"Know" is one of those mysterious words we use without knowing what if anything it means. And trouble arises when we seek to explain or define what a word means by reference to other words. Godel's incompleteness theorems apply to language as much as to any system. Active knowing: involves intentionality, refers to a state in which the mind proactively seeks knowledge, adopts an intentional stance towards knowing. Passive knowing: refers to a state in which knowledge is gained inadvertently, unintentionally. Transitive knowing: refers to the act of knowing something, ie there is an object which the knower knows. Intransitive knowing: refers to the act of knowing in which the act is not focused or fixated on an object of knowledge, as in "the knower knew". Subject knowing: a combination of Active Knowing and Transitive Knowing in which the Knower (as subject) adopts an intentional stance towards an object of knowledge; refers to a subject forming a knowledge relationship with an object. Object knowing: refers to an act of knowing in which there is a "knowee" but no "knower", ie an incomplete act in which knowledge of the object of the knowing sits and waits patiently for a subject to come along and know it. Copyright © S R Schwarz 2007. All rights reserved.
