Question

What are the different sources you can use to acquire knowledge?

Answer 1

Sensing (observation or experience) This may be more or less sophisticated, ranging direct personal sensation, to instrument-augmented sensation to controlled experimentation.Reason or logic. Taking other knowledge as data, by logical operations new knowledge can be inferred. For example, the theoretical construct, the electron, is derived by logical inferences from observations and experiment.Modelling a situation sometimes allows those with a hands-on viewpoint to learn how-to do something. This pragmatic approach is often seen in computer programming.Testimony. Knowledge based on the acceptance of testimony involves accepting what others say. For example, I only know that Kent is a county of England, that the First World War was horrendous. This seems to be a common way we get knowledge but is seen by philosophers as problematic. See Testimony, philosophical problems of.Authority. Knowledge based on authority may rely upon the reputation of an individual such as Aristotle or Einstein or perhaps on institutional authority such as that of the Roman Catholic Church or Oxford University. Note that an authority may adopt knowledge upon other criteria such as divine revelation or observation as well as upon authority. Authority may have a political basis in the sense that some political process, perhaps involving status as well as simple voting, peer review, or comment. This is familiar to participants in academia.Revelation. Many people believe knowledge may be obtained via revelation or even divine revelation, which may be directly from a deity or spirit, perhaps conveyed through a religious text. In practice, different religions and different religious texts make conflicting claims, and even people within the same religion may assert conflicting revelations or disagree about the interpretation of a text or vision. These conflicts mean one must use another method to choose which revelations to believe. Religious skeptics conclude that what are claimed to be supernatural revelations are simply people's own thoughts, wishes, dreams, and hallucinations.

Answer 2

Different ways to gain knowledge

Let's sum it up:

Acquire chunks of knowledge and apply them in different settings.Take breaks to improve your memory and your ability to solve problems.Structure your learning. ...Learn in differing environments, work with knowledge in differing ways and use multiple senses.