Week beginning: 07th March 2023
Fields of Knowledge/ Research Poster Preparations and Arts in the Armchair
The aim of todays morning session was to explore and understand the term Episteme and how it is used within the field of Art and Design. To achieve this we were split into groups and discussed and research the term and the meaning. It became clear to me there were many types of knowledge and in order to understand the word in question, I had to have a good understanding of each type of knowledge and how they were potentially used in practice.
Types of Knowledge
Tacit Knowledge
Empirical Knowledge
Explicit Knowledge
Practical Knowledge
Situated Knowledge
Procedural Knowledge
Descriptive Knowledge
Domain Knowledge
Encoded Knowledge
A Posteriori Knowledge
A Priori Knowledge
Dispersed Knowledge
Meta Knowledge
Known Unknowns
Unknown Unknows
“Artistic Practice is knowledge producing”- creating something through trail and error, through the process of making and craft.
Techne/Praxis/Episteme
Tekhne, or techne, is derived from the Greek term technê, meaning art, craft, technique, or skill, and plays an important role in Ancient Greek philosophy (in, for instance, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle) where it is most often opposed to epistêmê, meaning knowledge.
Praxis- practice, as distinguished from theory
Episteme- A Greek word most commonly translated as knowledge and understanding. A principled system of understanding, Finding and recording. Different disciplines of course having differing systems of understanding, Sociological, geographical, historical etc.
- Where does knowledge come from?
- How do we know what we know?
Accepting certain knowledge as truth means you exclude other knowledge as being false. An example of this would be the Flat Earth Vs Globe theory.
The validity of knowledge, the observation to find out the truth.
Types of Epistemes
There are several different types of epistemology, or rather, several different approaches to epistemological inquiry. While there are many specific names for these approaches, epistemology can be broadly divided into two main schools of thought: empiricism and rationalism. Most philosophers who have studied epistemology have been ultimately supportive of one of these schools of thought over the other. While empiricism emphasizes the ability of humans to learn about reality using their senses, rationalism argues that knowledge comes from rational thought rather than from the external world.
Social, subjective, cultural, historical theories, faith, and religion? Can’t be 100% proven. What is truth? How can it be proven? Learning the truth. Our own understanding of knowledge and what we know and do with that knowledge. Learnt and taught, going forward with facts and proven data?
Paula Rego- The Dance (1988)-
A nice example of various historical, cultural, social, and economic epistemes, the image depicts
Varying ages moving in a circle holding hands- the depiction of life, aging and the journey of a woman through life from childhood, adolescents, adulthood, and old age.
Essential Reading.
SITUATED KNOWLEDGES: THE SCIENCE QUESTION IN FEMINISM AND THE PRIVILEGE OF PARTIAL PERSPECTIVE.
Adam