Senses Revelation Intuition and Authority Traditions Intellectual / Rational Empirical All the content of this slide is adapted from AIOU Course 8609

1. Sources of
Knowledge
Hina Jalal
PhD Scholar (GCUF)
@AksEAina
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina

2. Source of knowledge
– Senses
– Revelation
– Intuition and Authority
– Traditions
– Intellectual / Rational
– Empirical
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina

3. Senses Knowledge
– It is derived from the use of the five senses i.e. knowledge can only be acquired from the experience of
seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and tasting.
Each child needs to build the following:
– 1) awareness of their sensory internal and external experiences;
– 2). interpretation of sensory experience related to stimulus-response, cause-effect, order of events, degree of intensity,
etc.;
– 3) connecting, integrating and remembering key sensory patterns in order to…..
– 4) act on the environment with purpose and intention (think of those intentional activities like playing, eating,
walking, dressing, talking, etc.) ;
– 5) using sensory perceptual skills to interpret and attend to the internal sensations of hunger, thirst, pain, etc., and,
finally;
– 6) launching a lifetime passion for moving, exploring, seeing, and doing new things that sharpen and expand our
sensory knowledge.
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina

4. Revealed Knowledge
– Revealed knowledge is from God.
– Revealed knowledge is external knowledge.
– In the Islamic tradition, the Quran is held to be an authoritative and revealed
source of knowledge.
– Revealed knowledge comes from a supernatural entity.
– Revealed knowledge is of prime importance, especially in the field of
education. It differs from all other sources of knowledge by presupposing a
transcendent, supernatural reality that breaks into the natural order. Someone
who views the world through the lens of revealed knowledge has a belief, and
then attempts to force all of the evidence to support the conclusion.
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina

5. INTUITION Knowledge
– Intuitive Knowledge is the ability to utilize and acquire knowledge without the use of reason; that science is
now facilitating and helping explain. It is the faculty of knowing without the use of rational processes.
– It is the most personal way of knowing. It is immediate cognition or sharp insight. It occurs beneath the
threshold of consciousness. Intuitive knowledge is based on intuition, faith, beliefs etc. Human feelings
plays greater role in intuitive knowledge compared to reliance on facts. Intuitive knowledge involves direct
and immediate recognition of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas. It yields perfect certainty but is
only rarely available to us. Intuition as a mode of knowledge develops on the basis of immediate
apprehension.
– Intuitive knowledge is based on intuition, faith, beliefs etc. Human feelings plays greater role in intuitive
knowledge compared to reliance on facts
– Intuitive knowledge being highlighted not because of what it comes from but because of what it leads to
namely, cognition of particular things which can give us an especially powerful hold on the truth that all
things are in God.
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina

6. Authoritarian knowledge
– Authoritarian knowledge relies on information that has been obtained from books,
research papers, experts, supreme powers etc. Authoritative knowledge comes from the
experts. It is only as valid as the assumptions on which it stands.Intuitive Knowledge is
the ability to utilize and acquire knowledge without the use of reason; that science is now
facilitating and helping explain.
– This kind of knowledge is derived from the written works, documentation and reports of
others.
– Authoritative knowledge is used in all academic activities as references are, most times,
made to authorities, writers, and authors in some specific fields. In the use of authoritative
knowledge, care must be made to avoid unnecessary or psychological appeal to authority
as this will make nonsense of this source of knowledge.
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina

7. Rationalists hold that at least some of our knowledge is derived from reason alone, and that reason plays
an important role in the acquisition of all of our knowledge. Rationalists believe that knowledge can be
arrived at through the use of reason or deductive reasoning. The view that reasoning or logic is the central
factor in knowledge is known as rationalism.
Rational Knowledge = Evidence in search of a conclusion
As a product of reflective thinking, rational knowledge is based on the three laws of rationality.
These laws include:
(i) The law of identity (In logic, the law of identity states that each thing is identical with itself)
(ii) The law excluded middle (In logic, the law of excluded middle states that for any proposition, either that
proposition is true or its negation is true)
(iii) The law of non-contradiction (In logic, the law of non-contradiction states that contradictory propositions
cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time, e. g. the two propositions "A is B" and "A is not B" are
mutually exclusive.)
Rationale Knowledge
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina

8.  Empiricism and rationalism can be specified as the two major constructing debates within the field of
epistemological study. Empiricism accepts personal experiences associated with observation, feelings and
senses as a valid source of knowledge, whereas rationalism relies on empirical findings gained through
valid and reliable measures as a source of knowledge. Empirical knowledge relies on objective facts that
have been established and can be demonstrated.
 The empirical knowledge is an attempt to discover a basis for our knowledge in sense experience. In other
words, empirical knowledge is the type that finds recourse or confirmed by the evidence of sensory
experience. It is thus derived from the use of five senses since knowledge can only be acquired from the
experience of seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting. It is the evidence of the senses that gives
meaning to empirical knowledge since the senses, according to the empiricists, are the source and originator
of our knowledge. The thrust of the empiricists as regard knowledge is that there is no knowledge prior to
sense experience
Empirical Knowledge
Hina Jalal, PhD Scholar (GCUF) @AksEAina