What is Erkenntnis?

Erkenntnis is the first concept on this website that I did not find an English word for. Following the good example of many German words already known and used in the English language, I will take this opportunity to introduce another German word to you. As the glossary can already tell you, Erkenntnis describes the connection of a perception to a concept. The intuition prepares this step, it is the power of our thinking to find concepts. The understanding of Erkenntnis described on this website comes close to one of the concepts described by the word experience. To clarify the difference I would like to have a closer look at the concept assigned to experience on this blog.

Experience is what remains in our mind after an activity or perception. I do something or perceive something and a memory originates. This process is called collecting experience. The memory does not need to be conscious, our experience shapes us beyond actively remembering something.

To collect experience I first need to have an Erkenntnis, so I need a perception and find and connect a concept to it. If a perception does not trigger a reaction of our thinking, it will pass by without a trace. A correct Erkenntnis gives us a truth, a matching concept is connected to the perception. This is a requirement to attain knowledge. A false Erkenntnis gives us a fallacy, the connected concept does not match the perception. A perception can neither be true nor false, it does not yet include a judgement. On one hand, Erkenntnis complements the perception with a concept, and on the other hand, the concept gets filled with specific content thanks to the connection of the perception. A concept is generic, and the perception adds an example how it can manifest and appear in the world. This reference of the concept to a specific perception, which follows the act of Erkenntnis instantly, results in an individualization of the concept. This we call a Vorstellung. The sum of our Vorstellung is our experience.

It must be mentioned that sometimes it appears to be forgotten that Erkenntnis does not make a claim on truth. Erkenntnis must, when no mistake is made, when it is based on enough experience and when we somehow have access to a matching or more general concept (Intuition), deliver a true result that enables reliable predictions in the area observed. The output of Erkenntnis must not be random, then it would be useless.

If we want to talk about something we perceived, we must already have Erkenntnis. Without it there is not yet a connection to a concept, and then “we have no words”. So we must add Erkenntnis to a perception before we talk about it.