In a recent project we carried out a small study of what a person needed to know in order to carry out the process of 'Structural Knowledge Mapping'. One of the things that a person should know is, quite reasonably, 'What is knowledge?'.
We believe that in order to know what knowledge is, it is important to know about 'belief' and also about 'justification for belief' or proof. In order to fully understand justification it is necessary to know about the concept of 'truth' and related to this, 'evidence'.
A conclusion to be drawn from this is that if someone wishes to really appreciate what knowledge is, they need to already know what truth is. Our brief study also revealed that 'justification for belief' is central to other parts of the whole knowledge structure being considered, in particular the areas of 'validation' and 'handling conflicting views'.
This study, although brief, revealed that knowledge and truth are very tightly related and that other knowledge components that form part of this group are highly relevant to a much broader range of activities.
For more details concerning this study, please email Dr John L. Gordon - john@akri.org