Knowledge and its Artifacts

Abstract

Knowledge consists of a set of beliefs, that is, mental states, held astrue by members of a culture. These beliefs are ``represented{''} in thepermanent artifacts of that culture as well as in the non-archiveddiscourse surrounding those artifacts. My question is the effect thatthe ``archiving{''} of knowledge in the form of public documents andartifacts and the subsequent ``reading{''} of those artifacts, has onthe form that knowledge takes and on the minds of those that use them. Iwill suggest that the form of representation and the ways in which it isused affect what is represented and what, then, is taken to beknowledge. I will illustrate this argument by reference to writing andreading texts such as essays, diagrams, charts and mathematical formulaein medieval and modern times. I will attempt to show that the changes inthese quite different forms of representation in fact are parallel toeach other and may be traced back to changing practices of writing andreading. I conclude with some general comments on the relation betweenknowledge and its artifacts.