Posted by Ton Zijlstra on August 28, 2002 at 11:04:33:

In Reply to: Knowledge and Truth posted by Mezei on August 08, 2002 at 14:15:13:

Hi Mezei,

Wow what a topic to bring up here! But a very intriguing one. I'm knowledge manager with a small company, and in my free time I also study philosophy of science, technology and society, which is a brand of philosophy dealing with the impact of technology and science on society and vice versa. Ever since I started this masterscourse I kept intuitively feeling the parallels with KM. So I'm more than happy to try to explore the issue your raised in this thread.

What comes to mind first, reading the contributions thus far, is the fundamental question of whether there is such a thing as Truth, and if there were, would we be able to recognize it if we came across it. This is one of three questions that are at the core of what western philosophy is. (what is real, what is beautiful and what is good, or more Kantian: what can I know, what can I hope for, and what may I do)

RJT reformulated truth to "what's true to me?" This is a "working definition" of truth that I work with as well. It leaves out the fundamental question if there is any truth at all, and in stead obliges me to, whatever I hold to be true at a certain moment, be receptive of alternate views, and to constantly try and develop myself by gaining knowledge in the form of cerebral models (head), successfull behaviour (hand), and adequate emotions (heart).

More or less the same I do for defining technology as "a configuration that works", leaving out the question if people, social constructs etc can be part of a technology, and what scope to deal with at design time.

This all just as first impressions upon reading your question. I'll try and bring the cacophony of ideas and opinions in my mind to a resemblance of order, before commenting more.

kind regards,

Ton Zijlstra

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Follow Ups:

• amendment:Re: Knowledge and Truth, but how to discern truth? Ton Zijlstra 11:11:59 08/28/02 (0)

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