Understanding Knowledge. Goodman’s Contribution to the Development of a Plural and Procedural Concept of Knowledge

The standard definition of knowledge tries to conceive propositional knowledge as a true and justified belief and with this procedure generates a series of deep problems. In answer to this, this essay investigates a promising and alternative interpretative model of knowledge as structure or system in connection with Nelson Goodman’s reflections. From a broad symbol-theoretical base it is possible to develop a plural and procedural concept of knowledge which is suitable for both the plurality of different forms of knowledge as well as its historical transformations. A decisive role is played here by the interpretation of understanding as a constructive process, which serves as the starting point of the theoretical description of a transformative dynamic. From the examination of the relation between processes of understanding and knowledge a new perspective emerges, which enables the surfacing of the procedural character of knowledge and its specific characteristics. This article offers thus the basis for a further differentiation of the epistemic field in which frame the notion of knowledge can be rehabilitated.