STS

Reality and Knowledge

 Learning Objectives

 define “reality” within your own discipline, perhaps

even within the context of a wider range of
disciplines and within your own range of experiences
and conviction.
 
 recognize the thought processes involved in
knowledge generation, as a formal part of y our
academic training
What is reality?
 everything that appears to our five senses

- everything we can see, smell, touch….

 “reality is that which, if you stop believing in it,

does not go away.” Phillip Dick.

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/author/476
Renown Publications / Frank Kelly Freas 
4.Philip_K_Dick
http://www.philsp.com/data/images/s/satellite_science_fiction
_195612.jpg
 THE “THEORETICAL
THEORY
WORLD” where theories,
ideas, concepts, etc exists
k
n
o
w
“Reality is all of the
l experiences and things I
e perceived that determine my
d knowledge of the world.”
g
e

REALITY The “REAL WORLD” as I

observe and experience
 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?

 facts, feelings, or experiences

that are part of a person’s reality
 state of knowing
(from experience or learning)

 organized information in my
head
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition . Retrieved March 30, 2014, from Dictionary.com website:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/knowledge
 PERSONAL  “Reality is all of the
experiences and things I
KNOWLEDGE perceived that determine my
STATEMENT knowledge of the world.”

Publication
Verification
Acceptance

COMMUNITY/
DISCIPLINE
KNOWLEDGE
STATEMENT
 Approaches to

viewing reality
a. scientific approach
b. interpretive approach

Differentiated on the grounds of:

 ONTOLOGY
 EPISTOMOLOGY
 KNOWLEDGE

1. ONTOLOGY
 study of the nature of reality 
study of a set of beliefs about what
the world actually is 
Scientific approach : objective and
independent of our perception or
experience of it 
Interpretive approach : constructed
by us as we experience it?
 KNOWLEDGE

2. EPISTEMOLOGY  study of
what we can know about reality
 scientific approach : can
generate unbiased, generalisable
knowledge  interpretive approach:
knowledge is specific to a particular
time and space?
 Is “common sense” also
knowledge?
YES, if it rests on a body of
evidence (induction) or a
reliable theory (deduction).
 https://n-lightenment.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/10/reality-
check1.jpg

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST!

End of Video: Reality and Knowledge