Types of Knowledge
Types of Knowledge
Definition of empirical: knowledge gained through observation, experience, or experiment.
At least three sources of knowledge can be identified:
- intuition (intuitive knowledge)
- deduction (deductive knowledge)
- observation (empirical knowledge)
1. Intuition
In everyday life, the most important source of knowledge is intuition.
- The chicken salad in my refrigerator is not old, but it seems to smell a little odd. I decide to throw it out rather than eat it.
- A woman is shopping for a car. She feels a vague sense of unease about the salesman and so decides to go to another dealership.
- A man about to cross the street jumps back when he hears the sound of a car horn. The reaction is so fast, he is not even aware of having thought about anything.
- A piano teacher suspects that the reason why her student is not progressing faster is because he is not practicing enough. She decides to phone his parents.
Some of our intuitions have been shaped by millions of years of evolution — and are designed to save our lives. We become suspicious for reasons which elude us.
Especially in matters related to music-making, the most important knowledge we have is probably intuitive knowledge. Without intuition, music-making would be impossible.
2. Deductive
Deductive knowledge is also called rationality. Deductive knowledge arises from logical thought.
- If all people are mortal, and Socrates is a person, then Socrates is mortal.
- Seeing a guitarist move her finger one fret toward the tone hole, we conclude that the next pitch will be one semitone higher than the previous pitch.
- The first 8 pages of a Beethoven manuscript are written using a dark blue ink. The remaining 11 pages in the manuscript use a more purple-colored ink. An accompaniment figuration for a phrase near the beginning of the work is written using the purple ink. If we assume that the purple ink was used after exhausting the dark blue ink, it follows that the accompaniment must have been added after the melody line was written.
3. Empirical
Empirical knowledge is knowledge gained through observation. Observation may occur informally, or we may create a formal plan for observation. An example of informal observation is what we call “experience.” An example of formal observation is an “experiment.” So we can rephrase our definition as: Empirical knowledge is knowledge gained through observation, experience, or experiment.
- I know that many birds are capable of flight because I see them fly.
- I’ve observed that some musicians can always identify the names of pitches (“perfect pitch”) and others can’t.
- I have witnessed only a couple of occasions when people dance without music: People rarely dance without music.
- I know that some music can send shivers up my spine because I have experienced this.
- I know that works for xylophone are much more likely to be in the major mode than works for marimba because I’ve examined (and counted) a large number of works for xylophone and marimba.
Intuitive, deductive and empirical forms of knowledge are all necessary for life. Each form of knowledge adds to the value of the others. That is, they are complementary forms of knowledge.
In addition, each form of knowledge also has limitations. There are times when our intuitions prove to be wrongheaded. For example, a child’s intuition may tell him not to let a nurse stick a needle into his arm–even though an inoculation will help prevent illness. Here, intuition fails us. There are many situations when rational deduction proves to be impossibly complicated or time-consuming. For example, when identifying the pros and cons of purchasing a particular house, we may find it impossible to “calculate” all of the pertinent factors. Here, rational deduction fails us. Regularly watching the local television news, an elderly woman may conclude that her neighborhood is full of crime, and that she should refrain from going outside for her daily walk. Here, observation fails us.