The nature and role of experiential knowledge for environmental conservation

Understanding the nature and role of experiential knowledge for environmental conservation is a necessary step towards understanding if it should be used and how it might be applied with other types of knowledge in an evidence-based approach. This paper describes the nature of experiential and expert knowledge. It then discusses the role of experiential knowledge as a complement to scientific knowledge and explains the interplay between experiential knowledge with conservation research and practice using a simple conceptual model of how individuals learn. There are five main conclusions: (1) because experiential knowledge will always play a role in decision-making, enhancing ability to learn from experiences (including research) will have a significant influence on the effectiveness of conservation outcomes; (2) while experiential knowledge is qualitatively very different from quantitative information, both are important and complementary; (3) some experiential knowledge can be expressed quantitatively, but experiential knowledge can be difficult to isolate as single facts or propositions and qualitative methods will therefore often be required to elicit experiential knowledge; (4) because each person's expertise is unique, when using experiential knowledge the extent of a person's experience and its relevance to a particular problem need to be specified; and (5) as with any form of knowledge, there are limitations to that derived from personal experience. Synthesis and communication of research is therefore essential to help prevent erroneous thinking and, where possible, experiential knowledge should be used in conjunction with other types of information to guide conservation actions.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

God’s Knowledge of Other Minds

This paper explores one aspect of God’s omniscience, that is, his knowledge of human minds. In §1 I spell out a traditional notion of divine knowledge, and in §2 I argue that our understanding of the thoughts of others is a distinct kind of knowledge from that involved in knowledge of the physical world; it involves empathizing with thinkers. In §3 I show how this is relevant to the question of how, and whether, God understands the thoughts of man. There is, we shall see, some tension between the alleged direct nature of God’s intuition-based knowledge and the empathetic nature of understanding other

Can Human Beings Truly Be Considered Free?

There exists a complex relationship between human freedom and God\u27s divine foreknowledge; the questions surrounding this topic abound and are difficult to answer. The question arises, if God knows all that we think and do, now and in the future, and has Providence over all of our actions, are we truly free; do we have free will? I assert that we do. The arguments that would pit God\u27s foreknowledge and human freedom against each other as incompatible have a faulty foundation surrounding the nature of God\u27s knowledge, His Being, and our purpose in the world. Essentially, the nature of God\u27s knowledge is not deterministic, and His knowing does not necessitate that actions happen as they will; they do not happen because He knows, He knows because they happen. Additionally, God created us with a particular nature, and that nature includes a free will as human beings. God can neither impede nor prevent this nature, as He would actually, in effect, be contradicting His own nature as well as ours. We as beings are made to fulfill our natures, and thus we were made to act freely. God\u27s providence exists in that He made us, and made us to fulfill our particular natures, and as such, we are naturally inclined towards the good and towards our divine end and Creator. The divine end and purpose exists for us all, but it is our free will which allows us to choose to fulfill or not fulfill this nature. Once the true nature and metaphysics of God\u27s knowledge and being, our nature as humans, and our purpose as humans are understood, we can better attempt to reconcile the idea of God\u27s foreknowledge and providence with our freedom and free will as human beings

David Hume's Reductionist Epistemology of Testimony

David Hume advances a reductionist epistemology of testimony: testimonial beliefs are justified on the basis of beliefs formed from other sources. This reduction, however, has been misunderstood. Testimonial beliefs are not justified in a manner identical to ordinary empirical beliefs; it is true, they are justified by observation of the conjunction between testimony and its truth, but the nature of the conjunctions has been misunderstood. The observation of these conjunctions provides us with our knowledge of human nature and it is this knowledge which justifies our testimonial beliefs. Hume gives a naturalistic rather than a sceptical account of testimony

Organic Farming - structure, production and nature management

“Nature Quality in Organic Farming” - is a research project connected to the Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming. The aim has been to develop new methods for characterising nature content on organic farms, to investigate how nature elements are managed on different farms, and to discuss development strategies and ways to communicate this knowledge to different stakeholders. This following is a presentation of the results that emerged from an extensive interview survey with 347 organic farmers from 2002-03

Knowledge Nodes: the Building Blocks of a Distributed Approach to Knowledge Management

Abstract: In this paper we criticise the objectivistic approach that underlies most current systems for Knowledge Management. We show that such an approach is incompatible with the very nature of what is to be managed (i.e., knowledge), and we argue that this may partially explain why most knowledge management systems are deserted by users. We propose a different approach - called distributed knowledge management - in which subjective and social (in a word, contextual) aspects of knowledge are seriously taken into account. Finally, we present a general technological architecture in which these ideas are implemented by introducing the concept of knowledge node

Book review on: Max Boisot, Ian MacMillan, and Keyong Seok Han, Explorations in Information Space: Knowledge, Actors, and Firms, 2007, Oxford University Press,

Much has been written about knowledge management and value creation. But a real theoretical framework for the creation and the distribution of knowledge is lacking in much of the work done so far.In fact, with the rise of the knowledge economy, economic value is increasingly seen as relying on intangible assets rather than physical assets. Strategies for managing knowledge thus become of central concern. This is one of the reasons why "knowledge" has been so crucial for economic and management fields over the last two decades. But since "knowledge" is not only bare data, or information, but rather the result of a process involving space and time, the nature of knowledge takes a strategic dimension. Across disciplines and functional borderlines, philosophers, economists, sociologists, organisational theorists as well as managers, have debated the nature of knowledge without a real theoretical consensus.This book is precisely concerned with this issue. It aims at providing a theoretical framework to explore the nature of relevant organisational knowledge within and between firms, and in any other social systems. The authors stress on the fact that current knowledge management approaches are mainly Information and Communication Technology driven, focusing on the application of tools, and considering knowledge as a stand-alone resource: something that can be commercialised, stocked, manipulated and defined with clear perimeters. In this book, the authors think knowledge as a value creating process, demonstrating that the knowledge management field lacks of a founding theory focused on the nature of knowledge and knowledge flows. It is, consequently, not possible to have a credible theory about how to manage knowledge in a firm without first developing a knowledge-based-theory of the firm.The two main goals of the book can be summarized as follows: Firstly, to build up the foundations of a theory for a conceptual framework centred on knowledge flows, which the authors call the Information Space or I-Space. Secondly, to connect the I-Space framework to the actual world by exposing the managerial implications deriving from the heterogeneous institutional structures that emerge from data processing strategies.Knowledge Management; Information-Space; Networks; Actors

Importance of tacit knowledge towards company performance and its relevance to construction

Valuable human and knowledge resources will be wasted unless organisations make better use of these prime resources. Tacit knowledge in particular is still considered to be relatively unexplored and proper understanding and management of this resource is of immense importance for better organisational performance. The research addresses the importance of people factor and tacit knowledge in construction and examines the contribution towards the company performance and achievement of competitive advantage through a thorough literature review. Principle insights of dominant views on organisational resources are discussed to highlight the strategic nature of tacit knowledge. Labour and knowledge intensive nature of the construction industry is revealed and finally the importance and the significant role of people factor and tacit knowledge in construction are highlighted. This provides the basis for more empirical research on finding importance of tacit knowledge towards organisational performance in the construction industry

Knowledge and Information Economy, Welfare and governance: the economic nature of Intellectual Property Rights

В даній статті аналізуються підходи до оцінки економічної природи інтелектуальної власності та її використання з урахуванням економічної категорії благополуччя. Зокрема в статті доведено, що транзакційні витрати використання нематеріальних активів, зокрема прав інтелектуальної вартості значно перевищують витрати пов’язні на їх державне регулювання. Ефективність державного регулювання (ліцензування, обмеження, контроль, власність держави) значно перевищує витрати на переговори між контрагентами по впровадженню інтелектуальних прав власності. В дослідженнях «неокласиків» по просуванню інтелектуальних прав власності враховуються лише витрати на виробництво, проте транзакційні витрати ринкових механізмів не беруться до уваги. В роботі доведено, що підходи неокласичної економічної школи не можуть використовуватися для оцінки таких комплексних товарів як нематеріальні активи. Теоретичні результати дослідження полягають в тому, що приватні переговори та ринкова ефективність використання прав інтелектуальної власності не можуть бути досягнуті без інституціонального втручання, тобто без державного регулювання, необхідного для підтримки умов соціальної справедливості. Проблема забезпечення ефективності функціонування інтелектуальних прав власності полягає не лише в урахуванні виробничих витрат, а навпаки, необхідно брати до уваги транзакційні та колективні витрати. Враховуючи всю комплексність нематеріального капіталу в роботі показано обмеження теорії Коуза та обґрунтовано її відмінності з теорією Вільямсона для нематеріальних активів. Зокрема, що стосується теорії Коуза, доведено необхідність використання інституціонального посередника та регулятора для досягнення соціальної та ринкової ефективності. Ринкові механізми довели свою низьку ефективність при регулюванні та функціонуванні такої категорії благ як нематеріальні активи. В висновках можна стверджувати, що для інтелектуальних прав власності приватні переговори та ринкові механізми просування зазначених категорій товарів не забезпечують бажаний соціальний ефект, основною причиною ринкових провалів можна назвати специфіку та комплексність нематеріальних активів, неповноту та асиметричність інформації. Проведений аналіз може бути використаний в різних сферах пов’язаних з нематеріальними активами: просування товарів екологічної спрямованості, культурні товари, освітні послуги, виробництво інформації, економіка Інтернету. При цитуванні документа, використовуйте посилання http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/9144This paper will study the different conceptions about economic nature of (Intelectual) Property Rights, and the implications in regard to Welfare. This analysis may be applied in various fields concerned with intangible components: ecology, cultural goods, knowledge and information production, internet economics, for example. In regard to the complexity of these types of intangible capital, I will show the limits of the private negotiation inspired in Coase´s approach, and underline the opposition between this approach and the Williamson´s one. При цитировании документа, используйте ссылку http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/914

Practical Knowledge and Luminosity

Many philosophers hold that if an agent acts intentionally, she must know what she is doing. Although the scholarly consensus for many years was to reject the thesis in light of presumed counterexamples by Donald Davidson, several scholars have recently argued that attention to aspectual distinctions and the practical nature of this knowledge shows that these counterexamples fail. In this paper I defend a new objection against the thesis, one modelled after Timothy Williamson’s anti-luminosity argument. Since this argument relies on general principles about the nature of knowledge rather than on intuitions about fringe cases, the recent responses that have been given to defuse the force of Davidson’s objection are silent against it. Moreover, the argument suggests that even weaker theses connecting practical entities with knowledge are also false. Recent defenders of the thesis that there is a necessary connection between knowledge and intentional action are motivated by the insight that this connection is non-accidental. I close with a positive proposal to account for the non-accidentality of this link without appeal to necessary connections by drawing an extended analogy between practical and perceptual knowledge