Meanings
nounhalf-knowledge (uncountable)
- uncountablehuman sciencesFacts without apodictic legitimation.
What is outdated is not asking what is true and what is just, but viewing science as positivistic, relegating it to the status of unlegitimated learning, half-knowledge, as did the German idealists.
1984, Jean-François Lyotard, translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, page 54
Origin
Cite this entry
APA
half-knowledge. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-knowledge
MLA
“half-knowledge.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-knowledge. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “half-knowledge,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-knowledge.
Source: half-knowledge on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.