in thinking about knowledge, one is struck by an idea…
Knowledge is about relations, relationships…
for example, take a tree…
look at that tree… can you make any sense of,
or get knowledge of that tree by just looking at it…
No, you have to understand the relationships that the tree
has… for example, what is the relationship between the tree
branches and the trunk of the tree? or the relationship between
the ground the tree sits upon and the tree leaves? Knowing the
relationship between the various aspects of the tree and other aspects,
we can have knowledge about the tree…the tree is a living thing that connects
with the air, earth, water and the relationship that the tree has with air is…
and the relationship the tree has with the earth is… and the relationship
the tree has with water is…and we gain knowledge of the tree by its
relationships with other matter…you cannot understand the human being
without understanding our relationships with other matter…
set 5 people in a room… not what is the relationship between them?
the understanding of the relationship between those 5 people tells us
information/knowledge about those 5 people… they could be 5 random
people in which we need to better understand the relationship
between the 5 to have knowledge about them… but if the 5 people
are related, say a family, then we have knowledge about those 5 people…
Knowledge/information is about the relationship between things…
take gravity for example, we don’t understand its relationships to
the other forces, thus we lack knowledge/information about gravity…
this information/knowledge is related to our senses…
we use our senses to make connections between objects
and their relationships… as we lack the senses to
understanding the various relationships of gravity, we
can’t make any connection between gravity and the other forces…
once we have the senses to fully grasp the relationship between
gravity and the other forces, we will have knowledge/information about
gravity…tools such as the telescope are a means of extending our
senses to include those details that we cannot see with
our basic senses, vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste…
tools extend our senses to help us understand the relationships
of things like gravity and the human being and space and the earth and…
mathematics is simply a tool designed to help us understand
the relationship between numbers…and the relationship between
objects and us…and objects and other objects…
Knowledge/information is simply about finding out about the
the relationships between objects
as we extend our tools/senses, we shall be able to increase
our knowledge/information about the universe…
as long as we continue to make connections about relationships
between objects and us…
Kropotkin