Author:
Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation:
9 August 2021
Update Date:
5 May 2024
Content
The knowledge It is the form or contact that a subject makes with the world and that it is incorporated as part of their future knowledge. The object of knowledge has four main elements: the subject, the object, the cognitive operation and thought.
- Subject: The subject is the one who performs the cognitive operation. That is, it is the subject who knows. It can also be called a knowing subject. This subject uses the natural cognitive faculties. That is, your sight, touch, ears, and intellect to process information.
- Object: It is the object that the subject must assimilate, incorporate into his field of knowledge. This object can be partially known (and more data is needed in relation to some aspect of the object) or totally unknown by the subject of knowledge.
- Representation: It is the internal action that the subject obtains from the incorporation of the object through the cognitive operation. This type of representation is also called thought since the subject will try to reproduce in his mind the incorporated object (mental image of the object). It is important to clarify that thought is not synonymous with knowledge since all knowledge includes a part of thought. So, thought or representation is a part of knowledge but it is not everything.
- The cognitive operation: This operation is considered as the act of knowing. It is the necessary psychic processing that the subject must do in relation to the object in order to know it. It differs from thought since the cognitive operation is instantaneous while thought persists in time. This thought is known as memory to which the subject can access through a mental effort after the evocation of it. We could also suggest that cognitive operation is the act of learning something
Types of knowledge
In turn, the type of knowledge that is accessed can be of different types:
- Everyday knowledge. It is also called empirical-spontaneous knowledge. This is what you get from everyday or daily practice.
- Empirical knowledge. It is also known as popular knowledge. It is one that is obtained by chance. Consequently, it does not present a method or system for your knowledge.
- Technical knowledge. It is the knowledge obtained through observation or experience of many similar situations.
- Scientific knowledge. It is the knowledge that the verification reaches based on causes. Through these causes laws are formulated that govern such knowledge.
Example of knowledge with its elements
The photograph. Taking photography as an example, its elements would be:
- Subject: It is the subject who tries to know something in relation to photography. It can refer to something in the history of photography or the way of photographing something with a special type of camera. The important thing is to identify that the subject is the person who is interested in knowing something.
- Object: The object, in this case, is the photograph and / or the camera itself; how the photograph is taken, how it is developed (development techniques), development times, etc.
- Representation: It is the concrete act of taking the photograph. Let us remember that the thought or representation is limited to the temporal action and the mental image that the subject puts in his mind of the action carried out. In this case, the mental image of the photograph taken.
- Cognitive operation: Depending on the type of prior knowledge that the subject may have in relation to photography, it will be possible to identify the cognitive operation. If the subject does not have any information about photography, then everything he reads, experiences or hears in relation to photography will be a cognitive operation.
