ELE - Contexts
Knowledge is Power
Extension Activities:
Your Mission:
- Is Knowledge in itself power; or is it the application of knowledge where power lies.
- Show that if there isn’t an application of knowledge, then it has very little value in this setting or context.
- Does knowledge really give you power? Or can too much knowledge ruin you?
Resources
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"For also knowledge itself is power" stated originally by Sir Francis Bacon in Meditationes Sacrae (1597).
Was Bacon implying that "A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength."
Another possible meaning can be found in philosophical idealism - if the world exists solely as the content of consciousness, then knowledge itself can be used to directly manipulate the content of reality.
Does this imply not only the acquisition of knowledge but also the cultivation of balance, judgement and objectivity.
How is Knowledge Power?
Knowledge is power. Francis Bacon. Most of our formal education is still focused on knowledge acquisition. But there really has been a dramatic change in the last 50 to 100 years which makes this less important. [This context, suggests that in the past, much information wasn’t readily available so if you didn’t learn it, you were out of luck. Now on almost any topic, you have instant access to information. The emphasis switches from knowing to being able to find. So what this suggests is a different paradigm in education.]
Knowledge is Power, but knowledge does not always come with power. Knowledge is “the state of awareness or understanding gained from experience or study…learning specific information about something. [This means a person has the resourcefulness to obtain and criticise useful and informative information in order to become well informed citizens who can make intelligent decisions based upon their understanding and awareness of everyday situations].
Does this make people powerful? [Power is said to be the ability or capacity to act or perform effectively. Without knowledge, how can this ability to perform effectively, be possible?]
Outcome:
To understand when Knowledge Is Power, it can elicit interest from political scientists, organization theorists, bureaucrats and people
Project Investigation:
Is knowledge really power? Or is knowledge what those without power cling to in order to comfort themselves for their lack of power?
Develop your own area of interest and formulate questions that you want answered and relate to your understanding of Knowledge is Power. For example
1. the history of Power struggles - lust for gold and glory, missionary zeal for converting the "savage", slavery, controlling empires and the desire to gain knowledge, or
2. Can power be a misnomer as it is just an illusion for the use of any form of energy usually in the form of force
3. The treatment of issues of power, knowledge and domination in modern literature.
Outcome:
To explore an understanding how an informed citizen is freedom's best friend and a controlled citizen can be its worst enemy!
Project Question:
Can Knowledge be a tool that can be used to control and change the world. ' Discuss
Overview:
A study of 'Knowledge is Power, has negative and positive sides to it. Information exhibits the same duality: properly provided, it is a positive power of unequalled strength. Improperly disseminated and presented, it is nothing short of destructive.
This unit of study which involve an understanding of The Modern World - glutted by information, formal and informal, partial and comprehensive, out of context and with interpretation, therefore
- no information presence might as well have no real life existence
- An entity – person, group of people, a nation – which does not engage in structuring content, providing and disseminating it – actively engages, therefore, in its own, slow, disappearance
Students will assessing and evaluating
- how the experimental method of acquiring knowledge could be used to discover and understand new facts about the world, and
- the belief that knowledge of nature should be turned to the benefit of humanity by exploiting new discoveries and inventions, and
- the logic of scientific discovery - deductive logic as the only sound form of reasoning
References
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