Why does knowledge equal power

For example, in the European Union, water quality is an issue defined largely by scientific monitoring and quantitative modeling, therefore the only solutions considered were technological, not political.

This meant that responsibility for solutions was placed at the end of the watershed where the water quality problems aggregated by natural forces, not at the sources of the pollution Jasanoff Knowledge can also be unlinked from needing a solution at all. Under the neoliberal philosophy currently guiding many environmental problems, knowledge of problems is just given to the consumers to allow them to make market decisions, which will in turn theoretically produce solutions through the market.

Mansfield describes how this logic has failed for the problem of toxins such as mercury and PCBs in fish. Scientific test results showing unhealthy levels of contamination have been published and distributed to consumers.

However, so have reports showing that fish are healthy for their high content of healthy oils. Consumers are then forced to balance the risk from toxins with the potential health benefits of the oils.

As a result, new types of fish production aquaculture are necessary to meet the demand and the inputs for aquaculture increase the toxin load in fish tissue.

Instead of a solution to the toxin problem, market forces have made the problem worse. Ignorance can also be used as a tool in the knowledge-power balance. Volume Article Contents Abstract. Analytic strategy. Propositions and validation. Why knowledge does not equal power: the network redundancy trade-off. Reagans , Ray E. Oxford Academic. Google Scholar. Ezra W. Cite Cite Ray E. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Abstract We show that if actors are defined as more knowledgeable when they possess more information, and if actors are defined as more powerful when they can extract greater surplus while exchanging resources, there is a fundamental trade-off in the social structural foundations of power and knowledge.

All rights reserved. But this is not enough to counteract our nature to disregard facts dissonant with our personal beliefs. I want science to be a common good. Science should not lie, nor should it hide important elements. Science, the pursuit of truth, by definition should be something absolute which we can all agree on. Human nature demands that we must separate fact from any motivation not to believe in it and, as we will always have ideological disputes, we cannot eradicate this tendency.

Thus, it is essential that science is untwined from belief and principle. For the benefit of scientific progress as a civilisation, science must be apolitical. Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 11 , — Your email address will not be published.

Heirin you can use this to gain power within the city and or get money. A penguin with two asses! Knowledge is power. And with that kind of dough I could start my own milita. Of course I would have to move to the states for easy access to guns.

Chung Mee: "Time is money. Money is power. Opium is money. Lets analize this, first lets put it in the form you are looking at it. All knowledge equal's power. There are 2 problems with this statement 1.

You are inplying that ALL knowlege is power. However, in most cases it is bad logic to say that all of something has a certain quality, because for the most part there will be deviants.

I doubt that having the knowledge of exactly how many salt grains on a single pretzle would grant you any power. This statement is far too broad. The first statement has nothing to do with the second statement except for having to do with power. There is no way to extrapolate though the first statement the conclusion that power corrupts.

Again, this statement is far too broad. Is it really true that power that corrupts an individual? And the conclusion quote: If so , can it be said that knowledge corrupts? This is not aaimed at relegeuos people in general, just an interesting side note.

I typed this up rather rapidly. Take, for example, the knowledge that their is a message in a public bathroom that says "you suck" or something, you have the power to clean it off, so as not to have to look at it, you have the power to tell a janitor, you have the power to add "ass-hole" or some other message to it, you can do much with any piece of knowledge I think.

I hope I don't sound like I'm lecturing or anything. You can have all the knowledge in the world but if people can't understand or won't listen it doesn't mean a thing. It only equals power if one is in a position to actually USE that knowledge. Plain possession of knowledge is worthless. Any book on a shelf can hold knowledge So yes, knowledge IS power.

With knowledge comes power, and with power comes responsibility Ole Hack. Moderator et Subscriptor. Ars Legatus Legionis et Subscriptor. Ramen Pride!