The complexity of human beings is difficult to understand; the different learning methods that we acquire throughout evolution remain a mystery for the definition of being and its behaviors.
However, this does not mean that the learning processes They may not be evaluable, meaning that although there is still much to discover about the inner universe that each person possesses, it is possible to study certain behaviors and methods of evolution attributed to human beings. On this occasion, we wanted to share with you the elements of knowledge, its characteristics and its main functions within elementary language, psychology and philosophy.
What is knowledge?
To delve deeper into its elements, it is necessary to know several concepts that encompass the word knowledgeIt's not just about "knowing things," but a much broader mental, cultural, and emotional phenomenon.
For great thinkers like PlatoKnowledge was much more than a philosophy; this term could encompass the theory of everything, and both the tangible and the intangible are part of acquiring knowledge. In his view, human beings can access ideal realities that go beyond what the senses reveal.
For RAEThe word "knowledge" can have different meanings, such as the act or effect of knowing, the notion of knowing, the conscious state where a person remains awake, or any other characteristic associated with a person's responsibility for their conscience and being. In all cases, a common idea emerges: there is a subject who comes into contact with something they can know.
But what exactly is knowledge? Despite the many definitions this word has, it still retains a certain character. indescribable and subjectivesince it is a term that is conditioned according to the different concepts that each person uses, their culture, their education and their beliefs.
At a philosophical level, the theory of knowledge (also called epistemology or gnoseology depending on the approach) defines it as the result of the process by which a person grasps reality and represents it in their mind. It is a phenomenon involving experience, reason, emotions, language, and cultural context.
In general terms, knowledge represents the relationship between a knowing subject (who is capable of understanding) and a knowable object (which can be known). This relationship is not neutral: it can be more or less objective, more rational or more based on experience, deeper or more superficial.
According to principal means by which he is apprehendedKnowledge is usually classified into two main groups:
- Empirical or sensory knowledgeIt is obtained through direct experience and the senses. It involves touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, or tasting something, and from this generating an internal representation. It is a type of spontaneous and everyday knowledge, although it is also fundamental to science.
- Rational knowledge: it is obtained through the reason and mental processes (such as deduction, induction, reflection, or abstraction). It allows us to go beyond what the senses show, to formulate theories, laws, and general explanations.
Knowledge can therefore depend on the nature of the object to be known and methods that are applied to describe it. Thus, knowledge is usually classified as either rational or sensory: rational knowledge is attributed only to human beings, who are capable of discerning with reason, while sensory knowledge is inherent in animals and humans since it corresponds to the reaction one has to a certain stimulus; it is much more primitive.
From a broader perspective, other distinctions can be made types of knowledge which enrich this vision:
- Scientific knowledgeIt arises from the application of the scientific method (observation, hypothesis formulation, experimentation, and verification) to explain phenomena in a way that objective and systematic.
- Technical or practical knowledge: action-oriented, allows perform specific tasks (for example, driving, cooking, programming, repairing an appliance).
- Theoretical knowledge: focuses on understand and explain Aspects of reality are understood through concepts, theories, and interpretations, without necessarily applying them immediately to concrete action. This includes a large part of scientific and philosophical knowledge, as well as some religious beliefs.
Whether it is empirical, rational, scientific, technical or theoretical knowledge, in all cases the same processes are put into action. basic elements of knowledge which we will see below: subject, object, cognitive operation and thought or mental representation.
Main elements
To better understand knowledge at a psychological and philosophical level, we can address the four elements of knowledge These four factors are always present in any act of knowing: subject, object, cognitive operation, and thought (or mental representation). They allow knowledge to exist and persist over time.
Subject
Is possessor of knowledgeTo discuss this term, it's necessary to understand the subject who possesses it, the one capable of developing and experiencing it in different scenarios. Without a subject, there is no one who can perceive, process, or store information.
The subject can contribute a large part of knowledge to the population with the guarantee of reducing social problems, improving living conditions, and transforming the environment. Scientists, teachers, technicians, and anyone who shares their knowledge become sources of learning for others.
He also called knowing subject It is anyone who possesses cognitive abilities, such as eyes and other sensory organs, capable of providing the necessary information for processing and conclusion. In addition to the senses, intellect, memory, attention, and language are involved as internal tools.
In a scientific research context, the subjects who acquire new knowledge of the world It is the researchers themselves who, through experiments and studies, obtain results and conclusions. In a classroom, students become subjects when they receive and integrate new content. In any case, the defining characteristic of a subject is that It is modified through knowledge: changes their way of seeing the world, their beliefs, or their skills.
Object
The object is the person, thing, idea or phenomenon that is known by the subject. Every object is presented to a subject as something worthy of being known, studied, or understood. The act of knowing unites the subject and the object in the same relationship.
A thing cannot be called an object if it is not known by the subject; the fact of knowing an object gives the subject the title of knower, and the need for a thing to be known gives the object the title of object. During the cognitive stage, the subject changes from the state of knower, while the object, in most cases, remains unchanged in its condition, although it does change the way it is represented in the mind of the subject.
The objects of knowledge can be tangible or abstractIt can be a physical object, a person, an animal, a mathematical concept, a political idea, an emotion, or even a social norm. The important thing is that it can be learned and mentally represented.
This is where the distinction between objective knowledge and subjective knowledgeKnowledge will be more objective the more faithful the subject's internal representation is to the object's true nature. It will be more subjective the further the mental representation deviates from the object's actual characteristics, whether due to prejudice, perceptual limitations, or lack of information.
Cognitive operation
The cognitive operation is the act of knowingThe mental process that allows the subject to come into contact with the object and generate an internal representation of it. It is an internal process that cannot be directly observed, but is essential for knowledge to exist.
This refers to the moment when the person or subject emphasizes the images, ideas or sensations that arise in thought with respect to the object. In the subject's cognitive operation, their sensory capacity to capture certain representations that improve the analysis of the object, as well as attention, interpretation, and integration with prior knowledge, are relevant.
Cognitive operation differs from thought because it is usually considered a a rather instantaneous processPerception: the moment when we perceive or understand something. Thought, on the other hand, is the a footprint that remains after that operation. Although the operation is brief, its effects can last a long time in the subject's memory.
Sometimes, cognitive operations are described as knowledge in general; however, at a psychological level, this term encompasses four related or dependent terms that help structure it. Therefore, you can begin to define knowledge as any phenomenon that includes these four elements. In daily life, these operations manifest themselves when we read, listen to someone speak, observe an image attentively, or analyze a problem.
Musical
Thought can be understood as the trigger of memories which leaves the mark of the known image, which in this case is the object. This term can also be referred to as "the representation" or "the internal trace," the purpose of which is to connect with the other elements as the final result of the analysis.
Thought will always be separate from the object; this action is the analysis that the subject makes of the objectTherefore, the criteria for establishing thought are entirely different for each person. Two subjects may know the same object, but each will retain a different representation, influenced by their emotions, prior experiences, and cultural context.
The distinction between the realistic thinking and idealistic thought This is key to being able to conclude with knowledge. Idealistic thinking remains within the internal expectations one has of the object, while realistic thinking approaches the concrete experience that the subject acquires by interacting with the object.
But, in order to arrive at realistic thought, the subject must necessarily pass through idealistic thought, where he is able to know what the real virtues of the object and completely break with expectations of it; experiencing a clash of reality with what one is and with what is expected of the object. In other extensions, the subject may experience the self knowledge assuming himself as a subject rather than an object of analysis, although in many cases both dimensions are intertwined.
On the other hand, there are studies that claim that the object perception What exists within the mind of the subject can be different from reality; that is, it is not similar to a photograph, but rather it is the active construction of the element according to the characteristics perceived by the subject, according to their capacity for mental reconstruction of the object and the filters of memory and imagination.
Integration of the different elements
Each mental ideas that the subject presents about the objectThe subject, the object, the cognitive operation, and the mental representation do not function in isolation, but rather as a dynamic system. Thought, as a result, is part of the process and the subject's capacity for integrating the various elements.
The act of knowing merits the the subject's ability to process the different elements Learning involves perceiving, selecting, interpreting, comparing, relating, and storing information in memory. Each new piece of knowledge is integrated with previous knowledge and modifies the way future experiences are interpreted.
Knowing itself makes the person be morebut possess no more. It is fundamental to recognize that the consistency with which a person develops different knowledge strategies (such as reading, studying, critical reflection, or deliberate practice) is what will help them to evolve in their cognitive abilities and emotional.
The act of knowing is very different from the act of thinking; the latter is part of each element of knowledge but is not the act of knowing itself. Knowing implies to open up to something external to the mind itself, while thinking focuses on combine internal representationsto shuffle them, compare them, and even infer new ones. Both processes, however, continuously feed back into each other.
From this perspective, the key to developing more solid and useful knowledge in everyday life lies in nurturing the relationship between what we perceive, how we process it, and what representation we retainBeing aware of these elements allows us to question limiting beliefs, broaden our frame of reference, and build a richer and deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Understanding the elements of knowledge not only has theoretical value: it also helps to improve the way we learnWe teach, we relate to others, and we make decisions. Knowing how to identify the role we play as subjects, what objects we choose to learn about, how we process them, and what thoughts we generate from them is an essential step in cultivating a more critical, creative, and conscious mind.