Functional Theory of Knowledge

The article proposes a dynamic approach to defining the essence of knowledge using the so-called functional theory of knowledge. The basis of this theory is the interpretation of knowledge not as a product, but as an integral function, as a state of a cognitively functioning individual. Knowledge is considered as a non-linear dynamic system with parameters interacting with each other in a certain way, differing from each other by various degrees of intensity and productivity, and by virtue of the infinite variety of combinations that create the unique cognitive matrix of each individual. In the process of socialization and acculturation, an individual partially perceives an array of knowledge accumulated by society, alienated, codified in one way or another, preserved and transmitted, i.e. inherits some basic cognitive and linguistic fractal formed in society, which becomes a system of cognitive attractors traditional for members of that society. At the same time, the individual develops his/her own system of personal knowledge as a state of individual cognitive functioning with unique cognitive attractors, which are already inherent only in him/her. This approach makes it possible to present knowledge as a complex, ideal-like topological structure of interconnected and intertwined hypergraphs and concepts, whose interaction allows maintaining the state of "knowledge" as an important biological function of an individual. The article proposes the functional definition of knowledge as an integrating function of sensory, perceptual, mnemic, imaginative, attentive and thinking processes in human consciousness, as a historically formed and constantly developing nonlinear dynamic system of linguocreative, continuous-discrete ontosemantic construction of models of external and internal reality fragments in individual consciousness, providing its optimal vital activity and supporting its functions due to its distribution in the society.

References
[1] Shadrikov V.D. Sposobnosti cheloveka [Human abilities.]. Voronezh, NPO “MODEK” Publ., 1997, 288 p.
[2] Zykov A.A. Uspekhi matematicheskikh nauk — Advances in Mathematical Sciences, 1974, vol. 29, iss. 6, pp. 89–154.
[3] Vorkachev S.G. Metodologicheskiye osnovaniya lingvokontseptologii [Methodological foundations of linguoconceptology.]. Available at: http://www.lincon.narod.ru/method.htm (accessed July 17, 2022).