Knowledge as an Artefact

[Graham Durant-Law]

I've previously written about knowledge as justified true belief , however the conception of knowledge as justified true belief is not universally accepted. For some knowledge is more than justified statements and cannot be subjected to atomic reduction in the same way water can be reduced to molecules and elements. One of the alternative views is that knowledge is holistic, and is represented and embedded in artefacts (Allen 2004; Bardige 2002; Beckerman 2007; Rust et al. 2000) - this is common in the information and management sciences.

The Macquarie Dictionary defines an artefact as ‘any object made by humans with a view to subsequent use' (Eurofield Information Systems 2002). Bardige (2002) extends the definition by including ideas, concepts and theories, because they are also human constructions. Allen (2004) extends Bardige's idea even further and sees artefacts as:

‘... the unit of knowledge, the primary instance, where knowledge first begins to exist. Artifacts focus knowledge - they record it, test it, translate it demonstrate it and apply it. Artifacts are centers of gravity for knowledge; they concentrate it, make it tangible, instrumental, effective' (p. 62).

He qualifies this statement later by saying:

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