Claim
Declarative knowledge
Overview
Declarative knowledge, also known as theoretical knowledge, descriptive knowledge, propositional knowledge, and knowledge-that, is an awareness of facts that can be expressed using declarative sentences. It is not restricted to one specific use or purpose and can be stored in books or on computers.
Epistemology is the main discipline studying declarative knowledge. Among other things, it studies the essential components of declarative knowledge. According to a traditionally influential view, it has three elements: it is a belief that is true and justified. As a belief, it is a subjective commitment to the accuracy of the believed claim while truth is an objective aspect. To be justified, a belief has to be rational by being based on good reasons. This means that mere guesses do not amount to knowledge even if they are true. In contemporary epistemology, additional or alternative components have been suggested. One proposal is that no contradicting evidence is present. Other suggestions are that the belief was caused by a reliable cognitive process and that the belief is infallible.
Types of declarative knowledge can be distinguished based on the source of knowledge, the type of claim that is known, and how certain the knowledge is. A central contrast is between a posteriori knowledge, which arises from experience, and a priori knowledge, which is grounded in pure rational reflection. Other classifications include domain-specific knowledge and general knowledge, knowledge of facts, concepts, and principles as well as explicit and implicit knowledge.
Declarative knowledge is often contrasted with practical knowledge and knowledge by acquaintance. Practical knowledge consists of skills, like knowing how to ride a horse. It is a form of non-intellectual knowledge since it does not need to involve true beliefs. Knowledge by acquaintance is a familiarity with something based on first-hand experience, like knowing the taste of chocolate. This familiarity can be present even if the person does not possess any factual information about the object. Some theorists also contrast declarative knowledge with conditional knowledge, prescriptive knowledge, structural knowledge, case knowledge, and strategic knowledge.
Declarative knowledge is required for various activities, such as labeling phenomena as well as describing and explaining them. It can guide the processes of problem-solving and decision-making. In many cases, its value is based on its usefulness in achieving one's goals. However, its usefulness is not always obvious and not all instances of declarative knowledge are valuable. Much knowledge taught at school is declarative knowledge. It is said to be stored as explicit memory and can be learned through rote memorization of isolated, singular, facts. But in many cases, it is advantageous to foster a deeper understanding that integrates the new information into wider structures and connects it to pre-existing knowledge. Sources of declarative knowledge are perception, introspection, memory, reasoning, and testimony.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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What we firmly believe, if it is true, is called _knowledge_, provided it is either intuitive or inferred (logically or psychologically) from intuitive knowledge from which it follows logically. What we firmly believe, if it is not true, is called _error_. What we firmly believe, if it is neither knowledge nor error, and also what we believe hesitatingly, because it is, or is derived from, something which has not…
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
States what Declarative knowledge is; the author is tied to Declarative knowledge in the knowledge graph.
The content of a belief, when expressed in words, is the same thing (or very nearly the same thing) as what in logic is called a "proposition." A proposition is a series of words (or sometimes a single word) expressing the kind of thing that can be asserted or denied. "That all men are mortal," "that Columbus discovered America," "that Charles I died in his bed," "that all philosophers are wise," are propositions…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
States what Declarative knowledge is; the author is tied to Declarative knowledge in the knowledge graph.
If the judgement concluded is so contained in the first proposition that it can be deduced from it without the meditation of a third notion, the conclusion is called immediate (consequentia immediata); I prefer the term conclusion of the understanding. But if, in addition to the fundamental cognition, a second judgement is necessary for the production of the conclusion, it is called a conclusion of the reason. In…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
States what Declarative knowledge is.
Philosophers who discussed Declarative knowledge
Related ideas
- Gilbert Ryle
- Belief
- Virtue epistemology
- Foundationalism
- Self-evidence
- Artificial intelligence
- Grammar
- Norm (philosophy)
- Internalism and externalism
- Intuition
- Feeling
- Ancient Greek philosophy
- Infallibility
- Learning
- Mathematics
- Information
- Culture
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Desire
- Mind
- Self-knowledge (psychology)
- Maxwell's equations
- Evidence
- Mental state
Place in the tradition
Part of Aesthetics.