Theory of Knowledge Based on the Idea of the Discursive Space

This paper discusses the theory of knowledge based on the idea of dynamical space. The goal of this effort is to comprehend the knowledge that remains beyond the human domain, e.g., of the artificial cognitive systems. This theory occurs in two versions, weak and strong. The weak version is limited to knowledge in which retention and articulation are performed through the discourse. The strong version is general and is not limited in any way. In the weak version, knowledge is represented by the trajectories of discourses in time, in a dynamical space called the discursive space, which has an arbitrary number of dimensions. Given space is used to represent a given part of knowledge. A manifold is introduced to represent knowledge with a wider scope (all knowledge). The strong version is an extrapolation of the weak version to cover all forms of knowledge, not necessarily human or manifesting in language. The use of dynamical space construction allows one to formalize knowledge as such. Such an effort requires us to initially consider knowledge as mainly a social and linguistic phenomenon,

One of the most important variants of the pragmatic concern of knowledge developed in the field of technology. Knowledge is treated as a separate asset that appears in such contexts as the Internet (World Wide Web) or artificial intelligence. Both provide either more abstract and theoretical approaches [28,60–62] or are strictly related to practical solutions, e.g., [63,64]. The latter approach has a long history in the development of knowledge representation, e.g., [65–68], described widely, e.g., [69,70]. The latest development of knowledge representation in digital technology, namely artificial intelligence, is based on a nonsymbolic, distributed manner [70]. The different possibilities of knowledge understanding in the context of artificial intelligence come with the idea of the holder of knowledge, which is an artificial cognitive system. Such a situation causes a complete transformation of the means of understanding the phenomenon of knowledge concerning Plato’s definition, including its necessary truthfulness (alethés). This problem is taken up, e.g., by Burgin, who proposes an introduction of the concept of the artificial observer, who is the only reference for knowledge [28].

The very generally presented events of the evolution of knowledge understanding lead to the observation that the classical definition of knowledge is fundamentally insufficient due to the following two important shifts: first, the dismantling of the state of certainty as to the ability to maintain the relationship of truth between knowledge and the world (the correspondence idea), and, second, the removal of man as a necessary instance in the description of the existence of knowledge.