Knowledge may originate or be derived from the following origins or methods:
Observation or experience. This may be more or less sophisticated, ranging from a simple, "I saw" to carefully designed controlled experimentation.
Reason or logic. Taking other knowledge as data, by logical operations knowledge can be inferred. For example the theoretical construct, the electron, is derived by logical inferences from observations and experiment. Such knowledge, being derivative, can not be better than the knowledge upon which it is founded.
Authority. Knowledge based on authority may rely upon the reputation of an individual such as Aristotle or Einstein or perhaps on institutional authority such as that of the Catholic Church or Oxford University. Note that an authority may adopt knowledge upon other criteria such as divine relelation or observation as well as upon authority. Authority may have a political basis in the sense that some political process, perhaps involving status as well as simple voting, peer review, or comment. This is familiar to participants in academia.
Revelation. According to some people, knowledge may be revealed by revelation or even divine revelation, which may be directly from God or some other spirit, perhaps mediated by being included in a book such as the Bible.
Internet-Encyclopedia article, January 3, 2003 (http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Methods_of_obtaining_knowledge), used under the GFDL
KnowledgeKnowledge is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or information gained in the form of experience or learning (a posteriori), or through introspection (a priori).
Knowledge is an appreciation of the possession of interconnected details which, in isolation, are of lesser value.
Knowledge based on authority may rely upon the reputation of an individual such as AristotleAristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης Aristotelēs) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher.
The fields of knowledge most often suggested as having a priori status are logic and mathematics, which deal primarily with abstract, formal objects.
The Scientific Method was once favoured as the reason for scientific success, but recently difficulties in the philosophy of science have led to a rise in Coherentism.
Pragmatism about knowledge holds that what is important about knowledge is that it solves certain problems that are constrained both by the world and by human purposes.
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