WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? SYNTHESIZING EPISTEMOLOGY, METHODOLOGY AND SYSTEM THEORIES INTO A NEW PROPOSITION

Abstract

The problem presented here - What is knowledge? - has been studied for centuries in various fields of thought, specially by philosophy. Today, this issue has become one of the most discussed themes in the organizational studies with the advent of the "Knowledge Management". However, the definitions given by authors have been replaced one after the other throughout history and even the present definition is contested. The objective of this exclusively bibliographical study is to propose or turn another axiom into a new definition or concept of knowledge. In order to carry out this definition, at first it is a brief panorama of the epistemology not only Western but also Eastern (specially Japan), and after some concepts presented about the Scientific Methodology are reviewed. In order to analyse the problem some concepts of the Systems Theory (ST) and Information Systems (IS) which seem to be accepted as evident, analysing them beforehand and synthesize them by means of the "Systemic Thought", presented by Senge (1999) and by the TS itself, within a self-explanatory model from which a concept for knowledge arises.