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.

So we collect experience and can then make an Erkenntnis when we find and connect a concept. A correct Erkenntnis gives us a truth, a matching concept is connected to the experience. This is a requirement to attain knowledge. A false Erkenntnis gives us a fallacy, the connected concept does not match the experience. An experience can neither be true nor false, it does not yet include a concept. We often say “In my experience …” and then make a statement, which can be false. However, we would not respond and say that an incorrect experience was made. We would rather suggest that incorrect conclusions were drawn from the experience. To be precise we should say “I concluded from my experience…” or ” With my experience I got to the Erkenntnis…”.

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 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 or experienced, 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 an experience before or when we talk about it.