Word for obtaining knowledge

There are many ways of acquiring knowledge. Intuition, authority, experience, and reasoning are all ways to gain knowledge. We acquire knowledge from our experience. People who are experts in the subject matter also provide a great deal of information. Here we discuss different ways of acquiring knowledge.

Intuition

The dictionary definition of intuition is instinctive knowing (without the use of rational processes) or the impression that something might be the case but you do not have a reason for that knowledge. Intuition relies on justifications like “it feels right to me”. The problem with such an approach is there is no way to separate accurate knowledge from inaccurate knowledge, as there is no way to observe or examine the accuracy of the knowledge. Intuition is the quickest way to obtain an answer to a question or problem when there is no information, or when you cannot refer to any supporting data, and the use of rational justification is not possible.

This approach relies on acquiring the knowledge from a person who is a respected source of information on that particular subject. This approach relies on the fact that we accept what is fixed or established especially by order or authority. While there is always a chance that the fact stated by the authority/expert might be inaccurate, it can generally be a good starting point as it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to obtain knowledge. But there are problems with authoritative sources of knowledge too. For example, we often hear about conflicting testimonies by an expert witness in court trials. Another issue with this approach to knowledge is the ability of an expert to present facts in an unbiased manner. And lastly, authoritative information from one field may not generalize to other fields. For example, the skills for running a successful business may not necessarily translate to the skills and expertise required for running a government agency.

Empiricism or Experience

This approach to acquiring knowledge relies on the idea that all knowledge is gained through experience which can be verified or disproved by observation, experimentation, or experience. Philosophers John Locke (1632–1704) and David Hume (1711–1776) argued that virtually all knowledge is based on experience. We gain knowledge through sensory perception. Empirical or a posteriori knowledge comes through senses. But we also know from research, that our past experiences and motivations at the time of perceiving can drastically influence our senses. There is also evidence that memory of events does not remain constant. Nonetheless, empiricism is a vital approach to gaining knowledge.

Reasoning or Rationalism or Metaphysical method

This approach to acquiring knowledge rests on the idea that reason is the primary source of knowledge. Favored by many philosophers, it assumes that the behavior of natural objects is governed by a set of laws and that people can discover these laws by their efforts. That is, truth is knowable or can be discovered independent of observations, purely through thinking, including mathematical and logical reasoning and other thinking processes. There is a priori knowledge that is supplied by our consciousness independently of all experience, achieved by pure reasoning alone. This type of reasoning begins with the search for true premises. Then, by the use of logic, deduces natural laws from these axiomatic truths. For example, physicists first extend their understanding through reasoning and logical thinking using mathematical models which have led to theoretical discoveries like the Higgs Boson particle or gravitational waves.

Scientific Method

Empiricism and rationalism are the key cornerstones of the scientific method. Scientists use reasoning (mostly deductive reasoning) to provide a theoretical and empirical rationale for the research, to develop hypotheses, and to determine the validity of the results. And they make empirical observations under controlled conditions and provide systematic documentation to reduce biases. This provides objectivity to validate or refute the hypotheses. Thus the modern science stands tall on the two main pillars: rationalism and empiricism For more information on the scientific method please refer here.

Bibliography

Popper, K. R. (1968). The logic of scientific discovery. London, England: Hutchinson and Co.

Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Chalmers, A. F. (1999). What is this thing called science? (3rd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.

Cite this article (APA)

Trivedi, C. (2020, November 22). Ways of knowing/acquiring knowledge. ConcpetsHacked. https://conceptshacked.com/ways-of-acquiring-knowledge/

The young of those countries know little or nothing about simple amusements which are so popular in the United States, and acquire from their elders their knowledge of betting and taking part in games of chance, two evils which unquestionably have done much to degrade the race as a whole.

Mr. P. gained nothing by this trip but the knowledge that there are but 980 of these islands, which an unscrupulous monarchy imposes upon a credulous people as a full thousand, and the gloom which would naturally pervade a man, after an occurrence of the kind just narrated.

How many ministers possess, for instance, a scholarly knowledge of human nature or of the deeper aspects of redemption?

To reconnoitre the enemy‘s positions by daylight was hazardous work, and the Scots had to obtain their first—hand knowledge of the river and the approaches to it in the dark hours.

Dominion over physical law requires a certain knowledge of science beyond the physical as well as a working knowledge of the spiritual laws.

Reference is easy to the story written by one of the representatives of France, possibly the most efficient through having been in America a long time and having fuller and more intimate knowledge of the American representatives, particularly Colonel House.

« «You tell me, Miss Muriel, that you suspect the truth, and yet you deny all knowledge of the murdered man!«

This situation gives the trader a more intimate knowledge of his speciesa more ready insight into character, and of the modes of operating on it.

Grey, it appeared, was a student of campaigns, and he and Ringan were deep in a discussion of Conde‘s battles, in which both showed surprising knowledge.

Madame Castle says her aptitude for imparting knowledge amounts to genius.

He was the vehicle by which was brought accurate knowledge.

« He took me homeward at a speed which well—nigh foundered me, and, when I questioned him, he told me where he got his knowledge.

The trial afforded its considerable amusement, and gave me a splendid opportunity to display the legal knowledge which I had acquired while acting as justice of the peace at Fort McPherson.

The traveller, however, who should visit the United States in a more leisurely way, with the purpose of increasing his knowledge of history and politics, would find it well to proceed somewhat differently.

He extended, however, the knowledge of his countrymen with regard to the western regions.]

I attended one morning with my uncle the Petty Sessions of Hertford, where, no doubt, I was supposed to enlarge my knowledge of sessions practice; it certainly did so, for I knew nothing, and received a lesson, which is not only my earliest recollection, but my first experience in Advocacy.

But I have undertaken to explain to you the best mode of acquiring and communicating a knowledge of zoology, and you may therefore fairly ask me for a more detailed and precise account of the manner in which I should propose to furnish you with the information I refer to.

In «Old maid« the children pair the groups and so learn to recognise them; in dominoes they use this knowledge, while «Snap« involves quick recognition.

He became now a diligent hearer of the most celebrated professors, and made great advances in all the sciences, still regulating his studies with a view, principally, to divinity, for which he was originally intended by his father; and, for that reason, exerted his utmost application to attain an exact knowledge of the Hebrew tongue.

They joined to the worship of the gods, and to the profession of medicine and natural magic, a pretended familiarity with superior powers, from which they boasted of deriving all their knowledge.

« «Perhaps I should have kept that knowledge to myself.

Many weeks elapsed after the Nausett party had joined the friendly Pequodees, ere any preparations were made for journeying to the west; and these days were chiefly employed by Henrich in improving his knowledge of the Indian language, and especially of the Nausett dialect, by conversing with Oriana and her young companions, both male and female.

Then he would devise plan after plan, by which he might hope to obtain some intelligence of the settlement, or convey to his relatives the knowledge of his safety.

Hearing of this, the Master said, «Why did you not say, He is a man with a mind so intent on his pursuits that he forgets his food, and finds such pleasure in them that he forgets his troubles, and does not know that old age is coming upon him?« «As I came not into life with any knowledge of it,« he said, «and as my likings are for what is old, I busy myself in seeking knowledge there.

They have taught me such knowledge as the Sachems of my nation never dreamed of, and they have given me two comrades after my own heart.