My ContentUniverse of KnowledgeNature and Attributes; Modes of Formation of SubjectIntroductionKnowledgeKnowledge DefinitionKnowledge: Nature, Characteristics/Properties We shall present below some of the important charcteristics of knowledgeKnowledge : Types and Scope Personal and Public Knowledge Tacit and Explicit knowledge Three Worlds of Knowledge Formation of knowledge оr Modes of Formation of subjects Loose Assemblage Inter Subject Phase Relation / Loose Assemblage kind - I Inter Facet Phase Relation / Loose Assemblage kind - II Inter Array Phase Relation / Loose Assemblage Kind - III Lamination (Basic subject + Non - Main subject) Lamination - I (isolate face + basic subject) Lamination – II (Basic Subject + Main Basic Subject)Fission (Subject Divide Physic >Sound, Heat, ect.) Dissection DenudationFusion (adding)Distillation (Different Main subject)Agglomeration (Different part to added)Cluster
Universe of knowledge
Nature and Attributes; Modes of Formation of Subject
Introduction
In this unit, we shall study knowledge in all its ramifications in the context of library and information science. Knowledge has always been a prime source through which human societies have advanced materially and elevated themselves spiritually. Knowledge comprises many hundreds of fields and sub f ields, known as subjects, which are interlocking and interlinking. This universe of knowledge is infinite, dynamic and continuously expanding. The structure of a subject is never complete, or closed; every aspect of it remains always open, offering new problems for further study and research. Knowledge in also seen as personal and public knowledge, as tacit / implicit and explicit knowledge. Popper sees knowledge as three would's viz. Physical, Subjective and objective knowledge.
Knowledge structure growth and development has a pattern. This aspect of knowledge formation, its structural growth and related aspects are studied by scholars. Dr. Ranganathan has examined the formation of knowledge in the context of classification design and development. Knowledge is also deemed to comprise different disciplines. Citation analysis and subject scattering form useful studies knowledge and its parts can also be mapped as in an atlas to have a graphic view of its ramification.
Knowledge being a social product, its sociology is of interent to us as well as its sub-sets sociology of science, literature and reading. Finally knowledge utilization is the ultimate goal, which gets the human being. The value and utility.
The advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has offered a tremendous opportunity to generate new knowledge, disseminate, distribute and provide access and many other facilities cutting across space. All these aspects of knowledge are studied in this unit.
Knowledge
From cave life to the sophisticated life of the information/knowledge society. Knowledge has been the prime resource that has advanced human communities materially and spiritually. While we are not concerned with spiritual advancement in this unit, knowledge in all its dimensions forms an important subject of study for library and information professionals. It will enable them to plan, organise and offer useful services to those who seek knowledge
In this unit, we attempt to study knowledge with reference to its difinition nature and characteristics / properties, its type(s), stracture, formation and scope we shall also study the way knowledge has grown and developed into subjects/ disciplines, its sociology and other related aspects.
Knowledge Definition
A precise single definition of knowledge, universally acceptable to all and in all contexts is well nigh impossible. Scholars who are interest in the study of knowledge as a resource, as a philosophical concept, as social wealth, etc. have given their own difinitions to suit their line of studies.
The meanings of "Knowledge" as given by the Random House Dictionary (RHD) and words synonymous with Knowledge are
• Acquaintance with facts or principles, as from study or investigation general erudition.
• Familiarly or conversance, as with a particular subject or branch of learning.
• Acquaintance on familiarly gained by sight, experience, or report, as for example, "knowledge of human nature".
• The fact or state of knowing, clear and certain perception of fact or truth;
• Awareness, as of a fact or circumstance;
• That which is or may be known, information; and
• The body of truths or facts accumulated by mankind in the course of time, as for example "man's knowledge of the moon?".
Word's synonymous with 'knowledge' given in the RHD are Enlightenment, Information, understanding, Discernment, comprehension, Judgement, Wisdom, lore and science.
Another approach to define knowledge is that the word "Knowledge" has its roots in the Greek word gnoses. A word that uses the same root is "recognise". We know what we recognise. This means that we mentally process our experience, shaping it and giving it mental forms that we can identify. So we recognise experience and bring it into the realm of knowledge. This approach to the meaning of knowledge cuts across the meaning of knowledge given by RHD.
Daniel Bell, the Harvard University professor of sociology while discussing "knowledge' as the moving force of the post-industrial society, gives a comprehensive definition of knowledge as follows :
'knowledge' is an organised set of statement of fact or ideas, presenting a reasoned judgement or an experimental result, which is transmitted to others through some communication medium is some systematic form. Knowledge consists of new judgments (Research and Scholarship) on presentation of older judgments as exemplified in text books, teaching and learning and collected as library and archival material.
Alvin Toffler, the well known authors of future shock, Third wave and power shift, gives another meaning of knowledge which includes data, information, images and imagery, as well as attitudes, values and other symbolic products of society whether true, approximate or even false.
In the fast emerging new discipline of "Knowledge Management", Davenport define knowledge as follows:
"knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual, information, and expert insight that provides an environment and framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organisations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organisational routines. processes. practices and norms."
considering all these approaches to the definitions of knowledge, we can arrive at a working definition of knowledge for our discussion in this unit.
Knowledge is a highly organised intellectual product of humans that includes personal experience, skills, understanding of the different contexts in which we operate our activities, assimilation of all these and recording all this in a form that could be communicated to others. This communication of recorded experience, data, information etc. makes for further of growth.
Knowledge: Nature, Characteristics/Properties
We have also learnt in unit 1 of this course, that knowledge has been defined to constitute a stock of organised and structured ideas and concepts, validated by peer groups. When we talk of knowledge, we recognise that it comprises number of subjects, each having its own parameters and scope for independent study. However from the beginning of this centry, the universe of knowledge comprises increasingly numerous subjects, which are increasingly multidisciplinary, interlocking and interlinking many disciplines, moving in multidimensional ways.
It is also said that our knowledge base today, includes much more than the traditional natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. It covers a nation's strategic conceptions, its foreign intelligence, it's capabilities, and its cultural and ideological impact on the world. Thus, the control of knowledge is the crux of a worldwide struggle for power as the most powerful weapon.
Knowledge utilisation is fundamental to its use. Knowledge, merely stocking it in whatever form, may be of little consequence, if it is not used properly. Again knowledge can be used for the good or ill of living beings. Destructive weapons (atomic weapons) are got out of intense research ostensibly for a nation's security. But, if is used indiscriminately, it would bring about dotal annihilation of all living beings.
We shall present below some of the important charcteristics of knowledge
i. knowledge is infinite.
ii. knowledge is dynamic, continuous, and ever expanding.
iii. No final word can even be said of any discipline; they are at best provisional, subject to criticism, correction, contradiction, change or modification.
iv. A gifted man may acquire wide knowledge, deep wisdom and spiritual insights but all these are lost when he/she dies except those that he/she had recorded.
v. Knowledge once parted to others, results in on loss to the person.
vi. Knowledge becomes obsolete.
Knowledge : Types and Scope
We have so far studied the nature of knowledge, what it comprises, and its charactaristics. In this section, we shall discuss different views of knowledge.
i. Personal and Public Knowledge
Knowledge is broadly divided in two groups, personal knowledge (private knowledge) and social knowledge (public knowledge). Personal knowledge is the knowledge of the individual and as such is available to others only if communicated. Social knowledge is the knowledge possessed collectively by a society. It is supposed to be available to all the members of the society freely and equally. Libraries and information centres provide this kind of knowledge. It must be, however, stated here that these two kinds of knowledge are not mutually exclusive. Social knowledge is an essential source of personal knowledge and it is from personal knowledge that most social knowledge is built up.
Ziman, the distinguished physicist, emphasises the importance of the organisation of public knowledge. There are three aspects to the organisation of public knowledge viz. i. organisation by creation ii. self organisation and iii. bibliographic organisation. Organisation by creation is the result of the efforts of those that generate knowledge by means of experiment and other methods of investigation and record them in a form to be communicated. Self-organisation refers to the references cited to any document to other documents, establishing a thought link between the citing and cited documents. When extended, it provides a very interesting intellectual ongansration of knowledge that can cut across the conventional classificatory norms known to libraries. We shall study this aspect later in this unit.
Bibliographic organisation refers to the organisation of primary documents in bibliographies, indexing. and abstracting journals and other various types of information products and services. All these are handled by libraries and information centres.
ii. Tacit and Explicit knowledge
The above two groups of knowledge is expressed slightly differently by Michael Polayani. Explicit knowledge is that expressed to others, orally or in a recorded form and tacit knowledge is personal knowledge that may or may not be expressed by an individual. Generally most people express their personal knowledge up to a point but not beyond for reasons of their own. Sometime it may be deliberate or sometimes they may not be able to describe their special skill. For instance a particular skill in arts and crafts may only be demonstrated by an expert and not explained. In music, a curve of a musical phrase may be demonstrated by an expert but may not be conducive to be described or explained. This makes polayani to point out that we know more than we can tell or explain to others. "Another way of distinguishing between tacit and explicit knowledge is knowledge of the body, which is subjective, practical, analog while explicit knowledge is of the mind which is objective, theoretical and digital." Quite often we talk about the body language, facial expressions and other signals that communicate quite a lot of the intention of the person but never expressed in words. Therefore it is said that tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalise, making it difficult to communicate or share with others.
However tacit knowledge is as important as explicit knowledge. In the new discipline of knowledge management, it is this tacit knowledge, which is valued very highly. Constituting the real strength of a company. It is this knowledge of individuals that need to be extracted by various means and methods, to build up the organisational strength of a company to be competitive in a market.
iii. Three Worlds of Knowledge
Another view of knowledge is the way Karl popper has identified knowledge groups, more on a philosophical plane. Popper ontological scheme is to see three worlds of knowledge, viz, World I, the physical world in which earth, vital though it is to us, but an insignificant speck in the immensity of the universe of radiation and matter. World 2, is the world of subjective human knowledge, corresponding to individual knowledge. The world 3, is objective knowledge, which the product of human mind recorded in languages, in arts, the sciences, the technologies - in all the artifact human have stored on scattered the earth.
Although these three worlds are independent, they also interact. As humans living on earth, we are a part and parcel of the physical world, dependent for our continued existence on heat and light from the sun, oxygen from the air, corbon - dioxide being absorbed by plants. fresh water from springs, carbohydrates and proteins from our foods and so on. Through our mind and intellect and other sense faculties, humans observe everythings in theirs environment and make our own subjective understandings. World 3 is one which all human thoughts, ideas and experiences are recorded in the form of print and non print media which are the stock in trade for all libraries and information centers.
Personal knowledge is short lived. Human history has seen great persons, achieving extraordinary successes in ever so many walks of life. Such outstanding persons with great caliber have left their prints in history. But their personal knowledge is gone no sooner they die. Such persons are not born in every generation. Although knowledge includes personal and public knowledge, personal knowledge has a short life, invariably all tacit knowledge are not possible to be recorded.
Formation of knowledge оr Modes of Formation of subjects
When ideas get organized on systematized in the form of a body of idea, a subject is formed. The modes of information of subject represents a system of relationship and formulation relationship among concept constituting a subject.
In 1950 Dr. S. R. Ranganathan put forword that subject in the universe of knowledge can be formed by four means:
i. Loose Assemblage
ii. Lamination
iii. Dissection
iv. Denudation
According to M.P. Gopinath and S.Seetharama the following are the modes of formation of subject and isolate or relations between the components of a subject.
i. Loose Assemblage
ii. Lamination.
iii. Fission
iv. Agglomeration
v. Distillation
vi. Loose Assemblage
vii. Cluster
i. Loose Assemblage
Loose Assemblage 'is the assembling together two or more of subject (basic or compound)". Three different modes of formation of subject by loose assemblage are:
A. Inter Subject Phase Relation / Loose Assemblage kind - I
In this mode of formation of subject, two or more subject 'simple or compound' are studied in their mutual relation. Such a relation is called inter subject phase relation. In this types of relationship between two simple or compound subjects a complex subject is born. Example: General relation between Botany and Agricuture. The relation between two simple or compound subjects may be one of the following types.
a. General Relation: Example: The relation of Religion and Philosophy.
b. Bias: Example: Mathematics for Economists.
c. Comparison: Example: Comparison between Economics and Political Science.
d. Difference: Example: Difference between Psychology and Education.
e. Influence: Example: Influence of Biological Sciences on Social Sciences.
f. Tool: Example: Application of mathematical techniques in literary criticism.
B. Inter Facet Phase Relation / Loose Assemblage kind - II
In this mode of formation, two or more isolates/concepts ideas from the same facet are brought into mutual relation. Such a relation is called the 'Inter facet Phase Relation' and relationship between two isolates from the same facet results in the formation of a complex isolate.
a. General Relation: Example: The relation between Jainism and Hinduism.
b. Bias: Example: Principles of Hinduism biased to Buddhism.
c. Comparison: Example: Comparative study between Hinduism and Buddhism.
d. Difference: Example: The difference between Hinduism and Buddhism.
e. Influence: Example: Influence of Buddhism on Hinduism.
f. Tool: Example: Application of Buddhist religious Principles in Hinduism.
c. Inter Array Phase Relation / Loose Assemblage Kind - III
In this mode of formation, two or more isolates / concepts/ ideas from the same array are brought into mutual relation, such a formation is called the 'Inter - Array - Phase - relation' and gives rise to a complex isolate. The relation between two simple or compound subject may be one of the following types. The relation may be of any one of the types mentioned under hoose Assemblage of Kind-I.
a. General: Example: The relation between UDC and DDC.
b. Bias: Example: The bias of UDC towards DDC.
c. Comparison: Example: CC compared with DDC.
d. Difference: Example: Difference between CC and DDC.
e. Influence: Example: The influence of CC and DDC.
f. Tool: Example: Application of female Psychology for understanding of Male Psychology.
ii. Lamination (Basic subject + Non - Main subject)
Lamination represents the mode of relationship in which there is progressive strengthening of relationship between a Basic Subject and its isolate facets or between Main Basic Subject and its Non-Main Basic Subjects or between the Isolates from the same facet. Thus lamination can be distinguished of two kinds.
A. Lamination - I (isolate face + basic subject)
In this form of mode of formation, one or more isolate facets are laminated over a basic facet and giving rise to a compound subject. Example: classification of periodicals in university libraries, in this example Library Science (Basic Subject); Periodicals (isolate facet); classification (isolate facet); University Libraries (Isolate facet).
B. Lamination – II (Basic Subject + Main Basic Subject)
In this form of mode of formating, two on more species of basic subjects going with the same main basic subject are compounded over one another, giving rise to compound subject. Example: Quantum theary of Heat in this example; Physics (Main Basic Subject) Quantum Theory (Basic Subject); Heat (Basic Subject).
iii. Fission (Subject Divide Physic >Sound, Heat, ect.)
In this form of mode of formation, a basic subject or an isolate is split into subdivision. The primary basic subject 'physics, may be fission into properties of matter, sound, heat, light, electricity, magnetism etc. There are two distinct terms to denote these relationships respectively.
A. Dissection
'Dissection' term used to denote fission when we consider the array of division of an isolate or a basic subject resulting from fission.
B. Denudation
'Denudation' term is used to denote fission when we consider one and only one subdivision of an isolate or a basic subject resulting from fission. Asia => Nepal, India.
iv. Fusion (adding)
In this form of mode of formation two or more main subjects are fused together in such a way that each of them loses its individuality in respect of the schedules of isolates needed to form the compound subjects going with it. This gives rise to a new primary basic subject. Example geophysics is a primary basic subject achieved by the fusion of geography and physics. Geography + physics = Geophysics.
v. Distillation (Different Main subject)
In this form of mode of formation, a pure discipline is evolved as primary basic subject from its appearance-in-action in diverse compound subject going with either different basic subject or one and the same basic subject. Distillation gives rise to primary basic subject. Example - Research Methodology, Management. Microbiology, Forestry.
vi. Agglomeration (Different part to added)
In 1969, Ranganathan explained partial comprehension and in 1973, when the term 'partial comprehension' was replaced by 'Agglomeration', Neelameghan defined Agglomeration as the process of "collecting together of entities into larger masses without cohesion among the components." He further identified agglomeration of two kinds:
a Kind 1: When Agglomeration is made up of consecutive constituents. Example: Humanities.
b. Kind 2: When Agglomeration is mode up of non-consecutive constituents. Example: Economics and Law.
vii. Cluster
In this form of mode of formation, a new kind of partial comprehension of subjects is formed. For convenience in organisation of research, the preliminary results and the data obtained in different basic subject or compound subjects going with the different basic subject involved in the study of some phenomenon or entity are published in one and the same book disjunctively for further investigation and elaboration independently by the specialists in the respective subjects. Thus, an account of different subjects are brought together out of exigency without any substantial integral account of them. This results in "Subject Bundle." Example - Indology. Ocean Sciences, Space Sciences, etc.
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