities as cognition, knowledge production, learning, knowledge acquisition, knowledge discovery, reasoning, knowledge management and application…

Knowledge is intrinsically related to data and information. This association became evident with the advent of computers. However, people still struggle to achieve unambiguous understanding of relations between these concepts. There is a huge diversity of judgments on this topic. Many papers and books present views of their authors on such relations. Some works reflect points of view of different authors. For instance, 130 definitions of data, information, and knowledge formulated by 45 scholars are collected in (Zins, 2007). A variety of approaches to this problem is also described in the book (Burgin, 2010)…

Thus, we can see that knowledge is an extremely complex and at the same time, more than ever important phenomenon. It plays a pivotal role in the life of individuals, functioning of organizations and the whole existence of society. It is important to understand the two-sided function of knowledge for a system that possesses knowledge. On the one hand, knowledge can be and in many cases, is the source of change and development. On the level of an individual (the knower), good knowledge and its correct application can lead to a better life and higher achievements. On the level of organization, knowledge can enhance extension of activities, expansion into new domains, and improvement of organizational culture and practices. On the level of society, knowledge brings steady technological and economical progress, which accelerates all the time. In essence, it is possible to envision knowledge processes as fundamental drivers of life on all levels…

The following sections are included:

• Appendix
  • A. Set theoretical foundations
  • B. Elements of the theory of algorithms
  • C. Elements of algebra and category theory
  • D. Numbers and numerical functions
  • E. Topological, metric and normed spaces
• Bibliography
• Subject Index