KNOWLEDGE:ITS ROOTS AND FRUITS

Authors : Dr. HORNELL HART; Dr.C.S.RANGARAJAN
Published: May 17, 2009
Daniel Bell, known for his work on 'The Coming of Post Industrial Society'
makes a distinction between information and knowledge, since knowledge is equated with information. Knowledge is also equated with instruction, enlightenment, learning, practical skill and so on and it includes expertise. According to Daniel Bell, knowledge is an organised set of statement of facts or ideas presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result which is transmitted to others through some communication medium in ome systematic form. On the otherhand, information is 'data processing' in the broadest sense. Both knowledge and information are terms used interchangeably. If we take learning as equivalent to knowledge, such learning can take place when individuals interact with others and with their environment.


Individuals increase their understanding of reality by observing others and also by examining their results of their acts. If you observe others' acts and thereby learn on your own, or if you are made to observe others and thereby learn (i.e what is called as Contagion, seen as a positive means of social control). You also learn by 'trial and error'. It is others experience or your own experience that helps you to learn.
The following saying assumes relevancy:
Wise men learn by fools experience and
Fools, by their own experience.
As held by Hornell Hart (1964) mankind seeks knowledge by a variety of ways. The quest for reliable knowledge is the essence of 'scientific research'. Seeking knowledge both by scientific and non-scientific methods dates back to periods earlier than the dawn of history. In his book entitled
'Laboratory Manual for Introductory Sociology', Hornell Hart (1964) idetifies five rungs which represent five basic methods of knowledge seeking. The five rungs are (1) Intuition (2) Logic (3) Authority tradition
4) Introspection and (5) Empiricism. Empiricism which lies at the bottom of the rung help the seekers of knowledge to use eyes, ears, fingers and other sensory organs. What one gets through his senses proides the basis for test of turth. The following proverbs lend credence to the above:
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it";
" Seeing is believing".
Introspection, which is in the second rung from the bottom, involves observation of of one's own private experience. It includes such acts as recalling memory, feeling a liking or dislike for something, and noticing how one's own mind works. It also includes observing what happens in one's own dreams and using one's own imagination. The immediate test of truth under this method is what one observes inwardly.
Authority-Tradition, in the third rung of the ladder may also be called 'rung of transmitting information. Under this method, the test for acceptance of a given item is that some one on whom we repose confidence confides that it is true. Tradition includes the vast bulk of social heritage of knowledge and belief. On the otherhand, authority consists of transmitted information backed up by sanctions and pressures. It is the basis for the whole structure of civil and criminal law, founded upon the Constitutions, statutes and judicial precedents. Transmission of information begins at home and both the primary and secondary groups an individual comes in contact with are involved in this process.
Logic is the fourth rung in the ladder. Philosophers, lawyers, mathematicians and other theorists place emphasis on this method of finding and testing truth.
In the fifth rung lies Intuition. Intuition includes every sudden flash of insight. The immediate test of truth is merely one's own inner conviction.
If these are the ' roots' of knowledge, what are its ' fruits'?
August Comte, 'the father of sociology', said that the purpose of science is to understand, so as to predict, in order to control. Manuel Castells in his
work on 'The Rise of the Network Society, Volume I, Page 159) writes to say that the interaction between 'tacit knowledge' and 'explicit knowledge' serves as a source of innovation.
Finally, is may be said
'Action without knowledge is rootless ;
Knowledge without action is fruitless'.