Lesson plan
Knowledge value
The idea that knowledge has value is ancient. In the 1st century AD, Juvenal (55-130) stated “All wish to know but none wish to pay the price". In 1775, Samuel Johnson wrote: “All knowledge is of itself of some value.” In the 19th century, Coleridge (1825) stated that : “The worth and value of knowledge is in proportion to the worth and value of its object.” Auerbach (1865) asked: “What is all our knowledge worth?" although he proposed no answer. Largely the same ideas are already expressed in the term intellectual capital or the more ancient knowledge is power - given that power is a value in its own right. Only towards of the end of the 20th century, however, was the value of knowledge in a business context generally recognized. The idea has since become something of a management fad, although many authors indicate that the underlying principles will become standard business practice. It is now understood that knowledge about how to produce products and provide services as well as their embedded knowledge is often more valuable than the products and services themselves or the materials they contain. Although measuring the value of knowledge remains elusive, describing its flow through value chains is a step in the right direction.…
Article summary
The idea that knowledge has value is ancient. In the 1st century AD, Juvenal (55-130) stated “All wish to know but none wish to pay the price". In 1775, Samuel Johnson wrote: “All knowledge is of itself of some value.” In the 19th century, Coleridge (1825) stated that : “The worth and value of knowledge is in proportion to the worth and value of its object.” Auerbach (1865) asked: “What is all our knowledge worth?" although he proposed no answer. Largely the same ideas are already expressed in the term intellectual capital or the more ancient knowledge is power - given that power is a value in its own right. Only towards of the end of the 20th century, however, was the value of knowledge in a business context generally recognized. The idea has since become something of a management fad, although many authors indicate that the underlying principles will become standard business practice. It is now understood that knowledge about how to produce products and provide services as well as their embedded knowledge is often more valuable than the products and services themselves or the materials they contain. Although measuring the value of knowledge remains elusive, describing its flow through value chains is a step in the right direction.…
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.