Knowldge

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Development of a community is a complex issue which encompasses many elements, one of them being knowledge. This journal briefly explains the meaning of knowledge and other related terms which are epistemology, intelligence, wisdom, empiricism, rationalism, belief and truth in part two. Part three gives the essentials of knowledge whereas part four is about the importance of knowledge and part four is about the transfer of knowledge.

2. 0 MEANING OF KNOWLEDGE AND RELATED TERMS
According to Oxford English Dictionary knowledge is defined as (is) facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Plato regards knowledge as "justified true belief".
Epistemology is therefore the branch of philosophy which deals with theories, origin, nature and limits of human knowledge and its validity. Basic questions in epistemology are to find (i) whether knowledge of any kind is possible (ii) whether some human knowledge is innate or acquired through experience (iii) whether knowledge is inherently a mental state (iv) whether certainty is a form of knowledge.

Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn. Intelligence may include traits such as: creativity, personality, character, knowledge, or wisdom, essential traits for human beings development. Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on", "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do. However one needs to note that individuals differ from one another in level of intelligence

Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise (argument) to be true without necessarily being able to adequately prove their main contention to other people who may or may not agree. If someone believes something, he or she thinks that it is true, but they may be mistaken.

Truth the Aristotelian definition of truth states:"To say of something which is that it is not, or to say of something which is not that it is, is false. However, to say of something which is that it is, or of something which is not that it is not, is true."
Wisdom are accumulated philosophic or scientific learning-knowledge; Ability to discern inner qualities and relationships-insight; Good sense-judgment, wise attitude, belief, or course of action. Wisdom is often considered to be a trait that can be developed by experience, but not taught.

According to the philosophical point of view, knowledge can be gained through empiricism or rationalism. Empiricism: this is the belief in observation and experience as the basis of knowledge, rather than logical deduction, reasoning or intuition. Rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification". It is the view that reasons aided by observations should serve preeminently as the ground of all our convictions. In this way knowledge is gained through scientific reasoning about the fact. It is not just about experience. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalism

3.0 ESSENTILS OF KNOWLEDGE
Not each perceived fact can be regarded as knowledge. The fact can qualify to be knowledge if it has the following essential elements;
(1) Knowledge is essentially the consciousness of an object, i.e. of any thing, fact, or principle belonging to the physical, mental, or metaphysical order, that may in any manner be reached by cognitive faculties
(2) Truth and certitude are conditions of knowledge. Knowledge is not a mere opinion or probable assent. There must be conformity of thought with reality. Illusions of an individual that he knows and subjectively can not be regarded as knowledge.
(3) Knowledge supposes a judgment, explicit or implicit. This is a mental conception about a fact and making judgments. The mind does not receive everything without judging, it is also active in looking for conditions and causes, and in building up science out of the materials which it receives from experience. Thus observation and thought are two essential factors in knowledge.

4.0 IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge is the foundation of human life. It is essential in decision making, planning and all aspect of human needs knowledge. Development endeavors depend on how human are knowledgeable. Knowledge is very essential in community economic development participatory approaches. People need to know the policies and other macro programmes which positively or negatively affect their way of life. They also need to be knowledgeable about global issues like change in production technologies, world politics, market prices of their produce and the like.
Knowledge has always been at the core of any country’s development process. Consequently, countries’ competitiveness depends more than ever on their ability to access, adapt, and utilize knowledge for development.

5.0 KNOWLEDGE TRASNFER
Knowdge can be transferred from one organization to another within the community, from one generation to another, or from one community to another.
Traditionally some kind of knowledge is accepted as true simply because previous generations passed them on to the next generation as true beliefs. Traditional beliefs are not necessarily true or false; right or wrong; good or bad. From a social point of view, some traditional beliefs have positive results and path knowledge from one generation to another. Authoritarian beliefs rest on the fact that members of a group accept a statement as true because persons in powerful positions in the group say the statement is true.
Since the discovery of scientific inquiry in the 16th century knowledge have been acquired from researches and being transferred from one community to another and/or one generation to another.

We have seen that knowledge is very important in Community Economic Development of any community, therefore mechanisms for knowledge transfer from one organization to another is very essential as well as transferring knowledge from one community to another and also from one generation to another. Community need to develop such mechanisms
The process of knowledge transfer starts by identifying the knowledge holders within the organization and motivating them to share with the rest of the community. You need also to design a sharing mechanism to facilitate the transfer, executing the transfer plan, measuring to ensure the transfer and lastly applying the knowledge transferred.
Transferee of knowledge is not smooth as there some factors which complicates the process. There are; inability to recognize & articulate "compiled" or highly intuitive competencies - tacit knowledge idea; geography or distance; limitations of ICTs; lack of a shared/superordinate social identity; language; areas of expertise ; internal conflicts (for example, professional territoriality); incentives ; problems with sharing beliefs, assumptions, heuristics and cultural norms; misconceptions; faulty information and; lack of trust

6.0 CONCLUSION
The issue of knowdge is very important














Buchinal (??) Methods for Social Researches in Developing Countries, the Ahfat University for Women, Omdurman, Sudan
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. Published 1910. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08673a.htm
World Bank Institute (2006) Fostering innovation, productivity, and technological change; Tanzania in the Knowledge Economy, Washington DC
http://www.answers.com/topic/epistemology
http://www.answers.com/topic/knowledge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalism