empiricism is used to describe knowledge about the universe and method of obtaining that knowledge.
empiricism is used to describe knowledge about the universe and method of obtaining that knowledge.
what word is used to describe knowledge about the universe and method of obtaining that knowledge?
empiricism
the method of the "discourse" and the "encyclopedia" marked a shift from descartes’ rationalism toward the empiricism of john locke and isaac newton. in the "discourse", d’alembert rejects a priori, indemonstrable speculations that lead to error and “intellectual despotism” and assumes a method based on hard facts and evidence (xxxv). a main objective of the “encyclopedia” was not only to organize a collection of known information, but also to establish a cohesive method of gathering facts and principles yet to be discovered. d’alembert acknowledges that “it is no less difficult to encompass the infinitely varied branches of human knowledge in a truly unified system,” (5), yet despite this seemingly formidable task, d’alembert succeeds in fulfilling the purpose of the encyclopedia, which was to gather all the facets of knowledge into one unified text, and to compile knowledge in a way that it could be standardized and compartmentalized into different categories. with this method, d’alembert believed the "philosophes" could create a system of knowledge that would be unified and systematized, but not so rigid and strict as to impose limits on the search for new facts. a classic example of this systematized approach is the aforementioned "figurative system of human knowledge", which quantifies knowledge by dividing it into three categories: memory, reason, and imagination. the purpose of this was to place knowledge within general framework that could be added to or expounded upon if necessary. as richard schwab, who translated the text, states in the introduction, d’alembert believed the “discourse of method” would give mankind the power to independently shape and direct its own destiny. this method provided an answer to the growing demand of the intellectual community of europe to create a synthesis of information based upon secular and naturalistic principles rather than upon a theological teleology (xxxi), and to disseminate knowledge throughout the entire population, no longer being restricted to the wealthy, academic elite.
preliminary discourse to the encyclopedia of diderot
hayes and walsham (2003) describe knowledge and knowledge management as two different perspectives. the content perspective suggests that knowledge is easily stored; because it may be codified, while the relational perspective recognises the contextual and relational aspects of knowledge which can make knowledge difficult to share outside the specific context in which it is developed.









































early research suggested that km needs to convert internalised tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge to share it, and the same effort must permit individuals to internalise and make personally meaningful any codified knowledge retrieved from the km effort.
knowledge management