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What Is Knowledge? Who Creates It? Who Possesses It? The Need for Novel Answers to Old Questions

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Mass Collaboration and Education

Part of the book series: Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series ((CULS,volume 16))

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of both traditional and more recent conceptualizations of knowledge. It also aims at identifying shortcomings of each of these conceptualizations in the context of mass collaboration. Philosophy has traditionally conceptualized knowledge as “justified true belief,” whereas psychology tends to consider it mainly in terms of semantic memory. What both traditions have in common, however, is an individualistic focus, which emphasizes that knowledge is located within people’s minds. But this individual perspective reaches its limits when considering transpersonal phenomena like collaborative knowledge construction and mass collaboration. More recent approaches have taken social aspects of knowledge-related processes into account. We present some of them briefly and discuss them with regard to mass collaboration settings. Finally, we present a systemic view of knowledge as an attempt toward a synthesis of individualistic and social perspectives, which might be more suitable for mass collaboration scenarios.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It must be acknowledged, however, that the branch of mathematics has been granted a special role even in traditional epistemology. This is due to the fact that mathematical knowledge is generated by stringent and complete proof. Such knowledge has therefore been proposed to be “a priori” (e.g., Peressini, 2008; Womack, 1993). As such, it may be regarded to be independent of any individuals recognizing it. This particular concept is closely linked to Popper’s third world (see below).

  2. 2.

    An epistemic system is thus by definition a social system, not an individual system.

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  1. Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Knowledge Construction Lab, Tuebingen, Germany

    Aileen Oeberst, Joachim Kimmerle & Ulrike Cress

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  1. Aileen Oeberst
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  1. Knowledge Media Research Center, Tubingen, Germany

    Ulrike Cress

  2. University of Tuebingen, Tubingen, Germany

    Johannes Moskaliuk

  3. Hallym University, Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, Korea (Republic of)

    Heisawn Jeong

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Oeberst, A., Kimmerle, J., Cress, U. (2016). What Is Knowledge? Who Creates It? Who Possesses It? The Need for Novel Answers to Old Questions. In: Cress, U., Moskaliuk, J., Jeong, H. (eds) Mass Collaboration and Education. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13536-6_6

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