Preambles to the traditional of A new concept of knowledge knowledge At the turn of the millennium, a shift took place which, coupled with a change in Rosa San Segundo civilisation, led to the implantation and dissemination of new forms of information technology. We are entering into a digital information society and age, which implies a new global era of information, also referred to as the era of knowledge. This change will have an effect on the new fields and disciplines emerging within the speciality of and information , the of which are reviewed below. The definition of the term ``knowledge'', as The author it is understood at present, is recorded within our cultural references and has its primal Rosa San Segundo is a Professor in the Department of origin in our forms and types of script. The Library and Documentation at Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain. very origin of our writing system comes from the need to control agriculture, such as changes made in the flooding of the rivers Keywords Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, which gave our Globalization, Information, Language, Terminology writing system a controlling, domineering dimension with respect to the peoples and Abstract cultures that lack such a system. The transfer At this time, not all of the versions and definitions of the of this process has very much been decisive in concept of knowledge have been compiled within the creating the dichotomy of dominated peoples scope of science. It is not the object of knowledge but and dominant peoples. In the same way, the rather the subject that knows, or in other words, the type of alphabet also determines social cognitive ability of the subject The process is as follows: structures and thought frameworks. Hence, to produce information, and on the basis of that the phonetic alphabet gave rise to the information, to produce knowledge, and on the basis of de-tribalisation of the ancient world, or more that knowledge, wisdom. In the context of globalisation specifically of classical Greece, causing the of information, the memory was the method of knowing. dissolution of the tribal state, which worked The organisation, processing and retrieval of information like a biological unit, unlike modern societies, tend to take on a structure and design according to the which revolve around a concept as abstract as information-processingmodel of the human . This exchange of any type. According to discontinuity is made up of the new forms of artificial McLuhan, the opening up of tribal societies knowledge and artificial wisdom. The pillars of the new was due to the phonetic alphabet, or in other society of knowledge are settling on the basis of words, the domination of that which is visual productivity and utility, and this has turned knowledge over that which is heard, or written language into nothingmore than productive information. over oral language, leading to the advancement of the magic of myth to Electronic access thought, or logos. The tribal, communal, The research register for this journal is available at African, magical, auditory world is a more http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters aesthetic, warm world which is at odds with an open, individualist, Western, rational, The current issue and full text archive of this journal is visual world that is colder and more neutral available at 'McLuhan, 1985, p. 38). Illiterate peoples http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm live in a world of sounds, unlike Westerners and Europeans, who live in a visual world. Online Information Review Because of this, oral worlds have life, Volume 26 . Number 4 . 2002 . pp. 239 245 # MCB UP Limited . ISSN 1468 4527 1 Refereed article received 23 January 2002 DOI 10.1108/14684520210438688 Approved for publication 27 January 2002 239 A new concept of knowledge Online Information Review Rosa San Segundo Volume 26 . Number 4 . 2002 . 239 245 strength, magic and dynamic energy, as problems surrounding knowledge were compared with visual or written words, which traditionally tackled by a great number of have meaning, significance and status. This philosophers. In ancient Greece, the problem dichotomy gives rise to oral-aural cultures as about what knowledge is was confronted in opposed to visual ones. close relation with the issue of what reality is, The phonetic alphabet also dissociates so the terms wisdom, science and epistome image and sound, making the sound of letters were used on the one hand and knowledge abstract and taking all meaning away from and logos on the other. them. There are, therefore, meaningless Western mediaeval philosophy confronted letters and sounds 'in ice cream or in cheese, this problem and was greatly influenced by some of the ``e''s have no sound, or the religious thought, from the possibility or different sounds of j in jar, g in gel and g in impossibility of knowledge and also the types gate, which lack meaning). Therefore, the of knowledge. The need for experimentation symbols and sounds are left incomplete, started during the Renaissance, with the because vision and hearing are sometimes of two sides to this problem; one dissociated, so there are attempts to give a which was experimental and artisan-based greater phonetic character to our writing 'for and another which was more theoretical and instance, Spanish is of a more phonetic nature speculative. It was in the modern era that this than the English language, even though it is problem was confronted as a central topic to not completely phonetic). Western civilisation be discussed by Descartes, Malebranche, has been constructed with the meaningless Leibniz, Locke, Hume and others, for whom symbol and the meaningless sound the central problem was the method and 'McLuhan, 1985, p. 83). The shift from aural structure of gaining knowledge. From Kant to oral man was caused by an overstimulation onwards, the problem of knowledge acquired of certain senses such as sight, which led the rank of a philosophical discipline or a inexorably to a decrease in the other senses. ``theory of knowledge''. While the Greek For Western Man, visual values have had world revolved around man, the modern priority in the organisation of his thought, world, beginning with Kant, is centred on unlike the organisation of knowledge by tribal wisdom 'Ferrater, 1971, pp. 338-44). In the societies, where auditory values have nineteenth century, with the scientific- prevailed 'LeÁvi-Strauss, 1970). The technical revolution, many new forms of technology of the alphabet has led to a knowledge of a practical nature were to weakening of the senses. The phonetic emerge. At present, the perspective of wisdom alphabet reduces the simultaneous use of all immersed in multi-faceted forms of the senses; in other words, the spoken knowledge of a practical type is the priority. expression is a mere visual code 'McLuhan, The classical questions about what knowledge 1985, p. 76). The culture of the manuscript is, or how it is possible, are framed within a was audio-tactile, compared with our philosophical discipline that has been given audio-visual culture. It is the medium of many different names, for instance: theory of transmission itself which gives structure to knowledge, critique of knowledge, gnostics reality. and epistemology, which approach the viewpoint of human knowledge as scientific. Therefore, human knowledge has been The development of the traditional tarnished by the imposition of scientific concept of knowledge knowledge, which has marginalised other existing, very important forms of knowledge, On the basis of these preambles which such as art, in which , imagination, condition current thought, we can see that flexibility, originality, premonition, thinkers and philosophers in ancient times and other qualities are used to produce a had, as a common objective, the acquisition of specific form of knowledge. Nevertheless, as knowledge of total reality by means of the has been claimed by Amat '1990, p. 55), phonetic alphabet and the predomination of ``another of the consequences of scientific the visual. With the pre-Socratic imperialism has been to establish the art or philosophers, wisdom and science are born, arts as a form of subterfuge in favour of and knowledge is approached as the entertainment, while showing little esteem for knowledge of a whole. The problem or the creative aspects of them''. Thus, intuitive, 240 2 A new concept of knowledge Online Information Review Rosa San Segundo Volume 26 . Number 4 . 2002 . 239 245 imaginative, creative knowledge does not structures of in the memory, comprise the basic model for the creation of which are capable of retaining certain current artificial knowledge, insofar as it is information so that it can come to form part derived from the human model of knowledge. of the knowledge of a person'' 'Sanz, 1994, p. 21). Knowledge and information are two totally Differences and similarities between the different concepts that now seem, quite concept of information and the concept frequently, to be presented as synonyms. of knowledge Knowledge is internalised information. In other words, it is integrated within the Etymologically speaking, the concept of person's cognitive structures. If there is no information comes from the Greek word person, there can in no case be knowledge. ``form'', so in-form is to give form or structure This knowledge is not acquired simply by to a matter, energy or relationship. Therefore, access to bibliographical or documentary information serves to give form or to place the references or to metadata through the recipient in a new state. Internet. In short, access to information on The range of definitions of ``information'' information or on information itself is far within the scope of the sciences that have from being called knowledge according to our affected library and information science is tradition. However, international networks of very wide. Authors such as Wellish 'cited in electronic information and satellite systems, Sanz, 1994)) cite 39 definitions of the term in an attempt to reach total interconnection, ``information''. Ruben '1990) also points out will lead to great technological development. a diversity of definitions of ``information'', This will mean great transformation in including: economic product; consequence of everyday life, together with intent to shorten action, code or model; data or documents; distances and time, which will entail new ways decisionmaking or problemsolving; entropy; of conceiving our immediate reality. ``To sum meaning assigned to ; messages; up, new information technologies open the news; physical form of property; process path to a new way of conceiving culture, to an information; processing of sensory data; ulterior dimension of knowledge, which for product for usage; product of social the time being is ungovernable and interaction; regulation and control; incalculable and has economic and social representation of understood knowledge; effects that have not yet been determined at resource; service; symbol used in the global level'' 'GonzaÂlez Manet, 1999, communication; stimulus; formal knowledge; p. 8). learning; connection between living organisms and their surroundings; structure and organisation; symbols; technology, media A new concept of knowledge and transmission; joint proof of internationally structured symbols; thought, Therefore, what in our cultural tradition has recognition and memory; uncertainty, choice been considered as knowledge, will be or restriction of alternatives. transformed and conditioned not only by new On the basis of any of these definitions, the definitions of the term ``information'', but also concept of knowledge that results will be by the obvious influence of the English- different. Moreover, at this time, not all of the speaking world and the total impregnation of versions and definitions of the concept of information technologies. knowledge have been compiled within the Vizcaya Alonso '1997, p. 156) defines scope of science. This multiplicity of ways of knowledge as a ``process by virtue of which conceiving information will also lead to a reality is reflected and produced in human multiplicity of ways of conceiving knowledge. thought. Said process is conditioned by the And we can even see that ``for many authors, laws of social occurrences and is inseparably it is extremely difficult to distinguish between united to practical activity''. In our current information and knowledge. It can be said electronic era, which follows the that knowledge consists of ordered and typographical era that lasted throughout the structured information ... In order for last five centuries, new forms of human information to be turned into knowledge, thought will be produced, along with new there must be a presence of pre-existing forms of interdependence and structuring of 241 3 A new concept of knowledge Online Information Review Rosa San Segundo Volume 26 . Number 4 . 2002 . 239 245 knowledge. These will give rise to new modes Information as codified or ordered of knowledge. Knowledge was, in principle, knowledge creates figurative knowledge an intellectual activity that was also the At the same time, mere information is only a product of cognitive conscience, and in the set of isolated data or facts, and knowledge end, it is the result of productive information. involves ordering or associating them within a There are many authors who advocate a pre-existing framework within human new way of conceiving knowledge, such as understanding 'McHale, 1981, p. 16). Man, Amat '1990, p. 25), who nevertheless believes in order to produce knowledge, uses his that there is a lack of balance between the maximum intellectual capacities, whereas, in vehicles of information and their content. She order to produce information, not such a high states that turning information into level of processing need take place 'Amat, knowledge is a creative skill of our era, 1990, p. 31). The process is as follows: to because it involves discovering forms and produce information, and on the basis of that models that make it possible to penetrate into information, to produce knowledge, and on abundance instead of increasing it. It deals, the basis of that knowledge, wisdom. therefore, with designing ways to enlighten Knowledge as a codified fact requires that instead of searching through information information be something merely figurative technologies because, if memory is no longer that is stored, processed and retrieved, in its human but belongs to databases or machines, figurative aspect, though the origin of that knowledge conceived in this manner will be information lies in the very knowledge of a articulated by machines. To sum up, this new person. The codified fact or figurative aspect viewpoint states that knowledge can be of knowledge always makes reference to produced on the basis of either the data stored verbal symbols, or language. Therefore, this in memory or the data saved in artificial medium cannot produce knowledge without memory 'Lancaster, 1996). This symbols or a verbal message. The concept of differentiation of knowledge produced in two figurative knowledge can be applied to the ways, through human memory and artificial three functions of the documentary process: memory, is what leads to the two concepts of to the selection, the processing and the knowledge: symbolic and figurative. retrieval of information using techniques and technologies for processing information. The Information as a process of knowing origin of the figurative facet lies outside of the creates symbolic knowledge individual. It involves facilitating operative If the theory of the development of knowledge knowledge or the creative result or scientific formulated by Piaget is applied, we can knowledge and facilitating certain observe that information can be seen from documentation which may be used. It is on two points of view: as a process of knowledge the basis of figurative knowledge that we or as a pre-codified fact 'Amat, 1990). obtain productive knowledge. Information as a process of knowledge has an operational aspect, which is the act of Information designed through electronic knowing or obtaining wisdom. It is not the forms of technology creates productive object of knowledge but rather the subject knowledge that knows, or in other words, the cognitive Wertheimer '1945) called human knowledge ability of the subject. This knowledge is that productive thought, but the advancements of which belongs to literary production and electronic information technologies and scientific information and depends on the productive information have also transformed abilities of the individual to assimilate this knowledge. Given that information symbolic knowledge. The origin of this technologies, as such, are the material basis operational aspect lies only within the for the storage and processing of information, individual himself. Piaget emphasises on this they constitute the foundations of knowledge point that not only does the figurative aspect that would be created if human specialists play a role, but the medium, material, symbol played the same role. This new information or language are also converted into meanings produced by way of artificial will when understanding or an operational be referred to as knowledge, or in other interpretation takes place by a subject who words, productive knowledge. Knowledge knows, and the subject that knows produces shall therefore be that which is not seen and symbolic knowledge. lies underneath information, that which 242 4 A new concept of knowledge Online Information Review Rosa San Segundo Volume 26 . Number 4 . 2002 . 239 245 appears through various technical processes, To have wisdom is to remember, as Piaget either through maps of contents in a said, ``When one learns, one does not have or in an ensemble of organised information, wisdom, one understands; it is thanks to or through metadata, or through references to memory that one has wisdom.'' The act of the very data or information. having knowledge, the act of having wisdom, The traditional classifications of the the act of being creative or the act of having sciences have resulted in modern wisdom through memory, implies that there is classification systems. Given the context of creative intelligence, because the creative globalisation of information, a similar process memory, which due to its organisational form will take place with the electronic processing is different from other memories, does not of the organisation and representation of depend entirely on wisdom. traditional or natural knowledge. Knowledge Memory has always been fundamentally can therefore be described at present as a type natural. Now it is also artificial and of artificial knowledge, or as useful electronic technological. Today, both are a method of information, or as potential information from knowing. Wisdom, in our oral thought a pragmatic perspective. If we also bear in tradition, lay only in the human memory, mind the quadrivium of data, information, because there were no physical media, and knowledge and wisdom, we will have, in the wisdom therefore depended upon the training end, incorporated a concept into this process and art of memory 'Amat, 1990, p. 37). that will also be modified: wisdom. Memory was the method of knowing. Now we will have another method of knowledge based on an artificial technological kind of memory. When our body or our genes were no longer Wisdom as the abilityto remember and capable of storing all the information that built find information up and was fundamental for survival, we Finally, we have the modified concept of developed our brains. When it was not able to wisdom. Bergson said that having wisdom is store that much information either, communal remembering, which could be applied here by memories were created, the medium of which stating that wisdom is knowing how to look was the alphabet and writing. At a later time, for something. Wisdom is also associated with theseweretocomprisearchivesandlibraries. what books say. However, the original of And when these were not able to store so much wisdom, as McLuhan '1985) added, was information either, electronic information astuteness, wisdom and daring. systems were created that were able to transmit For Foucault '1985), in The Archaeology of huge amounts of information at a very high Knowledge, wisdom itself is the description of speed. It could be stated that man created the history, the collective, age-old memory that library in the image and likeness 'Amat, 1990, has been left behind in various forms such as p. 150) of his mind, up to such a point that he books, texts, stories and techniques that make wanted to equip it with intelligence, which is the it possible to retrieve memories and to point we have reached now. The organisation, facilitate the latent mark or vestige of the processing and retrieval of information tend to human subject itself. However, once the take on a structure and design according to the subject and the object have been constituted, information-processing model of the human the history of reverts once again to mind. And, last of all, we can see that creative documents and they are reinterpreted, their thought at this point is the user making use of a vitality, autonomy, discourse and speech are library. In other words, just as having wisdom is returned; an isolated document is a mute remembering, having wisdom becomes monument. Foucault intends somehow to searching. The user, able to make pertinent exclude the author. The psychoanalytical associations and searches, seeks to gain human schools would also treat the isolated text as a wisdom through artificial wisdom. mute moment, in which the human subject provides reading with meaning, creating a chain of meanings, in which the subject is Wisdom as the representation of imbued with and traversed by the text. knowledge Wisdom, insofar as it is a description of history and the collective memory, has been Finally, we can see that traditionally, linear defined as the representation of all knowledge. thought was considered the only way of 243 5 A new concept of knowledge Online Information Review Rosa San Segundo Volume 26 . Number 4 . 2002 . 239 245 reasoning, delimited first of all by the institutions which consequently become phonetic alphabet and second, by the very universal paradigms of knowledge 'Amat, linear nature of writing. However, although 1990, p. 26). Thus, there is an enormous our own thought structure has been adapted influx of words from the English language to to the linear nature of writing and also that of other languages and cultures. the printing press, with today's electronic We have a new concept of knowledge which media this linear nature has been lost and has been derived from new information approaches the discontinuity of reality. This technologies and which has also been discontinuity is made up of the new forms of imported into our cultural environment. artificial knowledge and artificial wisdom. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to Both terms, at present, with the mediation of discuss the theoretical, conceptual and social the influence of the science world and English aspects of these new information terminology already lack the adjective technologies. The effects of computerising artificial and have come to be identified with society, culture, information and knowledge natural or traditional wisdom and knowledge. must be subject to study. Aspects of access to In other words, we can see that the new way cybernetic information cannot be ignored, of processing electronic information and the because messages, telecommunications, science model of the English-speaking world information, knowledge and culture have have jointly determined that knowledge is been globalised. The national cultures formed productive information and wisdom is the over centuries and millennia are being representation thereof. replaced in terms of form and tradition by Wisdom as the ability to remember or other cultural forms and values sent over new represent, and knowledge as the ability to forms of communication media. Culture will order or associate within a pre-existing no longer be collective memory or the framework, are going to be the conceptual expression of people's spirit, or a basis for the new definitions of these terms, in manifestation of social conscience. In such a way that, if this ability to remember conclusion, culture encompasses information, and order human understanding is applied to knowledge, exercising one's own values and information technologies, we will end up with habits and norms which identify a productive forms of knowledge and wisdom. community, as expressed by GonzaÂlez Manet '1999). Thus, with the influence of new forms of Final comments on terminology electronic technology, information networks and enormous cultural and linguistic All in all, we can see that the changes in movement, not only has the concept of terminology that have taken place in library knowledge and wisdom changed, but also and information science are numerous and many other related concepts, which must also definitive. The current use of the word be subject to study and determination. As a knowledge, which has totally taken root, and result, the current new definitions of even the formerly named information society, knowledge and wisdom, within the context of is now referred to as the knowledge society. new documentary technologies, and with a This new useful electronic knowledge is not very new form of writing, are not delimited qualified with the adjective artificial, and with only by their artificiality. They are also limited the term wisdom, a similar process has taken by their nature as a means of production. place. These changes in terminology suffer Information, knowledge and wisdom exist from a great English-language influence, insofar as they are productive and useful. because they have been imported into our Today's globalisation is equivalent to certain cultural surroundings and are causing the market laws and a hegemonic power; original definition of these terms to lose their ownership of the means of production true meaning. generates power and capital 'BaroÂHerrera, All of this new terminology is leading to 1997). The world of information is not alien cultural and linguistic homogenisation, which to this economic shift and is now is even more marked in the field of science. contributing, as well as in other ways, with a This is because the most economically terminology in accordance with these underdeveloped countries are required to references in such a way that the adjective make academic consultations to centres and ``artificial'' has been slowly replaced by the 244 6 A new concept of knowledge Online Information Review Rosa San Segundo Volume 26 . Number 4 . 2002 . 239 245 words ``productive'' and ``useful''. The mere Foucault, M.J. :1985), ArqueologõÂa del Saber, terminological shift to our language and :Archaeology of Knowledge), Siglo XXI, Mexico. cultural environment of the terms GonzaÂlez Manet, E. :1999), Identidad y Cultura en la Era information, knowledge and wisdom imposes de la GlobalizacioÂn,: and Culture in the Era of Globalisation), Pablo de la Torriente Editorial, La a quite complex viewpoint of our intellectual Habana. tradition. The scientific context of library and Lancaster, F.W. :1996), IndizacioÂn y ResuÂmenes,:Indexing information science must not just import and Summaries), E B Publicaciones, Buenos Aires. terminology, but also gestate, found and LeÁvi-Strauss, C. :1970), Pensamiento Salvaje,:The Savage conceptualise every form of scientific Mind), Fondo de Cultura EconoÂmica, Mexico. development with terminology that is more McHale, J. :1981), El Entorno Cambiante de la imbued with our own intellectual and cultural InformacioÂn,:The Changing Information world. The pillars of the new society of Environment), Tecnos, Madrid. McLuhan, M. :1985), La Galaxia Gutenberg: GeÂnesis del knowledge are settling on the basis of Homo Typographicus,:The GutenbergGalaxy: productivity and utility, and this has turned Genesis of Homo Typographicus), Planeta-Agostini, knowledge into nothing more than productive Barcelona. information. Ruben, B. :1990), ``En la era de la informacioÂn: informacioÂn, tecnologõÂa y estudio del comportamiento'', :In the era of information: information, technology and the study of References behaviour), DocumentacioÂn de las Ciencias de la Amat, N. :1990), De la InformacioÂn al Saber,:From InformacioÂn, Vol. 12, pp. 53-72. Information to Knowledge), Fundesco, Madrid. Sanz, E. :1994), Manual de Estudios de Usuarios,:Manual Baro Herrera, S. :1997), GlobalizacõÂon y Desarrollo of User Studies), FundacioÂn GermaÂn SaÂnchez Mundial,:Globalisation and World Development), RuipereÂz, Madrid. 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