Karl Popper's the Three Worlds of Knowledge2

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The laws of mother nature is

an example of World 1

knowledge.

Drums are an example ofWorld 3 knowledge as the

drumsticks and taut skin and

shape of the drum clue us in

on what it is and how to use it.

K a r l P o p p e r ' s t h e T h r e e

W o r l d s o f K n o w l e d g e

"What is the object of knowledge?" asks young

Grasshopper. "There is no object of knowledge,"

replies the old Shaman, "To know is to be able to

operate adequately in an individual or cooperative

situation." "So which is more important, to know or

to do?" asks young Grasshopper. "All doing is

knowing, and all knowing is doing," replies the

Sage, and then continues, "Knowing is an effective

action, that is, knowledge operate effectively in thedomain of existence of all living creatures."

(paraphrased from Maturana & Varela, 1992).

One of the more popular epistemology models (except for perhaps in the

training/learning/behavioral sciences) is Sir Karl Popper's writings on the Three

Worlds of Knowledge. The behavioral sciences (knowledge/learning

/management professions) seem to prefer and stay within the realm of Michael

Polanyi's concept of tacitand explicitknowledge. However, Polanyi's

epistemology is narrower and has a limited basis for understanding knowledge

as compared to Popper's work, which provides a broader epistemological

foundation.

Karl Popper theorizes that there are three worlds of knowledge:

World 1is the physical universe. It consists of the actual truth and

reality that we try to represent, such as energy, physics, and

chemistry. While we exist in this world, we do not always perceive it

and then represent it correctly.

World 2is the world of our subjective personal perceptions,

experiences, and cognition. It is what we think about the world as we

try to map, represent, and anticipate or hypothesis in order to

maintain our existence in an every changing place. Personal

knowledge and memory form this world, which are based on

self-regulation, cognition, consciousness, dispositions, and

processes. Note that Polanyi's theory of tacitand explicitknowledge

is based entirely within this world.

World 3is the sum total of the objective abstract products of the

human mind. It consists of such artifacts as books, tools, theories,

models, libraries, computers, and networks. It is quite a diverse

mixture. While knowledge may be created and produced by World 2

activities, its artifacts are stored in World 3, for example a

claw-hammer, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and Godel's proof of the

incompleteness of arithmetic. Popper also includes genetic heredity

(if you think about it, genes are really nothing more than a biological

artifact of instructions).

Popper's the Three Worlds of Knowledge http://www.knowledgejump.com/knowledge/popper.html

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Books are another example of

Word 3 knowledge as they

store an array of ideas, such

as knowledge or models.

World 2 knowledge is the tacit

and explicit knowledge that wehave within us.

And of course, there are various relationships between these three worlds:

World 1 drives and enables world 2 to exist, while world 2 tries to

control and regulate world 1.

World 2 produces world 3, while world 3 helps in the recal l and the

training/education/development/learning of world 2.

World 3 describes and predicts world 1, while world 1 is the inferred

logic of world 3.

In addition, since world 2 is composed of people, we can use our senses to cut

across boundaries and observe and test the exchanges and relationships of

worlds 1 and 2.

Thus, knowledge surrounds us (world 1), becomes a part of us (world 2), and is

then stored in historical contents and contexts by us (world 3 artifacts).

In this framework are two different senses of knowledge or thought:

Knowledge in the subjective sense, consisting of a state of mind with

a disposition to behave or to react [cognition].

Knowledge in an objective sense, consisting of the expression of

problems, theories, and arguments.

While the first is personal, the second is totally independent of anybody's claim

to know it is knowledge without a knowing subject.

A T T H E F I S H H O U S E S

by Elizabeth Bishop

It is like what we imagine knowledge to be:

dark, salt, clear moving, utterly free,

drawn from the cold hard mouth

of the world, derived from the rocky breasts

forever, flowing and drawn, and since

our knowledge is historical, flowing, and flown.

Thus, knowledge goes far beyond the knowing/doing dichotomy. . . it is drawn,

derived, flowing, historical, and forever.


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R e f e r e n c e

Maturana, H.R., and F.J. Varela. The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots

of Human Understanding. Shambhala Publications, Boston, MA, 1998.

N o t e s

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