Quid Sico? On Cognition & Knowledge

This paper argues for and attempts to establish three major hypotheses: first, that some of the ideas behind today’s knowledge bases in use in intelligent agents are misleading and this is because most studies tend to overlook the critical differences between the concepts of information and of knowledge, of perception and of truth; second, that knowledge acquisition (or knowledge production, as we term it) refers to the assimilation and association of disparate information according to prior knowledge and third, that all knowledge requires a context of discourse and that discourse is ultimately the source of all knowledge. In addition to arguing for these hypotheses, we also propose and make use of a rudimentary model of cognition alongside our arguments to demonstrate their validity. The afore-mentioned model is based strongly on the theories of cognition and of mind in the Sāmkhya-Yoga and NyāyaVaisheshika traditions of Hindu philosophy as are the hypotheses ultimately grounded in. In the course of our arguments for our third thesis, we shall conclude with definitions of thought (as being self-discourse) and sentience (as being the ability of an agent to engage in discourse with other similar agents) – terms known for being confusing and controversial to define – in terms of our idea of discourse. In general conclusion, it emerges from this ‘discursive theory of knowledge’ that realistic models of human memory and of knowledge representation can only be designed if and when the elusive line of distinction between information and knowledge is drawn correctly and that the role of discourse in cognition is more significant than what is held in current lines of inquiry.