1.0 BASIC TERMINOLOGY

1.1 COGNITION

The term cognition is used to refer to the process or act of knowing. It covers all mental processes and experiences involved in knowing which are: perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, reasoning, and judgment.

1.2 HUMAN MIND

The human mind works like a computer in acquiring, processing, storing, and retrieving information all under the guidance of an inner spiritual force.

1.3 SCIENCE

The term science in used to refer knowledge relating to the physical world based on observation and experimentation.

1.4 TERMS RELATED TO KNOWLEDGE

There are other terms used in connection with knowledge such as: wisdom, insight, opinion, speculation, certainty, remembrance, awareness, evidence, truth, and world-view. There are many forms of knowledge: knowledge of human life, knowledge of animal life, knowledge of the earth, knowledge of the seas and the oceans, knowledge of astronomy, knowledge of agriculture, knowledge of numbers, knowledge of counting, knowledge of addition, knowledge of multiplication, knowledge of subtraction, and knowledge of division, and knowledge of the Creator.

1.5 TERMS RELATED TO LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

There are terms that are associated with lack of knowledge: ignorance, doubt, speculation, whims, and falsehood. Lack of knowledge is called ignorance. Ignorance can be simple when the person knows he does not know. It is compounded if the ignorant person is not aware of his ignorance. The term ignorance has been used to refer to a state of ignorance with respect to specific information or explanation. This state of ignorance could be temporary ending with the acquisition of the missing information or explanation. The term has also been used as an attribute of a person who may have some moral reason for ignorance.

The extreme form of doubt is an unformulated doubt. A formulated doubt is better than an unformulated one and involves several alternatives but the human does not have the ability to tell which of them is valid or true. Speculation is doubtful and uncertain knowledge that is at a higher level than doubt. A higher level of speculation is when a human has strong inclination to believe a supposition to be true but this does not reach the level of absolute certainty.

2.0 CHARACTERIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE

2.1 SUPREMACY OF KNOWLEDGE:

Knowledge has supremacy over everything else. Knowledge is the basis for leadership. Those who know are a grade higher than those who do not know. Possessing correct knowledge is a virtue.

2.2 GRADES OF KNOWLEDGE

There are grades of knowledge. Certain knowledge is the highest grade. It is certain with no doubts and represents finality. The next grade is empirical knowledge. This is based on observation by human senses that are not perfect. Scientific empirical knowledge being based on human observation using imperfect sensory organs and interpretation by imperfect human intellect cannot reach the level of absolute certainty. We therefore call it empirical certainty. In most scientific measurements the level of absolute certainty cannot be reached. In medical work treatments are based on evidence that is classified as at a high level of speculative truth but not absolute certainty because a higher level of certainty cannot be reached.

2.3 EVIDENCE-BASED KNOWLEDGE:

True knowledge must be evidence-based. Those who make claims or allegations are challenged to produce their evidence.

2.4 VARIATION IN AMOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE:

Human knowledge is potentially wide and is continuously expanding. The limit of knowledge is with the Creator. An individual or community can only know a little bit of the knowledge and must have the humility to know and acknowledge that there is a lot that is not known. There is a difference in knowledge (quantity and quality) among humans as individuals and as communities. Some humans know more than others. Many do not know. A few individuals possess very deep knowledge.

2.5 OWNERSHIP OF KNOWLEDGE:

Any human knowledge is public property. Knowledge is not property that can be traded. It is a common property of all and those who have it must disseminate it to others. Payments made to teachers and researchers are not in exchange for the knowledge they have; they are for the purposes of maintaining them and their families so that they may concentrate on research and teaching. It is unethical to hide or try to monopolize knowledge.

2.5 DEVIATION FROM KNOWLEDGE

It is obligatory to act according to knowledge. Knowledge is always the source of strength and leadership if used well and with good intentions. Deviation from the truth represented by knowledge is severely condemned. It is better to get knowledge and understanding than to follow blindly. Blind following contradicts true knowing.

2.6 KNOWLEDGE AMONG NON-HUMANS:

Knowledge is not confined to humans. Spiritual beings (angels and jinn) have limited knowledge. Living animals also have some forms of knowledge. We have no textual or scientific evidence for existence of knowledge in plants or micro-organisms. Our thinking is that knowledge does not exist in plants or micro-organisms because they lack purposive and pre-meditated action. Purposive action is found only in humans, animals, and spiritual beings.

3.0 THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

3.1 DEFINITION OF EPISTEMOLOGY:

Epistemology is the science of knowledge. It is the study of the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge. Epistemology is a major branch of philosophy. The aim of epistemological studies is certainty.

3.2 SCOPE OF EPISTEMOLOGY

Epistemology exists to deal with several philosophical questions. Epistemology is necessary to understand phenomena because reality is different from appearance and perception is different from knowledge. Epistemology seeks to establish whether a claim is true and what evidence can be used to prove it.

Epistemology also deals with sources of knowledge. Knowledge may be innate or learned, rational (based on reason) or empirical (based on sensory experience), based on faith vs based on reason. Epistemology also deals with the concept or an idea and how it relates to knowledge.

Knowledge can be of ‘what’ and of ‘how’.

Propositions about knowledge can be a priori (exists before experience) vs. a posteriori (based on experience), analytic vs synthetic, tautological (restating the same thing in another way) or significant (new and additional information), logical vs factual, acquaintance (based on personal experience) vs. description (transmitted knowledge), description vs justification, certainty (true) vs knowledge (the known may be true or not true).

4.0 SOME TERMINOLOGY USED IN EPISTEMOLOGY

4.1 CONCEPT

A concept is a logical entity used in logical or philosophical analysis and to aid understanding. Concept formation involves sorting human experience and ideas into classes or rules. Concepts are abstract as contrasted to concrete classification based on sensory input. In practice humans mix the abstract and the concrete in usual classification of things. Humans can learn concepts instead of working them out for themselves. Concept formation improves with age from childhood but declines in late age. Language is a very important tool in concept formation and development. Computers can be programmed to form concepts (ie make classifications according to some rules).

4.2 PARADIGM

Paradigm is a term used by many people to convey different meanings. It is generally used to refer to a thought pattern in a discipline of knowledge. Paradigm shifts occur when new discoveries or explanations bring about new patterns of thought

4.3 INDUCTION

Induction is reasoning from the part to reach conclusions about the whole or from the specific to the general or from the individual to the universal. It is the method used by empirical science.

4.4 DEDUCTION

Deduction is reasoning starting from premises to reach conclusions with the conclusions necessarily following from the premise. Deduction has also been defined as reasoning from the general to the specific of from the universal to the particular.

4.5 OBJECTIVITY

Objectivity is staying on the path of truth and not being swayed by whims and desires

5.0 RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE

5.1 THE GENERAL CONCEPT OF RELATIVITY

The concept of relativity has caused much confusion both in social and natural sciences. What needs to be emphasized is that some knowledge and some facts are absolute and do not change by time or space. Other facts change when the frame of reference changes. Relativity refers to this change of facts with the change of the reference frame. Thus for complete description of a physical fact, the frame used must be defined. The problem facing contemporary epistemology is that nothing is fixed or is absolute. Everything is relative and changeable. In such a flux there is no meaning to the concept of truth.

5.2 RELATIVITY IN PHYSICS

In physics the term relativity refers to differences in measurements by different observers who are in motion relative to one another. The special theory of relativity states that the speed of light will be the same as measured by different observers. The general theory of relativity asserts that physical laws are the same for all observers.

6.0 PROBABILITY OF KNOWLEDGE:

6.1 LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN SENSES

The concept of probability concretizes the limitations of human senses. Knowledge based on human senses is approximate. The aim of scientific research is to increase the probability of truth but cannot reach perfect truth. No scientific fact is absolutely right or correct.

6.2 PROBABILITY OF TRUTH

Each has a calculable probability of being correct. The higher this probability, the nearer it is to the truth. The probabilistic nature of knowledge arises out of limitations of human observation and interpretation of physical phenomena. The challenge to intellectuals is to relate the concept of probability to the concept of grades of knowledge mentioned before.

7.0 PAST AND FUTURE OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE

7.1 FAILURES IN HUMAN KNOWLEDGE:

There have been periods in human history when humans deviated from the correct ways of getting knowledge and therefore lived in ignorance and superstition. Neglect of empirical observation and experimentation led to deficiency of empirical knowledge. Failure to use their intellect properly deprived humans of full understanding of empirical knowledge.

7.2 THE FUTURE:

Rapid growth of the corpus of human knowledge in the past 150 years is several-fold the growth of knowledge since the start of recorded human history. This momentum is likely to continue into the next century. It could slow down or stop altogether when human mistakes, social or physical, lead to destruction or drastic change of the ecosystem and human social organization as we know them today. History is full of examples of previous civilizations that attained a high degree of scientific and social sophistication only to fail and fall later.

8.0 SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE: GENERAL CONCEPTS

8.1 ALL KNOWLEDGE IS FROM THE CREATOR

It is a cardinal principle that all knowledge is from the Creator. Humans can get it in a passive way from revelations or in an active way by empirical observation and experimentation.

8.2 INNATE AND ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE:

Humans have some knowledge even before birth. A human baby has limited in-born knowledge that is mostly needed for the intuitive and instinctive biological functions needed for survival at that tender age. Most human knowledge is learned. The learning can take place at the level of the individual or the community.

8.3 THREE SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE

Revelation, reason, and empirical observation of the universe are the three major sources of acquired knowledge. Humans throughout history have quenched their thirst for knowledge from all the three sources. In terms of quantity, empirical knowledge comes first. In terms of quality revealed knowledge comes first. There is close interaction and inter-dependence between revelation, inference, and empirical observation. Reason is needed to understand revelation and reach conclusions from empirical observations. Revelation protects reason from mistakes and provides it with information about the unseen. Reason cannot, unaided, fully understand the empirical world.

9.0 ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE

9.1 OBLIGATION TO GET KNOWLEDGE

Humans are enjoined to get knowledge of essential things. Every man or woman is obliged to get the minimum essential knowledge to be able to live in society. Some knowledge is individually obligatory whereas the other is communally obligatory

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9.2 SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE

Seeking to know is an inner human need that satisfies human curiosity. Seeking knowledge is a life long process from birth to death. Knowledge must be sought wherever it is even if in far-away lands.

9.3 PRIMARY ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE

Some humans have the ability to study and get knowledge from its primary sources. These are obliged to get knowledge and in turn teach it to others.

9.4 SECONDARY ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE

Most people, however, do not get knowledge directly from its sources. They have to follow others who have the knowledge. The process of following has both positive and negative aspects. For those unable to get knowledge, following is required. They however cannot follow blindly. They must ascertain that those they follow have correct knowledge from the valid and primary sources.

9.5 METHODS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE

Humans are given tools for getting knowledge from its sources. The most important are the sense organs that enable humans to get knowledge from experimentation or observation of the universe. The intellect is also a tool of getting knowledge from revelation and empirical observation. A few people have a controversial idea that it is possible to get knowledge without use of senses or the intellect.

The learning can be the result of observation by the sense of vision and the sense of hearing. Learning can also be by use of intellectual / logical operations or the result of teaching. Humans learn from transmitted knowledge or experience. They can also learn from their own empirical experience and the interpretation or understanding of that experience. Transmitted knowledge can be from revelation or from past history and experience. A lot of knowledge about social interaction is learned passively.

10.0 EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION AS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE

10.1 THE UNIVERSE IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE

The universe or cosmos around humans is a source of knowledge. Humans were given senses to enable them get empirical knowledge from their environment.

10.2 THE CONCEPT OF CAUSALITY

The concept of causality underlies most knowledge obtained by empirical observation. Simply stated this concept asserts that there is a material cause for every physical event that a human observes. He may be or not be aware of the cause but can not deny its existence.

11.0 INTELLECT AS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE

11.1 INTELLECT AS A TOOL OF KNOWLEDGE

Intellect distinguishes humans from other living things on earth. It enables them to understand and correctly interpret the sensory perceptions. Intellect is so important that its misuse or under-use are severely condemned. Intellect can be a primary source of knowledge in a few instances like mathematical knowledge. In most cases the intellect is not in itself a primary source of knowledge. It is a tool that enables humans to generate deeper knowledge and understanding from the primary sources: revelation and empirical observation. Reason can be looked at as a series of intellectual processes.

11.2 INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES INVOLVED IN KNOWLEDGE

The most often referred to intellectual process is that of thinking. Thinking is closely related to empirical observation using the human senses. Thinking can be by looking. Humans are ordered to look at the cosmos and at themselves. Humans are enjoined to think about creation and its signs. Understanding is part of the thinking process. The thinking process can be extended backward in time by thinking about history and the lessons garnered from it. 

11.3 DEDUCTIVE and INDUCTIVE LOGIC

Basic analytical intellectual processes can be deductive or inductive. They are used either in parallel or in sequence depending on the problem being tackled. Induction tends to dominate in the sciences.

11.4 INTELLECT and GUIDANCE

In a natural state the human intellect is enough to lead to guidance. It can lead to misguidance if there are corrupting influences in the environment or in the individual. Correct knowledge is the truth. Human observation and interpretation can be biased away from this truth by human desires/inclinations.

12.0 CONTROVERSIAL SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE

12.1 CONTROVERSY

There is lack of unanimity on the following as additional sources of knowledge: inspiration, intuition, instinct, geomancy, and dreams,. The controversy is not whether they are sources of knowledge but whether they are sources independent of the three mentioned before.

12.2 INSPIRATION

Knowledge can be inspired. It seems that humans before birth receive knowledge about right and wrong by inspiration. Inspiration however cannot be a basis for enjoining or prohibiting actions. Inspiration cannot be accepted as evidence in law. The results of inspiration are not always consistent. We however cannot deny the possibility of some humans being inspired.

12.3 INTUITION

Intuitive knowledge is most likely part of empirical knowledge that is stored in the human subconscious and is retrieved and used on given occasions.  Humans and animals have instinctive knowledge at birth. For example nobody teaches a newborn how to suck at the mother's breast. Animals rely more on instinctive knowledge than do humans. Humans have less need for instinct because of their highly developed cerebral cortex that has more flexibility in facing and solving problems.

12.4 GEOMANCY

Geomancy is a discredited science today. It assumes ability of a human to adduce knowledge of a person’s character by incomplete observation for example looking at a person’s face and deducing what type of character he has or what experiences he has gone through. This is an unscientific approach that could lead to wrong or even dangerous conclusions. There is no empirical proof of its validity as a source of knowledge.

12.5 DREAMS

Views about the truth of dreams fall into two extremes. Materialists deny dreams whereas others believe in them and spend efforts interpreting them so that they can rely on them as sources of knowledge, guidance, and information. The truth is between the two extremes.

13.0 INVALID SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE

13.1 TRUTH BY COINCIDENCE

Magic & sorcery, astrology, foretelling, and other forms of superstition are not sources of true knowledge. They may lead to correct and verifiable facts but only by chance and coincidence. They most often lead to wrong and misguiding facts.

13.2 SORCERY

The term sorcery is used to refer to use of magical tricks with additional psychological conditioning that can lead to real psychological effects in people who believe that they are victims of sorcery; there are no effects on those who do not believe the superstition.

13.3 MAGIC

Magic refers to use of tricks to create visual or other types of illusions. The uninitiated may be misled into believing in the existence of supernatural power because of the illusions.

13.4 ASTROLOGY

Astrology is the magical forerunner of the modern science of astronomy. Astrologers pretend to predict events in a person's life by studying the movement of stars.

13.5 FORETELLING

Foretelling is an invalid source of knowledge because the future cannot be known with certainty. The most that can be done is forecasting the future based on available empirical evidence.

14.0 CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE

14.1 CONCEPT and PURPOSES OF CLASSIFICATION

Knowledge can be classified in different ways. Cross-classifications are possible. Below are given several criteria of classification that can be used. We can not say that one is better than the other. What matters is the purpose behind the classification.

14.2 ON THE BASIS OF THE METHOD OF ACQUISITION

INNATE AND ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE

Innate knowledge is inborn. Acquired knowledge is acquired post-natally. Knowledge of good and bad is innate in humans however they can be confused. That is why acquired knowledge is needed to guide them in the gray areas. Acquired knowledge can be from revelation or from empirical observation. The two sources of acquired knowledge reinforce the innate knowledge as well as reinforce each other.

A PRIORI and A POSTERIORI KNOWLEDGE

A priori knowledge is knowledge not based on experience whereas a posteriori knowledge is based on experience. Innate knowledge is part of a priori knowledge.

14.3 ON THE BASIS OF SOURCE

RATIONAL and TRANSMITTED

Classically, knowledge was classified as transmitted knowledge which includes revelations and non-transmitted which includes empirical observation and rational reasoning

EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION

Knowledge can be classified as knowledge of the seen and knowledge of the unseen. Humans know only the seen. They do not know the unseen. The unseen can be absolute or relative. Humans cannot in any way know the absolute unseen except through revelation. The relative unseen is something that is knowable by humans by taking certain measures. For example the contents of a closed box are unknown by a human but when the box is opened, the contents can become known. It is however deceptive for a human to claim with certainty and affirmatively to know the contents of a closed box if he has no evidence through the senses.

14.4 ON THE BASIS OF LEARNING and USE

ON BASIS OF OBLIGATION

It is obligatory for women and men to get knowledge. This obligation differs for different types of knowledge. Some knowledge is considered a collective obligation. Other knowledge is considered individual obligation.

ON BASIS OF UTILITY:

Knowledge can be useful. There is no concept of knowledge that is not useful but is harmless. Knowledge that has no immediate or foreseeable use is considered harmful. Sorcery is for example harmful knowledge. All correct knowledge is useful. However even useful knowledge can turn harmful is not used properly.

ON THE BASIS OF APPLICATION

Knowledge can be basic or applied. The distinction is sometimes more theoretical than real.

14.5 ON THE BASIS OF NATURE, CONTENT, and METHODOLOGY

ON BASIS OF LEGALITY:

Most branches of knowledge are legal and are encouraged. For example study of medicine and science are legal pursuits. On the other hand study of sorcery is illegal because the knowledge is harmful. Between these two clear extremes are disciplines that are good or bad depending on how their knowledge is used. Study of the chemistry of ethanol is legal if it will be used for industrial purposes. It will rapidly become illegal if it will be used to make beer and other alcoholic drinks.

ON BASIS OF SUBJECT MATTER:

Sciences can be divided into the biological & physical. Biological sciences study living things: animals, plants, and micro-organisms. Physical sciences study inanimate things: the earth, water and the seas, astronomy, mathematics, agriculture. Some disciplines are methodological without a coherent and substantive subject matter for example epidemiology and mathematics. Other disciplines are substantive for example clinical medicine.

15.0 LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE: INNATE LIMITATIONS

15.1 LIMITED KNOWLEDGE

Human knowledge in all spheres and disciplines of knowledge is limited. Humans know some things and not others. Humans do not normally reach the full capacity of knowledge because of other limitations. One of these limitations is failure to exert themselves to the maximum in the search for knowledge.

15.2 LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN SENSES

Human senses can be easily deceived. Human vision is limited. Human senses of hearing, smelling, tasting are relatively insensitive and some animals have more acute senses.

15.3 LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN INTELLECT

Human intellect has limitations in interpreting correct sensory perceptions. There are basic limitations in the neurochemical functions in the brain. Humans also have a limited data-base of prior knowledge to be able to interpret all new knowledge correctly.

16.0 LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE: THE UNSEEN

16.1 TYPES OF THE UNSEEN

Humans cannot know the unseen. The unseen can be absolute or relative. The absolute, such as the day of death is known only by the Creator. Humans have no access to absolute unseen except through revelations. The relative unseen can be known by some people in favorable time and space circumstances and not others or can be known if special and appropriate instrumentation is used. The whole purpose of scientific research is to roll back the field of the relative seen. The relative unseen can be contemporaneous, ie things that exist at the moment but which are unknown. It may be in past or historical events. It can be in the future.

16.2 THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

Humans can operate in limited time frames. The past and the future are unknowable with certainty. Both are part of the unseen. The only true and valid source of knowledge about the past is revelation.

17.0 LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE: CHANGES & TRANSITIONS

17.1 SPEED

Humans operate in a limited speed frame at both the conceptual and sensory levels. Ideas cannot be digested and processed if they are generated too slowly or too quickly. Humans cannot visually perceive very slow or very rapid events. Very slow events like the revolution of the earth or its rotation are perceived as if they are not happening.

17.2 CHANGE OF MATTER-ENERGY

Modern physics has discovered that matter and energy are interchangeable. One form of matter can change into another form just as one form or energy can change into another.

18.0 OTHER LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE

18.1 RETENTION OF KNOWLEDGE

Human memory is limited. Knowledge acquired decays or may be lost altogether. Humans would have been more knowledgeable if they had perfect memory.

18.2 DISTORTION OF KNOWLEDGE