WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The four most prominent elements of knowledge are the subject, the object, the cognitive operation and thought. The definition of knowledge is very complex since it arises from a spontaneous and instinctive fact. It can be described as the being's contact with the world.

Knowledge is characterized by the presence of a subject in front of an object. When the subject sees the object, he captures it and makes it his own through a cognitive operation.

Knowledge depends on the nature of the object and the means used to reproduce it. Thus, two large groups of knowledge can be distinguished, sensory knowledge and rational knowledge.

Sensory knowledge is found in men and animals, and is captured through the senses. Rational knowledge is inherent in humans and is captured through reason.

The main elements of knowledge

Subject

You cannot talk about knowledge without a subject who has it. The subject is the person who captures some object of reality and gets a thought about it.

For example, in the case of scientists, they are subjects who, through their observations and science experiments, provide rational thoughts about them and form the series of knowledge that we know as science.

Object

The object is the thing or person recognized by the subject. For example, a person can observe a cell (object) to find out its elements and properties.

The known thing would not be called an object if it were not recognized, so it is a necessary condition that a subject see and recognize the object, so that it is an object.

There is an interesting relationship between subject and object. When these two interact, the object remains unchanged. However, the subject undergoes a modification during knowledge when obtaining a series of thoughts towards the object.

Exceptions can be generated, for example if a person believes that he is being observed and modifies his behavior despite not being sure if he is the object of some other subject.

Here the difference between objective knowledge and subjective knowledge is manifested. Subjective knowledge is inclined to the interests of the subject as opposed to objective knowledge that expresses exactly what has been observed without adding external elements.

Reaching totally objective knowledge is very difficult for any subject, since there are limits to the impulses of others that can interfere with the measure of knowledge.

Cognitive operation

It is in the cognitive operation that the thought about the object arises. It is a psychophysiological process necessary for the subject who meets an object to have some thought about it.

The cognitive operation only lasts an instant, however, it is necessary for a thought to be established about the observed object. The cognitive operation is a mental operation that results in a thought.

Despite the fact that the cognitive operation is extremely brief, the resulting thought remains in the subject's knowledge for some time.

In order to understand this relationship, we can give an example, such as taking a photograph.

In this case, the cognitive operation would be the action of pressing the button to capture an object, which only lasts an instant. The photograph obtained by that action lasts much longer, as happens with thought.

Thought

Thought is an intramental content referred to an object. We can refer to thought as an internal trace every time an object is known. That imprint in memory provides a series of thoughts that are evoked each time the object is glimpsed. It is a mental expression of the known object.

The object, on the other hand, is extramental, it exists outside the subject's mind regardless of how it has been perceived. But there are also intramental objects that are produced when we try to focus attention on knowledge that we have previously acquired.

Thought differs from the object, since it is the subject's representation of the object that it is perceiving. It does not function as a photograph that captures the object, but rather is a mental construction representing the object.

There are neurophysiological studies that conclude that between the thought of the represented object and the object itself, there is a radical difference.

We must also distinguish between idealistic thinking and realistic thinking. In an idealistic thought the object of our knowledge is immanent, in contrast to realistic thought where it is sustained in that it captures the object in an extramental way.

However, realistic thinking occurs once the subject turns his attention back and reflects on the thoughts he has previously obtained, causing new thoughts different from the observed object. This is what we call thinking.

There is an exceptional case of knowledge about oneself, the subject captures himself not as an object but as a subject.

Integration of the four elements of knowledge

Gutiérrez (2000) defines knowledge through the relationship of the four elements as the phenomenon where a person or subject captures an object and internally produces a series of thoughts about said object. That is, the mental ideas that the subject generates from that object.

The act of knowing requires the assimilation of the object by the subject. This causes an expansion of the cognitive horizon and obtains the qualities and characteristics of the object. This is where the subject begins to acquire an existence within the person she knows.

When the subject assimilates the object, it helps the subject grow; this is the essence of knowledge. To know is to be more, not to have more.

Knowing must be differentiated from thinking. To know is to obtain the series of thoughts of an object. Thinking is shuffling those thoughts and, as they are obtained, combining them. In the case of scientists, other new thoughts can even be inferred.

Therefore, the final distinction between knowing, thinking and knowing results in the following form. Knowing is the transcendent.

Thinking is the combination of ideas that are known. And knowing is the set of thoughts that the subject has.

References

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