Knowledge: Disciplines and Beyond

Abstract

The Western construction of knowledge has been the source of a longstanding debate between Platonists and Aristotelians (McKeon, 2001). For Plato, the sensory side of human experience leads away from the critical rationality upon which truth depends (Eisner, 2007). For Aristotle, knowledge is differentiated along three lines: theoretical, practical, and productive. Theoretical knowledge is knowledge that purports to know things that cannot be any other way than the way they are; practical knowledge is knowledge of contingencies; and productive knowledge is knowledge of how to make things. The modern university’s engagement within the philosophical roots of knowledge is reflected in the vocational-academic tension among faculty in the traditional disciplines of letters and science, and faculty affiliated with professional schools.