Knowledge

Knowledge (from Middle English knowlechen, to acknowledge) is "the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association" and "acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique." Another definition of note is "the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning." It is compared with synonyms "learning", "erudition," and "scholarship" as applying to "facts or ideas acquired by study, investigation, observation, or experience." On the other hand, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, "Knowledge, being a primitive fact of consciousness, cannot, strictly speaking, be defined..."

Liberapedia provides an excellent record of human knowledge. A lack of knowledge is known as ignorance. Conservapedia provides an excellent record of human ignorance, and, despite its ironic name, so does A Storehouse of Knowledge.

Omniscience is the state of ultimate knowledge.

Philosophy of knowledge
The study of knowledge is known as epistemology. As it pertains to knowledge, epistemology is concerned with the sources and limitations of knowledge. Epistemology is also the study of justification for beliefs. Evidentialism is a philosophy asserting that whether or not a belief is justified is dependent upon the evidence supporting it.

Empiricism, the fundamental philosophy behind science, holds that knowledge can only be gained by use of the senses. Rationalism is a philosophy of understanding the world based on reason and logic that relies partly on a priori truths, innate knowledge, and intuition. As a philosophy, skepticism is a methodology based on the assumption of doubt, and it is a part of the scientific method.

Christian apologetics is a philosophy that attempts a systematic and rational defense of Christian beliefs, primarily the existence of God. Many of its arguments employ logical fallacies or wrong assumptions. Some redefine reason and change the nature of knowledge itself.

Common knowledge
Common knowledge is that which is known among members of a group to be mutually known by all members. Note that it is not sufficient to be merely mutually known, but it must be known to be mutually known. Common knowledge becomes significant in social interactions and despite its rather obvious nature was not articulated as a phenomenon until the 20th Century.

Scientific knowledge
Scientific knowledge is that which is accepted by the scientific community as having been acquired through use of the scientific method. The system of acquiring knowledge through use of the scientific method is called science. Science has allowed us to create technology that makes life easier. However, there are obviously still gaps in our ability to explain natural phenomena scientifically. God of the gaps describes the unnecessary use of God as the cause for phenomena that scientific knowledge has not yet explained.

Divine knowledge
Christian apologists claim to be able to empirically gain spiritual knowledge about God. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes, "And this same process by which we know God's existence cannot fail to manifest something-however little-of His nature and perfections. That we know Him imperfectly, by way chiefly of negation and analogy, does not deprive this knowledge of all value. We can know God only so far as He manifests Himself through His works which dimly mirror His perfections, and so far as our finite mind will allow. Such knowledge will necessarily remain infinitely far from being comprehension..." It is a philosophical issue whether knowledge of God can be derived from arguments for or against his existence or from other means, and it may ultimately depend on how one defines knowledge.

Sources of knowledge
Sources are dictated by the philosophy used and the kind of knowledge desired. The Bible is not a good source of scientific knowledge, for example. Much scientific knowledge is, however, gained through experience. This includes perception, especially through experimentation and observation, memory of past experience, and, to acquire self-knowledge, introspection.

Another significant source of scientific knowledge is reason, which uses logic and, to some degree, intuition. Inductive reasoning, emphasized by modern science, starts with effects and infers causes. Deductive reasoning starts with assumptions and derives outcomes.

Sources of non-scientific knowledge include revelation, meditation, and esoteric or secret knowledge. According to one myth, knowledge can be gotten by eating an apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.