Knowledge of something is “the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject”.Oxford Dictionary of English
Put more technically, this means having access to a
Model of a
subject.
Derived from this we also talk about
- knowing that – for example, I know that there is a dictionary, and I know that the dictionary defines knowledge in this way (a fact about which I have information);
- knowing how – for example, I know how to use the dictionary to look up this definition (a skill).
We get from knowledge of to knowing that if we
“think of models as entailing propositions”Bailer-Jones (2009), 186
: These are predictions about how our environment will
behave, derived from
Explicit
Models that we can articulate consciously.
Knowing how is based on models, too – Implicit Models, i.e. non-conceptual, embodied representations of our environment that we use unconsciously when employing our skills.
References
- Bailer-Jones (2009), Scientific Models in Philosophy of Science
- Oxford Dictionary of English: “Knowledge”