Knowledge: Active Observation Or Passive Experimentation And Knowledge

Passive observation or active experimentation is not the only way to produce knowledge, they cannot be used per se; and they require other additional ways of knowing such as imagination and faith. “There are only two ways in which humankind can produce knowledge”. Just from this statement, numerous questions already arise. First of all, how do we define knowledge? Knowledge, at its core, is information we acquire through experience and education. But the “production” of knowledge is arguable, can knowledge really be produced by humans, or is it discovered?

I am of the opinion that humankind does not produce knowledge in the realm of natural sciences, human sciences, and history. We discover knowledge and our reach is limited. Aristarchus

But for discussion, Passive Observation suggests that the knower does not manipulate variables, and makes no impact on the subject of study, and that the knower does not respond to phenomenons. While Active experimentation suggests that the knower is able to manipulate variables to their will. In the area of knowledge of natural sciences, passive observation would not be distinctly useful unless the knower actively uses the results to analyze conclude, to transform the data passively observed or collected into something significant and purposeful, or without comparison or study of other ideas and knowledge. It is not possible to rely solely on either passive observation or active experiment to produce knowledge - it requires more. The theory of triangulation is “used to indicate that two (or more) methods are used in a study in order to check the results.” In the scientific method, it is crucial to include both the manipulation of variables and integrate passive observation, to analyze the data collected in order to gain knowledge. If knowledge that is gained from a faulty experiment is not thoroughly analyzed, it will result in flawed pseudoknowledge and logic - such as that belief that the Earth was flat by Europeans, until Columbus traveled across the globe and proved the belief

Imagination extends thinking and understanding for future possibilities, it extends experiences, and fills the gaps within our knowledge when we face ambiguous situations with insufficient information. It is the basis of producing new knowledge, since it initially drives the formulation of a hypothesis. Of course, without existing knowledge, it would be virtually impossible to produce knowledge exclusively by imagination, since there is no basis in the thinking. With imagination, paired with reasoning, comes mathematics. The area of knowledge of mathematics concerns abstract reasoning. Mathematics is deductive epistemology, where a hypothesis is tested by confirming and deducing primary principles of that particular hypothesis - it is intangible, and is not observed or experimented. Similarly, mathematics is a means of producing knowledge by deduction, it is described as Kant as “synthetic a priori”, latin for from the former, deriving knowledge with reason alone. A priori knowledge does not require “a special faculty of pure intuition” , and is derived from imagination. This method of producing knowledge is idiosyncratic to the scientific method, where a hypothesis is declared, variables are manipulated, and multitudes of tests are carried out in order to prove the hypothesis. Mathematics and deductive reasoning, in the same manner, can also uncover truths and information that does not require