World knowledge

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World knowledge describes the general knowledge , knowledge and experience about the environment and society available to an individual . It refers to the information stored in every living organism about the world in which it lives and without which this organism could not survive. Knowledge of the world makes it possible to classify new facts and act accordingly, even if detailed information is missing. World knowledge includes, for example, background knowledge and encyclopedic knowledge.

In robotics , world knowledge also plays a role in this broad sense, since computers, despite their superiority in information processing, cannot solve many tasks because they do not have world knowledge themselves.

Phenomenon description

Even the simplest organisms contain (implicitly, not as consciousness ) world knowledge in the broadest sense, which determines their reactions, e.g. For example, the "knowledge" of the existence of time , from directions to the relationship of cause and effect to the wholesomeness of a certain temperature range or chemical environments were for their own survival, etc. These elementary forms of world knowledge already of Aristotle and Immanuel Kant described as a priori .

Acquire the living organisms ( learn ) their world knowledge on the basis of the principle of " trial and error " ( "trial and error") and they have the ability to save this world knowledge and z bequeath (., By Gene , Meme , Tradition ). The principle of trial and error also includes the theory of an education, mainly in higher organisms, especially when people play a role. This is not necessarily tied to consciousness, but can also take place in other structures.

The largest and most important part of world knowledge is stored in the DNA of plants and animals ( genome ) and is inherited biologically ( instinct ). Some highly developed living beings, especially humans, also have the possibility of psychological inheritance ( culture ) of information that is linked to the various forms of communication .

Based on the concept of genes in biological inheritance, the concept of memes was introduced as a theoretical construct for elements in cultural inheritance . This is understood to mean elementary information units (building blocks) that are stored exclusively in the information stores of the central nervous system of individuals, especially in the brain . Only a small part of the memetically handed down world knowledge is directly accessible to consciousness. Such culturally transmitted information can also be found in animals.

Human world knowledge also includes some of the knowledge acquired through consciousness and through conscious learning activity, but not temporarily stored, current information, special specialist knowledge (e.g. professional or scientific education, expert knowledge, etc.), encyclopedic renown knowledge and also not the knowledge stored in writing or digitally in libraries ( knowledge of the world ).

background knowledge

Background knowledge is general knowledge and knowledge of the world and society. In a certain environment, for example in discussions, it can be assumed to be known. When I say, “The neighbour's dog didn't let me sleep tonight!” I can assume that the knowledge is shared that it is because of the barking.

Encyclopedic knowledge

Encyclopedic knowledge is knowledge that covers the whole world. It is the knowledge that is gathered in encyclopedias . Of course, it is time-bound, such as the knowledge in Johann Heinrich Zedler's “Great Complete Universal Lexicon of All Sciences and Arts” from 1754.

World knowledge of a certain age group

A very topical special research topic in education and developmental psychology is children's world knowledge in relation to their general development (e.g. the world knowledge of toddlers and preschoolers, seven-year-olds, etc.) and in the context of their respective cultural environment So far it is almost exclusively about knowledge in the conventional sense, i. H. about knowledge that is represented in the memory areas of the brain accessible to consciousness.

World knowledge as a problem for computational linguists

One can easily imagine that search engines could work more effectively if they could access resources of coded world knowledge. The systematic coding of world knowledge in the computer could, in principle, also open up new ways for machine translation .

World knowledge in machine translation

If you want to translate a text, you have to bring a lot of knowledge about the world to the text. For example, someone who wants to translate a text about ticket machines should be informed about how bus and rail transport is organized. When translating sentences, there are always many translation options. A human translator will be able to exclude many of the theoretically possible translations based on his knowledge of the world. He will say to himself: “This translation cannot be correct because it is well known that the bus driver does not have to buy a ticket.” However, the computer system will not have this knowledge. All attempts to prepare world knowledge in such a way that it can be used by computers have led to sets of rules that have quickly become unmanageably extensive.

Furthermore: You can often only understand the fifth sentence of a text if you have read and understood the preceding sentences. It is always possible that the first sentences provided hints without which the information in the following sentences cannot be correctly classified. A system for the automatic translation of texts would therefore have to be able to filter out the information content of read-in sentences and store them internally. Even in this case, however, the following applies: Attempts to store the information from imported texts in a computer system lead to unmanageably large and complex models.

Even if it were possible to store world knowledge in computer-usable form in models and if it were possible to write computer programs that extract the most important information from texts and store it - it would still be completely unclear how a computer system can be programmed to The translation process “asks the right questions”, searches your own database in a meaningful way and finds facts relevant to translation.

See also

literature

  • Donata Elschenbroich : Seven-year-olds' world knowledge. How the children can discover the world. Emphasis. Kunstmann, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-88897-265-5 .
  • Lilian Fried, Gerhard Büttner (ed.): World knowledge of children. On the state of research on the acquisition of social knowledge among crèche and kindergarten children. Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7799-1602-9 .
  • Richard Kralik : World Wisdom. Attempt a system of philosophy in three books. Volume 1: World Science. A metaphysical attempt. Konegen, Vienna 1896.
  • Christa Maar , Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Ernst Pöppel (eds.): Weltwissen - Wissenswelt. DuMont, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7701-5307-3 .
  • Peter H. Matthews : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1997, ISBN 0-19-280008-6 .
  • Rupert Riedl : The order of the living. System conditions of evolution (= Piper. 1018). New edition. Piper, Munich et al. 1990, ISBN 3-492-11018-5 .
  • Norbert M. Seel: World Knowledge and Mental Models. Hogrefe - Verlag für Psychologie, Göttingen et al. 1991, ISBN 3-8017-0489-0 (At the same time: Saarbrücken, University, habilitation paper, 1989).
  • Franz-Josef Stachowiak: Do word meanings have a separate mental representation compared to world knowledge? Neurolinguistic Considerations. In: Linguistic Reports. H. 79, 1982, ISSN  0024-3930 , pp. 12-29.
  • Hans Dieter Hellige: World Library, Universal Encyclopedia, Worldbrain: To the secular debate about the organization of world knowledge . In: Technikgeschichte, Vol. 67 (2000), H. 4, pp. 303-329.

Web links

Wiktionary: Weltwissen  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lucien Malson , Jean Itard , Octave Mannoni : Die wilden Kinder (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch. 55). 5th edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-518-36555-X , pp. 9-13.
  2. ↑ Richard Dawkins : Meme, The New Replicators. In: Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene . Anniversary edition. Elsevier - Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8274-1839-5 , pp. 316–334.