Defining declarative knowledge

[John F Sowa]

After I sent the note below, I took my own advice and clicked on the blue phrase for 'declarative knowlege'.  This is the kind of knowledge that is most relevant for a knowlege based system.  Following are the two opening paragraphs, but the remainder of this entry is also important.

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.

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The professionals who work on dictionaries and other resources have a deep understanding of the many uses of every word they define.  That includes everything from the most common meanings to the most abstract technical senses.

I have partiipated in AI workshops on knowledge representation where some of the participants were employed by dictionary companies.  And they are true professionals.  Their methods of analysis and definition are superior to the majority of people who have degrees -- including PhD's -- in computer science.  In fact, some of them participate in AI conferences (where I met them).

Recommendation:  When defining any word or phrase, always start by consulting one or more good unabridged dictionaries.   They're available on the WWW.  Wikipedia is also a good resource, especially for entries that have a large number of references at the end.  Following is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for 'knowledge'.  It continues with much further discussion, list of sources, and 218 citations.

Anybody who attempts to define any technical word or phrase should always consider what the professionals have written on the subject.  And they should include citations of the relevant sources.  The words or phrases in blue have links to other Wikipedia pages.

 

Wikipedia:  Knowledge is an awareness of facts, a familiarity with individuals and situations, or a practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often characterized as true belief that is distinct from opinion or guesswork by virtue of justification. While there is wide agreement among philosophers that propositional knowledge is a form of true belief, many controversies focus on justification. This includes questions like how to understand justification, whether it is needed at all, and whether something else besides it is needed. These controversies intensified in the latter half of the 20th century due to a series of thought experiments called Gettier cases that provoked alternative definitions.

 

John

[Ravi Sharma]

John

Great!

Are declarative and propositional knowledge the same? 

How do you distinguish among information, understanding and knowledge?

Please note I did not use K  because I wanted to distinguish completeness by K and objective purpose and target based knowledge as lower case k.

Regards

Thanks.

Ravi

(Dr. Ravi Sharma, Ph.D. USA)

NASA Apollo Achievement Award

Former Scientific Secretary ISRO HQ

Ontolog Board of Trustees

Particle and Space Physics

Senior Enterprise Architect

SAE Fuel Cell Standards Member

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[John F Sowa]

Ravi,

Please note the first paragraph of the definition in Wikipedial.  It lists several synonymous terms, which include declarative and propositional knowledge.  

I suggest a collection of commonly used terms, which would include a large number of synonyms.  We can choose one of them, say X, as the primary or recommended term.  Then all the others would say "synonym for X".

The entire Wikipedia article has much more information, and we need to make a judicious choice of which terms to recommend for common use.

John

 

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From: "Ravi Sharma" <drravi...@gmail.com>

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