Twenty-second International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Knowledge research in an interdisciplinary context shines a light on its complex nature. On one hand, knowledge is an epistemological problem. On the other hand, knowledge is our consciousness and social mind problem. We capture these two perspectives to illuminate our understanding of knowledge being. The study explores semantic categories based on their sense of belonging to specific knowledge realms. We use the epistemological attitude theory as a theoretical-methodological prism to understand how individuals cognise knowledge objects, perceive and use semantic categories as criteria for evaluating them, and, simultaneously, their understanding of semantic categories or the meanings of knowledge itself. The study involved sixty university academics from various scientific disciplines, including lecturers and researchers. The method used the epistemological attitude towards sources of knowledge semantic questionnaire. The relevance of semantic categories had to be evaluated based on specific types of knowledge: individual knowledge, objective and social knowledge, and transcendental knowledge or knowledge about knowledge. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we analysed academics’ evaluations of semantic categories to determine their placement within three knowledge realms. By the results, we reflect on the meanings of knowledge, answering the question of where semantic categories, which express both epistemological and social meanings, are located by academics’ consciousness. The results show that objective and social knowledge are the most acknowledged. At the same time, the semantic categories are closer to the subjective knowledge realm if these have a psychological valence and more distanced if these categories are highly abstract to conceive them.