Scholarly Production of Knowledge

Institutions of Higher Education have two primary purposes:

• Teaching / training
• The production of knowledge

The production of scholarly knowledge is not conducted by isolated individuals, but rather people who interact within the community of scholars. A genius sitting alone thinking brilliant thoughts does not advance knowledge. The thoughts must be communicated to other scholars.

Once communicated, the ideas will be debated and:

• Accepted and incorporated as part of the "knowledge-base"
• Modified and incorporated
• Rejected as flawed

All ideas that are incorporated into the shared "knowledge" of scholars are subject to being revised or rejected at a later time. Similarly, knowledge that was previously rejected may be accepted at a later time. Knowledge production is a fluid process.