What is Knowledge?

This is an exploration into Knowledge. Before we understand Subjugated Knowledge, we must understand KNOWLEDGE.

(BillionPhotos.com, n.d.)

What is Knowledge?

Have you ever taken a moment to consider: What is knowledge?

Do you think of schooling and education? Maybe the world’s inventors, poets or thinkers come to mind: Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Leonardo da Vinci, Maya Angelou, Stephen Hawking.

Knowledge is difficult to define.

We often have an understanding of what it means to know something, but have never asked ourselves “What is knowledge?”

We simply know things.

Philosophers and epistemologists (those who study knowledge) have constructed a general definition that involves three conditions. Once an individual has met these three conditions, they can say they know something to be true:

1. The person believes the statement to be true

2. The statement is in fact true

3. The person is justified in believing the statement to be true (Pardi, 2011)

Knowledge is NOT universal truth.

(Rodin, 1904)

Knowledge according to Michel Foucault

"Knowledge is Power"

Enter French Philsopher Michel Foucault who shakes things up and states that KNOWLEDGE is POWER (Ristic & Marinkovic, 2023) (Waldun, 2018)

Please watch this video to help you understand a little more.

(Waldun, 2018)

(Gunaratna, 2013)

Foucault states that knowledge and power are linked. That is, knowledge is only KNOWLEDGE if those who hold the power declare it to be. Those in power define what is included or excluded in the domain of knowledge (McWhorter, 2009, p.50).

Knowledge is PRODUCED and it becomes regarded as authority. It is accepted as truth. It becomes the DOMINANT DISCOURSE that is interwoven into social settings and institutions. If people want to be accepted and not othered, they must comply with the dominant discourse (McWhorter, 2009, pp.50-53)

Therefore, knowledge and power become one single concept.

Power systems produce knowledge that informs social institutions to create social values that are adhered to through assimilation (McWhorter, 2009, pp.48-49).

Examples of social institutions: medical systems, prison systems, educational systems, political systems.

(Foucault, n.d.)

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this quote.

(Consider this: the metaphor of a knife for cutting and division, Foucault's concept of Knowledge is Power).

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