Teachers, philosophers, great thinkers and students have often wondered about the

nature of knowledge. From a historical standpoint, knowledge has been viewed in a

variety of ways, as an object, as a skill, as a means of thinking. The ideas of Popper, von
Glasersfeld, and Piaget can help to explain the understanding of knowledge from a
human and scientific perspective, as well as the nature of knowledge that creates our
reality. From my perspective, knowledge is always and only, created by individuals
through criticism which address problems that are identified within the context of specific
environments
n taking a Popperian perspective, scientific knowledge is gained by proposing a
series of problems, which ultimately build theories, but can also lead to more problems
!Popper, "#$$%. Popper rejected any notion of facts existing in the realm of &knowledge',
as he relied on only having refutable and falsifiable theories. Popper(s concept of
theories, and ideas, were only )ualified as theories when they could be )uestioned,
critici*ed, changed and possibly replaced !Thorton, +,,#%. Through the use of criti)ue
and discussion, this is the only way in which progressive and new ideas or information
can actually be learned or gained !Popper, "#$$%.
Popper critici*ed three general views of knowledge that many current
philosophers hold as their ideals. The first view he presented was called -ssentialism.
-ssentialism provided the idea that theories only provide truth about a concept. .ince
Popper believed there is no ultimate fact, or truth, he disagreed with this point of view.
/e believed that every idea must remain a theory that can obviously be refuted,
)uestioned and critici*ed. The other view that philosophers hold is the idea that theories
can be used as instruments to find truth. This builds on the essentialist viewpoint, and so
Popper also disagrees with this idea of instrumentalism. /e stated that if theories are to
be used as instruments to find truth, usually instruments cannot be falsified because they
have very limited applicability and can only be used for specific uses or examples. The
viewpoint that Popper did agree with was that there are theories which are genuine
conjectures. /e believed that in science, as well as in any discipline, or realm of thought,
that one may never know that something is necessarily true or fact, however, one can
most definitely establish what is false through undergoing a series of severe and false0
finding tests. These genuine conjectures are primarily guesses about reality, which in turn
makes our ideas or knowledge about reality uncertain and falsifiable !Popper, "#$1%.
Therefore, according to Popper our only knowledge is not based on the truth of an idea,
but more so the ability to falsify an idea based on our experiences with reality.
2on Glasersfeld, in a similar fashion to Popper, believes in a theory called
constructivism. 3onstructivism assumes that knowledge is in the mind of the knower who
is undergoing different situational experiences, which build upon other past experiences
!von Glasersfeld, "#4+%. /e believed that knowledge is not passively received by the
cognitive subject but is actively built up through experiences. These experiences are then
organi*ed, processed and adapted to various situations that continue throughout the
experiential world of the subject !von Glasersfeld, "##5%. 2on Glasersfeld !"#41% stated
that the term knowledge and the process of incorporating, assimilating or accommodating
new experiences are inseparable because one cannot passively receive information from
the environment through using the senses alone, it needs to cognitively be processed and
related to previous experiences if it is to be classified as knowledge. 2on Glasersfeld
!"#41% affirmed that when humans face a new problem, it is similar to a lock and key
situation, the key may be a variety of objects, but it has to fit within the constraints of the
lock. .imilarly, the subject may arrive at a solution in a variety of ways, but it fits within
the constraints of their previous experiences. /e believed that, like the lock and key
situation, trial and error can help to build on the previous experiences and help to
establish more connections between the novel ideas and the past understanding !von
Glasersfeld, "#4#a%. These experiences help to build our conceptual idea of reality by
making distinctions between novel ideas and previous ideas.
2on Glasersfeld built his ideas mainly on the ideas of Piaget who is also viewed
as a constructivist. Piaget believed that knowledge is tied to an action and these actions
need to be assimilated into an action schema !von Glaserfeld, "#4+%. Piagets( schema
theory can be summed up as the recognition of a certain situation gleaned from past
experiences, where there is an activity associated with the situation. 6fter the
performance of the activity, Piaget confirms that there is an expectation of a certain
result. 7hen this result occurs more often than not, in the same situation this creates the
expectation. /owever, when the expectation does not occur, this is when learning takes
places and new knowledge is constructed. This failure of an expected result creates
cognitive dissonance which has destroyed the previous psychological e)uilibrium. The
dissonance then leads to a new e)uilibrium which needs to be established once an
appropriate solution is derived for that particular situation !Piaget, "#54, .mith, "##$%.
Piaget believed that because a new e)uilibrium is established, the function of cognition is
adaptive and accommodated for based on the organi*ation of the subjects experiential
past !nhelder 8 Piaget, "#54%.
6s can be seen, knowledge can be defined in many different ways. Piaget and von
Glasersfeld state that knowledge is subjective according to one(s experiences and is a
continually active process !von Glasersfeld, "#4#b%. Popper, on the other hand, considers
knowledge as objective as he believes that anyone can create knowledge, but can also be
consumed by those who have not created knowledge !Popper, "#$$%. 9ue to the fact that
people disagree and have different opinions on whether knowledge is subjective or
objective, it must automatically be a subjective matter. This matter depends entirely on
the subjects point of view. :nowledge, according to Piaget, Popper, and von Glasersfeld
is also built on creating cognitive dissonance which creates realness and, essentially,
reality. Popper !"#$1% states, &Theories are our own inventions, our own ideas;<ut
some of these theories can clash with reality= and when they do, we know that there is a
reality= that there is something to remind us that our ideas may be mistaken.' This
reminds us that when there is a change or clash, that we have found something new, a
real discovery. .omething that can tell us about reality we experience. Piaget and von
Glasersfeld also clearly establish that &:nowledge, therefore, >is the? knowledge of the
things that caused one(s experiences, the things that were given, the data, and it could all
be put together as a picture of reality'!von Glasersfeld, "#41%. :nowledge is a subjective
collection of information derived from ones( experiences which create the reality that one
exists.
@y theories on knowledge are )uite similar to those of Popper, Piaget and von
Glasersfeld. believe that knowledge is )uite subjective and heavily relies on an
individual(s personal experiences. also believe that these experiences, while
experienced by many people at the same time, can be perceived in a variety of manners
and therefore can create a different knowledge of the same experience. This makes
knowledge less concrete and less objective. 9ue to this distinction, have to separate
myself from Popper(s ideas. /e considered knowledge to be objective, where find it to
be )uite subjective and biased. /owever, do lend myself to Popper(s belief on forming
knowledge through the solving of problems, which will build theories. These theories,
when put under severe tests, may be shown to be false, but this only lends itself to finding
a new problem and developing a new theory. This does not prove that anything is Atrue(
or Afact(, only that we have not completely discovered all of the needed information in
order to properly solve the problem. The theories that we currently build our world upon,
only work in the context that we know exists in our environment. /owever, if the
environment changes, the theory will become falsified which opens a path to a new
problem, and new theories. believe that this framework helps us to build our knowledge,
which plays into von Glasersfelds( and Piagets( ideas on constructivism. Going through a
problem solving situation, helps to build our experiences and gain more knowledge on
the situation. , like von Glasersfeld, also think that knowledge is always in reference to
something else which corresponds or depicts something that already existed in our
environment before it was actually known !von Glasersfeld, "#41%. This means that we
have to derive accurate representations of what is in our environment, but the only way to
do this is through our personal experiences. <ut how do we know they are accurateB
Cike, Popper, our representations may not ever be accurate, but they are most likely
changing continually and expanding as we find new problems and ideas. 6s previously
stated, believe that knowledge is a continually changing and development of critically
analy*ed theories based on personal previous experiences which help to create our
reality.
Works Cited:
nhelder, <, 8 Piaget, D. !"#54%. The Growth of logical thinking from childhood to
adolescence. Eew Fork, EFG <asic <ooks.
Popper, :. !"#$1%. Conjectures and refutations >pp. "1,0"$,?. Hetrieved from
httpGIIbooks.google.caIbooksB
idJ-Emxi2<a.o38printsecJfrontcover8d)J:arlKPopperKknowledge8source
JgbsLsimilarbooksLs8cadJ"MvJonepage8)J8fJfalse
Popper, :. !"#$$%. Nbjective knowledge a realist view of logic, physics, and history.
Hetrieved from
httpGIIwww.marxists.orgIreferenceIsubjectIphilosophyIworksIatIpopper.htm
.mith, C. !-d.%. !"##$%. Critical readings on Piaget. Eew Fork, EFG Houtledge.
Thorton, .. !+,,#%. :arl Popper. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Hetrieved !+,,#,
Eovember +"% from httpGIIplato.stanford.eduIentriesIpopperIMGro/um:no
von Glasersfeld, -. !"#4+%. 6n nterpretation of PiagetOs constructivism. Revue
Internationale de Philosophie, 1$!P%, $"+0$15.
von Glasersfeld, -. !"#41%. :nowledge as -nvironmental fit. Man!nvironment Systems,
"1!5%, +"$0++P.
von Glasersfeld, -. !"#4#a%. Facts and the self from a constructivist point of view .
Poetics, "4!P%, P150P4#.
von Glasersfeld, -. !"#4#b%. 3ognition, construction of knowledge, and teaching.
Synthese, 4,!"%, "+"0"P,.
von Glasersfeld, -. !"##5%. Radical constructivism" a way of knowing and learning. Eew
Fork, EFG HoutledgeFalmer.