Virtually all of the examples I have given before about learning and knowledge show them as goal-oriented, linked to the achievement of specific goals, developed with particular purposes in mind. I learned how to use chopsticks so I could eat with them; Bian’s knowledge, including its unverbalizable dimensions, is for the express purpose of making wheels; I learn a language in order to communicate; Conklin learned how to discriminate colors as the Hanunoo did so that he could live with them; a student learns how to measure the color of an object scientifically so that she can become a scientist – and before that, several people wanted to measure the color of an object independently of place and time, in a standardized way that is, so that they could coordinate their practices across space and time; and so on.
Knowledge is always linked with the pursuit of specific interests, it is interested.
This aspect of knowledge, that it is associated with the pursuit of interests, is not surprising. I already hinted at this aspect of knowledge when discussing the importance of socialization for the coordination of community life and activities. And with Science being a social activity, with scientific knowledge being developed by scientific communities, the point holds for scientific knowledge as well. As I have highlighted before, we learn what we know through our socialization into a community, our knowledge is part and parcel of the way of life in the community, it expresses local aspirations and purposes, solutions to local problems and concerns. The development of knowledge within a community is guided by the need to coordinate community life and activities, the need to maintain the community. So, knowledge expresses the interests of the community within which it is developed; knowledge is interested.
But there is another more important reason that knowledge always expresses specific interests, even if we think beyond socialization and the association of knowledge with particular communities. Knowledge is developed within a reality that is everywhere, always in excess. Of course it takes effort to know, that is, to develop and establish a stable interaction with the material world; but with the material world being in excess, there are many ways in establishing such stable interactions. So, the activity toward the development of knowledge has to be guided somehow, has to look for specifics, has to select particular patterns, and this looking and selection is informed by local goals, purposes, interests. Different selections across cultures result in differences in the development of knowledge. An example in point are cultural differences in color discrimination, with Hanunoo color categories being a particularly striking one. Another example would be sound discrimination across languages, and I still remember my difficulty distinguishing between “cut” and “cat” in English, as Greek, with which I grew up, has a single “a” sound. Greek also has a single tone, making my learning of Mandarin Chinese with its four tones an instructive challenge. Gestalt pictures offer another way to make the point.
Sometimes the first steps toward developing new knowledge begin with play, with tinkering around with things we are familiar with, arranging them in different ways, seeing what stable patterns might emerge. But from the stable patterns that emerge even during play, we do eventually settle on particular ones that suddenly appear interesting – say, for pursuing a goal or connecting with our existing knowledge. So, knowledge is always developed informed by interests. At the same time, knowledge reflects a stable pattern of interaction with the material world – regardless of its development in association with interests, it works! Precisely because knowledge reflects a stable interaction with the material world, it can be repurposed, linked with novel interests, be used to pursue different goals from the original ones. Examples abound: the knowledge that underpins today’s internet for example originated in association with military interests – to network computers for military purposes; it has obviously been repurposed in very many ways.
Although in general we recognize that knowledge may sometimes be developed in accordance with particular interests, we may also feel that it is possible that knowledge can be disinterested. That somehow knowledge can be developed so that it just reflects a stable interaction with the material world, nothing more. The notion that Science actually provides the way to develop such interest-free knowledge appears to be fairly widespread, so I will be addressing this issue in detail in the following post.
Could you please further analyze the phrase: “it can be repurposed” ?
What does it mean in terms of effort?
The effort that the repurposing of knowledge can take varies tremendously. We actually repurpose what we know almost continuously. For example, I frequently use a blunt-tipped knife to drive a screw when a screwdriver is not handy; and, conversely, screwdrivers have been used to stab people with. Or I will use a bottle opener to lift the lid of a vacuum-sealed vase containing jam to allow air to get in, making it easier to open. There isn’t much effort involved in this kind of repurposing: we try it out and if it works, great; if it doesn’t, we look for an alternative approach.
On a larger scale, knowledge about nuclear fission was developed in association with the making of atom bombs. With a lot of effort by very many people, this knowledge was repurposed, and nowadays nuclear fission is also used for generating electricity in nuclear power plants. In the case of fusion however, the repurposing of the knowledge from the making of hydrogen bombs to harnessing the energy for other purposes has yet to be successful – and plenty of effort over very many years has been expended.
In a different area, a drug originally developed and used against cancer has been repurposed for the treatment of eye diseases (the drug is an antibody that binds a factor that promotes the formation of blood vessels) – it took a fair amount of effort to achieve this. It took even more effort to repurpose chemical dyes as antibiotics (a whole class of antibiotics originated from dyes that had been observed to stain biological tissues).
So, the effort for successful repurposing varies. And attempts at repurposing may well fail.
I the OECD web page it reads: “Some people argued that the PISA tests are unfair, because they may confront students with problems they have not encountered in school. But then life is unfair, because the real test in life is not whether we can remember what we learned at school, but whether we will be able to solve problems that we can’t possibly anticipate today.” https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA%202018%20Insights%20and%20Interpretations%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf
You said that knowledge is interested and the effort for successful repurposing varies. Btw, “transfer of learning” is one of the most puzzling and important issues that cognitive psychology has addressed, for example https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f914/0d85578d998c91d7c5db12fda626d14dd210.pdf
Given time restrictions and different social backgrounds, do you think that PISA tests can measure something beyond stabilized interactions?
You bring up several issues Nikos. One is the interests of the people involved in and affected by educational tests such as PISA, another is the transfer of knowledge (as a particular case of repurposing). About interests, there are the interests of the different experts referred to in the excerpt, but there are also the interests of the pupils and their families, as well as those of the citizens of the societies at large.
The PISA test is a measuring instrument that has been developed by experts through a process of knowledge development, it reflects their engagement with reality, their choices, the interests of different parties, and so on. The pupils taking the test bring their skills to the encounter, skills that they have acquired (at least to a certain extent) through the educational system of their country. The results of the PISA test reflect some of these skills.
An educational system imparts skills, knowledge, to the pupils being socialized through it. A generally agreed goal of an educational system would be that the pupils disciplined through it would be prepared to contribute to the prosperity of their community. There are of course plenty of disagreements about what that prosperity is supposed to be, and conflicts over the goals and the implementation of even the agreed goals of an educational system are commonplace. Other interested parties – the suppliers of school materials from textbooks to pupil uniforms, education experts, working parents needing a place to leave their children, and so many more – will also strive to influence the workings of an educational system. My view is that as a result of these disagreements and conflicts, educational systems reflect a hodge-podge of conflicting efforts and interests.
In terms of knowledge transfer, I see the question in terms of the extent to which the skills imparted by an educational system contribute to the desired future performance of the pupils in society. To me, it generally looks like it, though to varying degrees. For example, educational systems typically inculcate a sense of belonging to the community, and contemporary ones further emphasize literacy and numeracy. The PISA test measures some of these skills: reading, mathematics, and science literacy. I gather that the developers of the PISA test deemed these skills relevant to the prosperity of contemporary societies. I do not know whether and to what extent a pupil’s performance on a PISA test correlates with their individual future place in society, or whether the average performance of a country’s pupils correlates with the country’s prosperity.
From what I write above, the answer to the question of whether a test is fair or not will depend on the interests of the responder. I prefer the question to be asked in either of two ways. One, in terms of the interests of the individual pupil: would an individual pupil want to perform well in the PISA test? Two, in terms of the collective interest of the prosperity of the pupils’ country: would a country’s citizens want their pupils to perform well on the PISA test? Of course, It would take effort, a lot of effort, to properly ask and answer the question framed in those terms.
In an earlier reply you said “… the sentiment of being manipulated persists, because, yes, in a very concrete sense our bodies have been colonized by certain kinds of knowledge. This colonization is important as it allows the coordinated mobilization of our bodies to support life in a group, a community, a society. But it also brings up the question of emancipation.”
How do you connect interest with emancipation?
PS About PISA: Do you think that it is possible to measure “transfer of learning” using multiple choice tests?
Nikos, about PISA and measuring “transfer of learning” with multiple choice tests, for me the relevant question is whether the results of any test correlate with future performance. I don’t think it matters whether the test is multiple choice or not. Also, there will always be individual exceptions, so the question is really about averages. So, on average, do people who have good test results also perform well when the relevant skills are called upon down the road? I do not know about PISA, but I think there is good correlation for some tests, and no good correlation for others.
About the connection between interest and emancipation.
I began to address the question of how we would go about change in the previous post, Getting One’s Bearings. We experience reality through features we have been disciplined to recognize, orient ourselves with regard to, and act accordingly. And so, we are actually aware of our knowledge and who we are, and we can probe the origins of our knowledge and the interests it is associated with. In this way, we can also probe the interests that our own socialization is associated with. Some examples of socialization I have in mind involve the inculcation of a sense of national identity, a religious code of conduct, or a “taste” for dress, food, art.
So, if I am interested in emancipation, that is, my interest is in developing knowledge that would promote my emancipation, I would first probe the interests that my own socialization is promoting. I would then put effort into re-desciplining myself by acquiring or developing knowledge that would advance interests that I have chosen. This might amount to leading a very different way of life.
Because knowledge is inseparable from interests, in my view emancipation cannot and does not involve an interest-free state. Rather, it involves an awareness of the interests our knowledge is associated with and our way of life promotes.
Hi Yiannis! You say “I would then put effort into re-desciplining myself by acquiring or developing knowledge that would advance interests that I have chosen. This might amount to leading a very different way of life.” I think I would like some further elaboration here and perhaps some examples. Thanks!
Hi Anastasia! In the very first post of the blog, Two Basic Observations, I suggested that
“we have choices in the ways in which we go about our everyday affairs, the way we experience and understand the world, the meaning and purpose we imbue our lives with.”
What the present post on Knowledge and Interests points out is that making a choice amounts to choosing the interests that will guide the development of knowledge and the re-disciplining.
As I wrote in that original post,
“Our cultures do not provide us with tools to even consider the possibilities offered by such choices. This is not surprising, as our perceptions of the world and our actions are actively guided and coordinated to produce social organization and ensure its stability. Exercising choices might well destabilize the social structures and networks that after all support and sustain our everyday lives.”
The interests associated with the knowledge we have acquired through our socialization – the way we have been disciplined through our socialization – these interests, promote the reproduction of the community and the broader society we are part of. Such interests are reflected for example in the inculcation of a national or religious identity, in the assimilation of attitudes toward nature, in the assimilation of gender roles, in having a taste for particular art, dress, food, in the pursuit of social status, and so on. Reproduction of the society involves not only the biological reproduction of bodies, but also the reproduction of the social organization and relations, including the reproduction of the networks of production and consumption. Particular tastes for art, food, dress, for example, drive particular patterns of consumption, which in turn support and sustain the production of these particular goods.
The examples you are asking for abound. An interest that would involve more respect for nature might lead people to re-discipline themselves and re-organize their lives to minimize their environmental footprint, while respect for animals might lead others to become vegetarian. An interest in re-considering gender roles might lead someone to re-discipline themselves by avoiding the use of gendered language, or by pushing for changes in the ways children are being socialized (including for example the games they play). People actually continuously try to refashion social organization and relations – in their local, small scale – by introducing their own interests, slowly reshaping the existing structures.