The types of knowledge have not been classified homogeneously, this is a subject in which consensus has not been reached. Philosophers, scientists and academics from other areas have different views on the matter and have proposed classifications that obey disparate parameters, such as: whose knowledge is, how is it created, how it is acquired or how it is transmitted. Next, a list is presented in which a typology of knowledge is proposed that includes some of the different perspectives observed in the literature, but not before offering an answer to the question what is knowledge. As you can see, the characteristics of some of the types overlap each other, in some cases examples are presented that seek to make the concepts clearer.
What is knowledge
A fairly direct definition is the one cited by Muñoz and Sanchis (p. 1), in it it is said that knowledge consists of the ability to solve a certain set of problems with a certain effectiveness.
Bunge (p. 34), from the philosophical point of view indicates that knowledgeit is the result of a cognitive process, such as perception, experiment, or deduction. Note that to qualify some knowledge it is sufficient but not necessary that it be true. True knowledge is a special case of knowledge: most of our knowledge is conjectural and only half true. Two types of knowledge must be distinguished, knowing how, knowing how to do, know-how (or tacit knowledge, by familiarity or instrumental knowledge) and knowing what, know-that (or explicit knowledge, by description, or declarative). For example, I know how to ride a bike but I don't know the complicated mechanisms (both mechanical and neuromuscular) of this action; I am intimately familiar with myself but do not know myself thoroughly.
What are the types of knowledge
Plato and the types of knowledge
Plato (pp. 34 - 37), proposes that knowledge is not reduced to the senses but operates in two dimensions, on one side is the world of reason (epistemé) and on the other the world of the sensible (doxa). Within these dimensions there are four types of knowledge that correspond to four degrees of reality:
• Imagination (Eikasía)
It is the degree of knowledge furthest from the truth, it is represented through images of the world called eikones, which are imitations of the outside world.
• Belief (Pistis)
It is the way the world is known, it is the knowledge of the natural physical, it means belief and trust, it is a type of knowledge based on habit.
• Deductive knowledge (Diánoia)
It is made up of mathematical, geometric and similar entities, mathematiká.
• Intelligence or intuition (Nóesis)
Composed of the principles of the arithmetic realm, which are assumed to be how they are defined and adopted as known or archaí evident principles.
Imagination and belief, eikasía and pistis, constitute the sensible knowledge that belongs to the world of the doxa, the world of the opinionable that is an imperfect imitation of the superior world or the world of the intelligible. The world of reason or intelligible, episteme, is made up of deductive knowledge and intelligence, dianoia and noésis.
In the following video capsule the fundamental elements of Plato's theory of knowledge are synthesized:
The types of knowledge in empiricism
The English philosopher John Locke, one of the most influential thinkers of empiricism in the theory of knowledge, in Essay on human understanding, cited by Ruiz (p. 85 and 86) and Lazerowitz and Ambrose (pp. 20 and 21), postulated three types of knowledge based on the mind's perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas, which are the same or different, as follows:
• Intuitive knowledge
It is presented as an immediate perception of the agreement or disagreement of the ideas that originate knowledge, without the intervention of any other; for example, the mind perceives that white is not black or that a circle is not a triangle.
• Demonstrative knowledge
In it the mind makes an effort to come to perceive the agreement or disagreement of the ideas that originate it. Mathematical and moral reasoning are two examples of this type of knowledge. The content of these reasonings are propositions made up of complex ideas that the mind has elaborated based on a continuous series of intuitions and that, being a creation of our understanding, can be demonstrated with precision, although without the promptness and security of intuitive knowledge..
• Sensitive knowledge (sensory or sensitive)
It is about that perception of the mind that accounts for the existence of particular external objects of the physical world corresponding to our ideas and that through the senses provide us with 'evidence that makes us doubt'. That is, the agreement or disagreement is verified between the idea and the existence of what is supposed to cause it.
For Locke, beyond these three forms of intellectual activity the "appearance of knowledge" could be created, but due to lack of certainty, it would be considered as mere faith or opinion.
Locke's theory of knowledge is explained in the following video clip:
The classification of knowledge in idealism
Immanuel Kant, precursor of idealism, cited by Cordua and Torreti (p. 111), classified knowledge into two categories, namely:
• A priori knowledge
It is a knowledge independent of experience and even of all sensory impressions.
• Empirical knowledge
It has its sources, a posteriori, that is, in experience. Experience is knowledge through linked perceptions.
Watch the following video to learn more about Kant's theory of knowledge:
Knowledge according to your semiotics
We know more than we can say. Polanyi
Michael Polanyi, a leading 20th century social science intellectual, identified two types of knowledge, tacit and explicit, opposed to each other in light of five essential characteristics, namely: transfer, how easily it can be transferred or shared; imitation, how easily it can be imitated; aggregation, how easy it can be added; appropriation, how easily someone can appropriate it and; support, where it is contained.
• Tacit knowledge
It is given through intuition and experience, it works as a background knowledge that helps to carry out specific tasks and varies depending on the situations, it could be said that it is a skill. Difficult to transfer, imitate and add, easy to appropriate. Its support is people.
• Explicit knowledge
It does not require experience, it is tacit knowledge that has become explicit through language, it could be identified as that which can be learned based on theory. Easy to transfer, imitate and add, difficult to appropriate (because it is a public good). Its usual support is documents or computer media.
An example proposed by Polanyi, cited by Riesco (p. 64): «When we use a hammer to drive a nail, we pay attention to the nail and the hammer at the same time, but in different ways… The difference can be specified if we say that the hammer It is not the object of our attention - unlike the nail - but an instrument of it. I am not looking at the hammer, but at something else (the nail), even though I pay attention to it. I have an auxiliary awareness of its presence in my breast that is mixed with the specific awareness that I have of the action of driving a nail.
Propositionality and types of knowledge
Campos (p. 18) exposes three types of knowledge according to their propositional nature:
• Declarative knowledge
It has to do with the "what." Describe and represent the idea of an object, idea or event, explain its particular characteristics.
• Procedural knowledge
It has to do with the "how", it is in charge of solving problems, making plans and making decisions. It involves the sequence of actions to carry out a task.
• Structural knowledge
It has to do with the "why" of concepts (events, happenings, things, etc.) and their interrelationships, also known as causal knowledge.
Depending on the location of the knowledge
Blackler (pp. 1023 - 1026), in his study of knowledge and its relevance in organizations, identifies five types of knowledge, namely:
• Brain awareness (embrained)
It is dependent on high-level conceptual skills, cognitive abilities, and intellectual abilities, is abstract, and is associated with "knowing what."
• Body knowledge (embodied)
It is action-oriented and only partially explicit, associated with "knowing how." It depends on the physical presence of people, on the sensations perceived through the senses and is acquired through experience, doing.
• Cultural knowledge (encultured)
It has to do with the processes of shared knowledge, usually between peers in the same group, is based on the use of spoken language and is socially constructed.
• Embedded knowledge (embedded)
It is the knowledge that has been built over time, with habits, with routines that are taken for granted in what would be called "day to day." It can be considered highly specialized by someone who is outside the activity.
• Encoded knowledge
It consists of the information found in written texts, books, manuals or any other material, multimedia and digital for example.
These five types of knowledge make up a scale or pyramid, between the tacit and the explicit, with brain knowledge being the most tacit of the five and codified knowledge the most explicit.
Types of knowledge based on their location - Blackler (1995)
Types of knowledge in the social sciences
Martínez and Guerrero (pp. 11 - 13), propose the following five types of knowledge, intuitive, empirical, religious, philosophical and scientific:
• Intuitive knowledge
It is acquired through the senses and is not subject to any kind of doubt, it is immediate and allows us to know if an object is or is not. For example, once we have known the concepts of light and dark, we will instantly identify them simply by witnessing them, without having to know if the light or darkness is due to night or day or if the curtains were lowered or raised..
• Empirical knowledge
It is also obtained through the senses but with the additional feature that the repetition component is added, which translates into experience. It is general and shallow in the sense of not going to the cause of the phenomenon or seeking its explanation. For example, we note that we cannot add ice to a glass full of water to the brim because it would overflow and the liquid would be spilled, however, this does not mean that we know Archimedes' principle.
• Religious knowledge
It results from the intention of knowing the nature of things from explanations that come from the metaphysical field. It is reached through faith, it is accepted as is and is not discussed.
• Philosophical knowledge
Look for the reason for the phenomena based on rational, systematic and critical reflection, seeking the understanding of reality in its most universal context.
• Scientific knowledge
It is characterized by the constant search for laws and principles that govern natural phenomena. It is the result of a rigorous and objective method; aspires to give a reason for all its statements, systematize, substantiate and prove them.
Classification of knowledge according to who owns it and how it is experienced
Dombrowski, Rotenberg, and Bock (pp. 34-47) suggest two basic distinctions. In the first, they divide knowledge into two types that are highly related and that would create a category governed by the question of who is knowledge, it is personal knowledge and shared knowledge.
• Personal knowledge
It is the portion of knowledge that is distinguished because it starts from a SELF that knows, knows, understands and / or understands a certain concept, a certain experience and is based on its own perception of reality. That SELF knows, for example, that at some point it was lost, in the sense of spatial or geographical orientation, because it did not know where it was after walking for a certain time in a place that it did not frequent. And that knowledge is personal of that SELF because, despite the fact that many people have been able to have a similar feeling when realizing that they lost their way, their perception is unique, only he / she knows how they felt.
• Shared knowledge
Just as the ME of the previous example knew that they had lost their way, other MEs also discover it by not being sure of where they are or how to get back on track, sharing that general feeling makes that knowledge be shared even though each one you will experience the sensation in a particular way. In this way "being lost" is a term that is familiar to all, it is a human experience, a shared knowledge.
Under the second distinction, which is based mainly on experience, they identify three types: experiential knowledge, thinking and action skills (knowing how to do something) and knowledge claims.
• Experiential knowledge
It is obtained from living in the world, from feeling it in your own flesh through your own sensations and emotions. It has two components, direct experience and reflection.
The first, direct experience, consists of contact with everything that surrounds the individual and requires their active participation; For example, the fact that a person describes in detail their feelings when dancing with someone they like, is not comparable to the fact that the listener recreates the moment in their mind, they are not really dancing, no matter how vivid the narration, only Whoever danced with the person of their choice knows what it feels like to do it.
The second, reflection, implies that the person, in addition to having the experience, asks himself what it means to him and what he can learn from it, it means that he is aware of the experience and captures something of its meaning, which enables him to reach conclusions such as: I know that if I study I am more likely to pass than if I don't.
• Thinking and action skills (knowing how to do something)
To learn a skill requires, in addition to knowing the information, experience. That is, it is possible to know how to play baseball, the rules and the technical aspects, but it is not until you play that you know how to play and it is not until you deliberately practice that you can really estimate that you know how to play, that you have the ability to do it.
• Knowledge claims
It is about putting into words what is known, the individual asserts that he knows something and affirms it through his language as a truth.
A portion of these claims is made up of factual data, for example, I know that the earth orbits the sun, I know that the 1984 Olympics were held in Los Angeles, or I know that the result of multiplying nine by seven is sixty-one. three.
Another part is composed of statements of values and beliefs, for example, I know that life rewards hard work, I know that whoever puts the welfare of others before his own works well or I know that there is life after death.
Finally, the following graph is presented in which, in some way, it is possible to synthesize and unify the different classifications and types of knowledge exposed so far:
Types of knowledge - Adapted from Wijnhoven (p. 33)
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