knowledge

Knowledge is one of the two aspects of bimodal reality (>bimodality). Every >system is a network of >elements that carry knowledge. There are two basic kinds of knowledge, referential and non-referential, with the former presupposing a relation between epistemic subject and object, and the latter without that distinction. The most important examples of the first is human knowledge that can be communicated through linguistic signs, and of the second the genetic code.
These two kinds merge in the general concept of knowledge: Knowledge is >rule or a set of rules in bounded systems which reflect regularities in the processes of systems that exist in time and maintain their state of order by means of those rules. Evolution is change of knowledge embodied in systems.

This concept of knowledge follows some uses in Evolutionary Epistemology. One of the founders, Donald Campbell, made the famous comparison with a falling snowflake: having reached the surface of the earth, the shape of the snowflake contains knowledge about the physical conditions that prevailed during its fall, and which selected only those flakes which could maintain their structure in spite of wind and weather. In general, whenever we observe an evolutionary process, we can analyze the result in bimodal terms, i.e. as a structure of matter-energy and as knowledge.

In the case of economic systems, knowledge is distributed among the actors in a network and is implicit to the structures of the network, analyzed in bimodal terms as relations between actors and as production. The concept of distributed knowledge has been first proposed by Hayek, another founder of EE. Other carriers of knowledge are, for example, >institutions and >technologies. As we see, knowledge cannot be reduced to the actors but resides in the system proper. To understand human action, we need to analyze knowledge as constituent of the actors’ >capacity to act.

Knowledge emerges from evolution through novelties. Whereas knowledge is a stock, change of knowledge (flow) can be analyzed in qualitative terms as >information and quantitative terms as >enformation.

As we see, the EE concept of knowledge is non-reductionist, or, emergentist. This does include, of course, human knowledge as referential knowledge which is mostly in focus when people think about knowledge. The approach presented here means de-centering knowledge and strip it off its anthropomorphic content.

Basic References

As an introduction to the more general versions of Evolutionary Epistemology also containing the early contributions by Donald Campbell, see
Gerard Radnitzky, W.W. Bartley, III, eds., Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge, La Salle: Open Court, 1987

There is also a fine website that contains many references to Evolutionary Epistemology:
Konrad Lorenz Institute Theory Lab

Semantic Field
bimodality   evolution
knowledge   capacity
information/enformation