What is Knowledge?

As with many concepts in the post-modern society, both in academia and in practice there are ongoing philosophical debates on the definition of the concept of "knowledge" - in context of scientific knowledge.

One area of the debate focuses on the classic definition of knowledge as "Justified True Belief" - accordingly, a statement must meet three criteria in order to be considered knowledge: it must be justified, true, and believed.

However, this definition has seen elaborate challenges and there is yet to be a universally accepted version of this classic definition.

I was introduced to Nico Stehr's definition of knowledge by Prof.Johann Kinghorn, Chair of the Department of Information Science and Director of the Centre for Knowledge Dynamics and Decision-Making at the Stellenbosch University. Stehr holds that knowledge per definition, is a capacity for action. As such, knowledge is in economic terms, more often than not socially contextualised - "knowledge enables an actor in conjunction with control over the contingent circumstances of action, to set something in motion...knowledge always requires some kind of attendant interpretive skills and a command of the situational circumstances".

Stehr elaborates further: "If sold, knowledge enters the domain of others, yet remains within the domain of the producer. Knowledge constitutes a basis for comparative advantages. The power knowledge offers is mainly linked to a control over additions to knowledge, not the general stock of knowledge. In this century, knowledge becomes an immediately productive force".

When Stehr indicates that knowledge has to be made available, interpreted and linked to local circumstances, he also see this as a job performed by experts, counselors and advisors. It is this group of people that further developes the "additions" or "incremental" knowledge untill it can be interpreted (by them for other?) within specific contexts or situations.

Jane Gilbert, Chief Researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, wrote an article with the title: "'Catching the Knowledge Wave' Redefing Knowledge for the Post-Industrial Age", published by the Canadian Education Association, wherein Gilbert refers to French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard who, in his book titled "The Postmodern Condition" (1979) argued that in the future (now), knowledge will be important, not as it was in the past in its relation to truth, reason and certainty, but for what he calls its "performativity", its energy or ability to do things, its use-value.

Lyotard emphasises the role of knowledge in innovation when he says that knowledge will be mobilised on a as-and-when needed basis (situational) to produce innovative new products. Learners will be encouraged to develop an understanding of an organized stock of public and/or professional knowledge ("old" knowledge), not to add to it, but to pursue its performance - its "performativity" - that is, to apply it to new situations, to use it and replace it in the process of innovation.

I do not know whether or not Lyotard and Stehr were in contact with each other or the extent to which the one was influenced by the work of the other, but it seems as if they agree, or at least in part, that knowledge and action are interdependent. Lyotard indicates to the fact that in the knowledge society, existing knowledge, not new knowledge, is applied (in new contexts) during the process of innovation, by anyone, not only experts ("expert individuals will be far less important"), counselors and advisors - as according to Stehr.

In her article, Gilbert also refers to Manuel Castells and his work on the information age. According to Gilbert, Castells says that knowledge is no longer thought of as a "thing", a kind of matter produced by human thought and then codified in disciplines or by expert individuals. Rather it is now understood as being like energy, something defined by its effectiveness in action, by the results it achieves - a dynamic, fluid and generative force, or a capacity to do things.

For Castells, knowledge is now something that causes things to happen; it is produced collaboratively by teams of people, something that happens in the relationships between those people. It is a process, rather than a product, it is constantly changing, evolving, flowing, and re-generating itself into new forms.

Gilbert enthusiatically notes: "Knowledge is now innovation, innovation is quality, and quality control is knowledge management".

Nico Stehr, "Knowledge as a Capacity for Action". Paper presented at OECD Workshop "New Indicators for the Knowledge-Based Economy", Paris, France June 19-21, 1996

Jane Gilbert, "Catching the Knowledge Wave" Redefining Knowledge for the Post-Industrial Age. Education Canada Vol. 48 (4). Copyright: Canadian Education Association, 2008