Knowledge acquisition is an active creative process, not mechanical reception

Evidence

The mind contemplates some things through its own instrumentality, others through the bodily faculties. … It follows that we cannot know things through the senses alone, since through the senses alone we cannot know that things exist. Therefore knowledge consists in reflection, not in impressions, and perception is not knowledge, because it ‘has no part in apprehending truth, since it has none in apprehending existence’. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 693 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The perspectival character of knowledge does not derive from human nature, but always from the polemical and strategic character of knowledge. One can speak of the perspectival character of knowledge because there is a battle and knowledge is the effect of this battle. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 17 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Knowledge grows by selective rearrangement within a research consensus, not accumulation — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 448; Knowledge requires mental reflection on existence rather than passive sensory impressions — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 693; Intellectual work must produce new knowledges rather than recirculate known conclusions (+4 more)

Related

• Knowledge requires mental reflection on existence rather than passive sensory impressions (similarity 0.83)
• Knowledge is produced by strategic struggle rather than by human nature (similarity 0.81)
• German distinguishes momentary experience from accumulated knowledge through it (similarity 0.80)
• Intellectual work must produce new knowledges rather than recirculate known conclusions (similarity 0.80)
• Knowledge is paradigmatic and never exists as bare data (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Knowledge requires mental reflection on existence rather than passive sensory impressions #corroborates (0.85) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 693
• Intellectual work must produce new knowledges rather than recirculate known conclusions #expands (0.82)
• Knowledge is produced by strategic struggle rather than by human nature #corroborates (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 17
• Reflective thinking connects known facts to unknown conclusions through inferences #expands (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 761
• Adaptation is original creation, not a compromised second-hand process #corroborates (0.78) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 898